"Disgrace to the Race"

Day 67 - "Disgrace to the Race" - South Island - Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

We bid our farewells to Christchurch and Steve and drove from Christchurch to Franz Josef Glacier on the west coast of the South Island. The drive was about 4 hours. Not too bad. There are two known glaciers here, the Franz Josef and the Fox Glacier. We decided to hike the better known Franz Josef because the tour times worked out better for us.

We showed up for our guided tour and proceeded to get our gear - trousers, waterproof jacket, gum boots, clamp ons, hats, socks and gloves. We looked like professional glacier hikers now! Our group was about 24 people. There was a big group of Asians that were part of our tour group, some were young, some were old.

From the get go, we could tell it was going to be a long day. To get to the glacier, you needed to hike across this long bed of rocks for a good 30-40 minutes. One of the Asians dropped out of the tour then, before even making it to the glacier. They always lagged behind the rest of the group, too. They said they would split up the groups between "faster paced" and "slower paced" people. We wanted to be in the faster paced group so that we wouldn't be stuck behind the slow people. Unfortunately, the groups were divided based on who got the clamps on their shoes first. We were too slow so we ended up in the slow group with the slow Asians.

It was pretty pathetic seeing this group of Asian people try to make it up the glacier. The older ones I understand, they're old, they need time. However, the younger ones had a poor showing of athleticism. The one girl in front of me was practically on her hands and knees for most of the climb. It was clear that this group had never done a day of exercise in their lives. It was pretty sad. One older Asian guy was really holding us back. Apparently, he had bad knees. Not sure why he thought it would be a good idea to go on a glacier climb with bad knees, but kudos to him for trying. We actually didn't mind the slow pace because it gave us time to take pictures while others were slow in climbing.

The other "faster paced" group wasn't too pleased though. They had to wait a good 20 minutes for our group to finish, so they were standing in the cold windy valley for a long time. It took forever to get back to the bus because the Asian group was so slow. We had to keep stopping and wait for them to catch up. Our tour guide, Harry, said that this was one of the slowest groups that he had ever taken up. By 8pm, we were all tired and grumpy and people were definitely getting impatient. The big group seemed oblivious, just taking their time walking without caring that other people were waiting. Hence, what a disgrace to the race!

Anyhow, the glacier hike was fun. It was neat climbing up stairs chipped out of ice and being surrounded by ice walls and an ice floor. We didn't go too high, but it was still a great view and the colors in the ice were amazing. I'm not sure the pictures did the surroundings justice.

By the time we got out of our gear and made our way to the car, it was already 8:30, a good 5.5 hours after we started our tour. We weren't in the mood to go to a restaurant and waste time eating there, so we just stopped at the local convenience store to grab some quick food to fill us up.

We then realized it was Thanksgiving in the U.S. So, we celebrated with our canned creamy chicken soup, Uncle Ben's microwave rice, a nuked corn on the cob and some smoked trout on sesame and poppy crackers. Happy Thanksgiving to us! I tried to find some pumpkin pie, but no luck. The closest I came was some roast pumpkin and capsicum soup in a can.

We had our dinner at our hotel for the night, the Sunset Motel, which was located in Fox Glacier. It was big and comfy and we had a good view of the mountains.

We had our meal, wished each other a Happy Thanksgiving and called it a night.

For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5409717768466862865&authkey=Gv1sRgCJS2hqTgitDIFw&feat=email

"Heading South"

Day 66 - "Heading South" - South Island - Christchurch, New Zealand

We got up early to return the car and hit the airport. Interestingly, here, when you turn in a car, you just park it and go in the terminal to return the keys. There's no inspection of the tank or whether any damages were done to the car. Easy enough.

We had a good flight to Christchurch and had the task of finding another rental car company when we landed. We went from counter to counter looking for a cheap car and the winner ended up being Budget. We got the same car, a 2009 Toyota Corolla, this time it wasn't a hatchback and came in a nice red color. To avoid a repeat of the Wellington pain, we decided to get a GPS this time so that we always knew where we were going.

We made our way to our accommodation for the night, the Ashleigh Court Motel. The owner, Steve, was very friendly and spent a good 15 minutes telling us where and what we should do and eat while in town. On his recommendation, we had lunch at this place called Robbie's. A local pub type of place. I had a Greek salad and Eric had the beef schnitzel, which is the equivalent of what we call a chicken fried steak.

After lunch, on Steve's suggestion, we took a walk through the botanical gardens before hitting city centre. The botanical gardens were absolutely beautiful. The rose garden was amazing. Perhaps 100 different varieties of roses in that garden. I admit that I went a little crazy taking pictures in the garden.

We then hit the city centre and walked around. It's not a very big city, but it's nice. We stopped at the Canterbury Museum and the Christchurch Cathedral. We then walked to the local Casino to check it out. Unfortunately, we didn't make it past the front door as there was a dress code and our "thongs" weren't permitted. Thongs, btw, are flip flops, not dental floss underwear! :)

Since we already circled the town twice, we decided to call it a day and had dinner at the Dux Lux Pub and Bistro in town. It was ok, nothing special. I had some mushroom dishes and Eric had the nachos. Probably more fried food than we really needed to eat, but we could justify it with all the walking we did during the day.

We finished off the night with a laundry wash and a grocery run. They had about 8 varieties of apples at the grocery store and the biggest strawberries I have ever seen. Food is more expensive in Australia and New Zealand, but as one Aussie pointed out to us, this was because everything is fresh and organic. No chemically enhanced fruits and veggies here! The strawberries were huge and succulent. Like mangoes in Thailand, strawberries were my new obsession in New Zealand.

For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5409713302561049761&authkey=Gv1sRgCPSqw7mxluj3Zw&feat=email

"Fish On! and Tackling the Zorb"

Day 65 - "Fish On! and Tackling the Zorb" - North Island - Taupo and Rotorua, New Zealand

We woke up early for our trout fishing expedition on Lake Taupo. As we had been told that this was the trout capital of the world, we had to do it. We met up with our captain for the day, Dan Basse, at 6 am on the marina to board the White Striker. Dan said most people average about 1 trout per hour. We averaged almost 3. In a span of less than 3 hours, we managed to catch 8 trout ranging from 3 lbs to 5.5 lbs. Eric was the angler of the day with the big catch.

Trout fishing is very different from bass fishing or even deep sea fishing. It's what Dan called "chardonnay fishing" cause you can sit and sip your chardonnay without having to hold the pole. He has an automatic reel that takes the lure down to 150 feet or deeper, and you sit and wait for the reel to start jiggering. Once it does, you have a fish and you wind it up. Trout don't fight as much as bass or grouper, but it's fun to see them jump in the air to try to get off the hook.

New Zealand is pretty awesome about maintaining its natural beauty. They don't allow any bait fishing on the lake, only lure fishing. They also don't allow you to fish between 12 am and 5 am which is the trouts' prime eating time, in order to prevent overfishing of the lake. They don't stock the lake, everything is au naturale.

After our fishing expedition, we took one fresh fish and one smoked fish with us. We dropped off the fresh fish at Waterside Restaurant. We told them we'd be back in a few hours to eat it, after we'd taken a trip to Rotorua to go ""Zorbing".

We then hopped into our car and drove the 1 hour drive to Rotorua. New Zealand is known for its crazy sports, they invented bungy jumping. Zorbing is another silly activity created in Rotorua, New Zealand - so we had to try it. Basically, you are like a hamster in a giant hamster ball. You can opt to do a dry run down the hill or a wet one. Also, either straight down the hill or on a zig zag. As it was highly unlikely that our stomachs would be able to handle being tied in and rolled down the hill in the dry run, we opted to do a tandem wet run down the hill. This required them to fill water about 1/5 of the way into this huge plastic ball, then we jumped in, and then they zipped us up. Then we proceeded to do the initial push off the plateau of the hill by walking like a hamster.

The ride down was pretty fun. Just imagine how it would feel like to be put in a giant washing machine. Basically, that's what it was like. We slipped and slid all the way down the hill. The video isn't that great cause I didn't manage to hold the camera steady when we went down. Just a lot of sloshing and us laughing. Maybe that's why they told us camera's weren't allowed. Oops. We were completely soaked when we got out. I was done for the day but Eric decided to go for a second run down the zig zag path. He said that one was more fun cause you got jostled around a lot more and you never knew which direction you were going in. It was funny seeing him roll around inside this giant hamster ball. So silly.

Running late, we couldn't really explore more of Rotorua and had to head back to Taupo to eat our tasty trout. The cook did a superb job cooking the trout. Interestingly, the trout here are pink, they look like salmon. It was very meaty and tasty. We couldn't get enough of it and picked the bones clean.

After our lunch, we knew we had a long drive ahead of us to get to Wellington. Since we were behind schedule, it wasn't likely that we would get there before 11pm, so we tried to make up the time by driving faster. Bad idea. I got busted going 115 kph on a 100 kph zone. In my defense, that really is less than 10 mph over the posted speed limit. Such bad luck. The cop was really nice though, smiled when he gave me the ticket, told me it wasn't the "crime of the century" and proceeded to talk to us for a good 10 minutes afterwards about our travels and how we liked New Zealand. Well, I liked it a lot until I encountered you, buddy!

We were then on our way again (going probably under the speed limit now). We made a pit stop along the way at the McDonald's. It was the trendiest McDonald's I have ever seen. So modern and clean, in the middle of nowhere. Guess "Maccas", as they call it here, is improving its image.

We finally made it to Wellington around 10:30 pm. We hadn't previously booked a hotel since we figured it was a Wednesday night and a big town. BAD IDEA. Every place we stopped at was booked full for the evening. The only place available was on the pricier side and we didn't feel like paying so much to be in a room for less than 8 hours. After circling town for awhile and having no luck finding a place, our next bright idea was to find a hotel near the airport since we had an early morning flight.

Well, finding our way to the airport was another issue. We had a map and it pointed us to the airport route but after 3 times of circling the town we kept ending up at the same darn McDonald's we ate dinner at. Ugh! We thought we were just lost since it was hard to read the tiny map in the dark. Finally, we realized it wasn't us, it was because the on ramp was closed due to construction. There was no on ramp to the airport in town!

We then found another route to the airport and got the heck out of Wellington. I'm sure Wellington is a great town, but I really have no desire to go back to visit after this ordeal. By this time, it was close to midnight, we were both tired and grumpy (probably me more so) and got even grumpier when we realized there were no hotels on the way to the airport.

We finally decided to head to the next town instead. We came across a place called "Airport Motor Lodge". It didn't look so great from the outside but by this time we didn't care. We were willing to pay 5 star prices for 2 star quality if it meant we could take a shower and lay down and sleep. Luckily, it wasn't too pricey and turned out to be a really nice motel. It looked brand new! At least one thing went right.

We finally got to take those hot showers and hopped into bed. Christchurch tomorrow!

For pictures of the day, we have two links (we exceeded our memory limit on the other account). Go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5409032816188534705&authkey=Gv1sRgCP325qL9qYrQmAE&feat=email

and

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5409045839040798513&authkey=Gv1sRgCNKMz93Dj9CqBA&feat=email

"Worms, Eels, Chickens and Moles"

Day 64 - "Worms, Eels, Chickens and Moles" - North Island - Waitomo and Taupo, New Zealand

Today, we headed to Waitomo to check out their famous underground glowworm caves. The drive wasn't too bad, about 1.5 hours. On our way there, we called the original blackwater rafting cave company that is supposed to be the most popular. Naturally, it was booked up for the day. So since we were already on our way, without doing any research, we picked another one - CaveWorld. They seemed to be "wide open" - hmm, that sounds like a red flag. In any event, we had no choice, we were already on our way.

We finally got there and started with a boat ride through the original Waitomo Glowworm Cave. It was your typical limestone cave with stalagmite and stalactite formations. They were pretty strict in that you couldn't touch anything, couldn't take pictures, and had to keep quiet when in the glowworm area of the cave. The glowworms were pretty cool. When you looked up, you saw thousands of little glowing blue lights. It was almost like looking at stars in the sky. The light is emitted from the larvae of the fly, the purpose of which is to attract bugs to the light. Once the bugs go near, they are stuck by these sticky webs spun by the larvae. What's strange is that once the larvae hatch, they become mouthless flies. They only live a few days before they die from starvation. Not exactly sure of the purpose of these flies in the balance of mother nature, but they're pretty in their larvae stage.

We then had a quick burger lunch at Curley's before heading over to CaveWorld to check in. It turned out that we were the only ones signed up for the 3:00pm tour. Our guide's name was Wini. We went with him in a beat-up van (whereas we saw the van for the other company, which was new and pretty) down the street to this shed where we picked up our wet suit, hard hats, aqua shoes, and gum boots.

He then drove us up the hill to this secluded area. At this point, Wini hadn't said much, just telling us to watch our head and what equipment we needed. We were not sure what we had signed up for and were a little nervous. In the middle of nowhere, we get out, and walked down a path to pick up our inner tubes, then took a long walk up another hill to the entrance of the cave. With inner tube in one arm, we made our way through the narrow cave. Just two of us and the quiet guide going into this pitch black hole in the ground. After a brief walk, we eventually hit water, where we had the inner tube around our waist and slowly went deeper into the cold water in the dark. We made our way by holding on to the person in front with Wini guiding us by following the wall. It was then time sit on the inner tube for a ride through a glowworm tunnel. But before doing that, Wini showed us how to get in. He stepped up on this edge and with inner tube on his butt, just fell back. It was dark so you could not see how far he was falling. It seemed like a 6 foot drop to the water when we finally tried it (although when we later saw the picture, it was more like 4 feet). We then turned off the lights on our hard hats, linked ourselves from arms to legs as Wini led us down the glowworm cave. We then realized that the glowworm cave tour that we took earlier was just a waste of money since we saw it here. We really could not see anything except for the glowworms. And here, we were allowed to touch the walls, take pictures, and talk as loud as we want. Apparently, when you make loud noises, the glowworms are supposed to glow brighter.

As we are rafting in pitch blackness, Theresa asked Wini if there were ever any animals that go down into the cave. He said "sure, there can be crayfish...(OK, that's cool)...spiders (um, that's not cool)...rats (seriously NOT cool) and EELS (omg, Theresa freaked out now). Theresa really, really wished that she had not asked. Jokingly, we think, he said if something warm touches your butt that it wasn't his hand and that if that happened to make sure your butt cheeks are clenched when sitting, just in case. At this point, we kept our hands in our laps. (On the way out, we actually did see an eel in the water. Luckily it was at the end of the trip and not the beginning). The last thing we did was take an inner tube down a slide. Again, it was pretty dark and we could barely see how far it went. Pretty fun. Overall the innertube ride took about 1.5 hours. Now for the rough part, walking through the cave and up the steps to our van. We were all winded because of all the equipment we were wearing plus the water in our boots weighed us down. We were glad that we did this trip through CaveWorld because we got a private tour, could take as many pictures as we wanted, and we probably would not have as interesting of an adventure if we went with the other blackwater rafting trip which seemed a little more refined.

We then returned to the shed where we returned the equipment. While we were showering, Wini made us chicken soup in a cup, which was great after being in the cold water. We sat around and chatted with him about New Zealand and his one trip to the US. He did a trip years ago to LA, Grand Canyon, and Vegas. It was funny that LA and Vegas were his impressions of the country. We then said goodbye to Wini and drove back to the Executive Motel in Taupo.

For dinner, we went to a nearby restaurant called the Chicken and Mole, which seemed like a local hangout and supposedly known for their lamb shanks and seafood chowder. We had both plus the pan-fried fresh catch of the day. All the dishes were really good. Every spoonful of the seafood chowder had a piece of seafood in it - mussels, scallops and fish.

We came home and Theresa busted out her carton of New Zealand strawberries. They were huge! Food here is great because it's all organic. You know it hasn't been doctored in any way. According to her, they were really tasty.

We went to bed early because we had some fishing to do at 6AM. All in all, a pretty good day.

For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5408890746103308545&authkey=Gv1sRgCLqKyqef1oOWoQE&feat=email

"Hot Water and Cold Sandwiches"

Day 63 - "Hot Water and Cold Sandwiches" - North Island - Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand

Our plan for the day was to take a drive over to the Coromandel Peninsula for a day of sightseeing. One of the skippers on our Ted Cruise in Santorini who was from New Zealand highly recommended the area. When we woke up, it was freezing! Since I had only one pair of pants and no long sleeved shirts, we decided to do a little cheap clothes shopping. The receptionist at the hotel recommended this store called The Warehouse so we headed there to look for some warm clothes. I ended up getting a comfy sweatsuit for $45 NZD. Not bad.

After breakfast - Burger King for me and a chocolate muffin for Eric - we were on our way to the Coromandel Peninsula. Part of the way, we came across a shiny red Ferrari. We had heard that cars here cost almost 3x the cost in the U.S., so we could imagine how expensive that car must have cost in New Zealand. It had to be the only one on the islands! We guessed the guy (in his late 60s probably) owned those Warehouse stores, cause after having gone to one, we notice them everywhere now.

We drove up the west coast of the Coromandel peninsula. We stopped at an iSite location (tourist visitor centers all over NZ) and asked for recommendations on things to do. The woman recommended this train ride that Eric had also heard about elsewhere. We decided to go there. Before that though, it was time for lunch. We had lunch at the Success Cafe in Coromandel Town. Eric had a chicken lettuce tomato sandwich and I had to try to famous New Zealand green mussels. The mussels were ginormous! Probably 3x or 4x the size of the typical mussels you see in the states. They were tasty, but after awhile, I was getting grossed out by the size. It's like eating one of those big slimy oysters after having tried a kumamoto.

After our meal, we headed towards the train ride, which was called Driving Creek Railway. The railway was built by a single guy who owned 60 acres of land. It took him 27 years to complete the tiny railway. The ride was a bit hokey, but it was cute. It took us to this lookout point which provided great views of the western side of Coromandel Peninsula. This side of the peninsula reminded us of Point Reyes, a bit hazy, rocky and grey. They farm oysters and mussels on this side of the peninsula.

After stopping at a few amazing lookout points, we decided to head to the eastern side of the peninsula. We had read it was completely different from the western side, so we had to see for ourselves. It is indeed different. More of a beach town with pretty blue waters and sandy beaches. Since we've been cooped up in a car for so long, we decided to take a 45 minute hike down to Cathedral Cove. The hike was a good workout with lots of uphill and downhill pathways. We think we saw a kiwi bird on our way there. It was a short fat brown bird that kept chirping at us while hopping around. It chirped and then ran into the bushes. When we got to Cathedral Cove, the cove itself was closed off, but there was a cave there that we explored, a small waterfall, and an almost deserted white sand beach. Water was on the chilly-side and there were some nice waves.

We had read and heard about this hot water beach that was nearby. Basically, when it's low tide, you can dig a hole on the beach and hot water comes out of the group and you have your own personal hot spa. Low tide was at 6:45 pm, and we got there around 7pm. We knew it was late and we still had a long drive ahead of us, but we couldn't resist stopping to check it out. At first we were skeptical because it was grey and chilly outside. When we got to the beach, we could see the tops of peoples' heads in the distance, so we decided to hike down to the beach. On the walk there we saw all these people carrying shovels, so we started to worry that we wouldn't be able to experience the hot water since we didn't have a shovel. Luckily, we found a deserted hole in the group and waded in (it's only about ankle to calf deep). Still skeptical, to our surprise, we were greeted with some super hot water! Certain spots were so hot that you couldn't stand there for too long or else you'd probably blister. It was amazing. You look around and you see people just chilling in these little water pits they dug up, some drinking champagne, others reinforcing their sand walls. These holes were about 2 feet from the surf. It was crazy how the surf was so cold but the water spas were so hot. You could see the water bubble up and steam come out from the ground - it was that hot.

Sadly, because it was so late, we didn't have time to actually change into our swim trunks and laze around. Instead, we got back in the car and started our long 4.5 hour drive to Taupo where we were staying for the evening. Since it was so late, we didn't want to stop for dinner at a restaurant. Instead, we went to Woolworth's, loaded up on some snacks, and Eric made us some ham and cheese sandwiches out of the back of the car. Sadly, that was the second night in a row we didn't have a hot dinner. Nevertheless, it was a tasty sandwich.

We reached Taupo around midnight and finally got to stretch out our legs and go to bed.

For the pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5408869393680249745&authkey=Gv1sRgCPCR1vuJrJyilQE&feat=email

"Sir, Please Do Not Get Up Anymore"

Day 62 - "Sir, Please Do Not Get Up Anymore" - Port Douglas, Australia - Auckland, New Zealand

We woke up early to catch our flight to Sydney. Antonia arranged for a shuttle bus to pick us up at 6:15 a.m. to take us to the airport. There was a really annoying American family on the shuttle. The daughter kept saying how she was "NOT going to spend 2 hours sitting around the airport" and the father kept saying "at HARVARD....". No wonder why people find Americans obnoxious.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We hopped on our flight to Sydney. We were a bit nervous because we only gave ourselves 2.5 hours between our domestic flight and our international flight to Auckland. Naturally, our flight to Sydney was delayed so we had even less time. We were nervous and exhausted, as we had only slept about 3 hours the night before. We had hoped to be able to sleep on our 3.5 hour flight from Cairns to Sydney but were not able to because of two factors: 1) our seat neighbor was a 20 year old from the Cairns area named Lee who was "bored" and wanted to chat the entire flight and 2) the Euro guy ("EuroGuy") sitting in front of us kept getting up and standing next to us to open up the overhead compartment.

We had no issues with Lee. He was a very nice and well-spoken boy with a faux-hawk who asked a lot of questions about the U.S. His impression of the U.S. was molded by all he had seen on TV. He asked about Hollywood and California in general. He talked about life in a small town in Australia and his trip to New Zealand. He was funny and nice, so we didn't mind talking to him, even though we were so exhausted. Whereas factor #2 was another issue. While constant movement to the overhead department normally wouldn't bother us, EuroGuy was lacking in the personal hygiene department. Every time EuroGuy lifted his arms up to get something from the overhead compartment, we got whiffs of the worst smelling body odor imaginable. Sadly, this happened at least 6 times during the 3.5 hour flight. By the end, our eyes were watering.

We finally made it off the plane, bid farewell to Lee and good riddance to Euro Guy and made our way to pick up our bags to bolt over to the international terminal. We opted to take the shuttle bus to the international terminal rather than the train. Bad idea. It was so crowded and took forever. At least we didn't opt to walk. It was a good few miles from the domestic terminal and you would have had to walk in the 110 F weather. We luckily made it with time to spare and hopped on our Air New Zealand flight to Auckland. This time, we had a nice row for 2 people, no talkers and no BO. Thank goodness.

We picked up our rental car from Hertz- a nice silver automatic Toyota Corolla hatchback - and made our way from the airport to our hotel. As it was already 9pm by the time we headed out, it was a bit challenging navigating and driving on the left side in pitch blackness. Thankfully, we made it to our hotel in Auckland in one piece, and rested up for the long day of driving tomorrow.

For the pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5408488776326129761&authkey=Gv1sRgCLGvgPWL5dGPGA&feat=email

"Mission Accomplished!"

Day 61 - "Mission Accomplished!" - Port Douglas, Australia

In the morning, we went downstairs to inquire about going to the Rainforest Sanctuary. Fred, our host, offered to drive us there. Both Fred and Antonia have been very nice. It was raining pretty hard on the way to the Rainforest Sanctuary. We were glad that we went diving yesterday and not today.

Even though it was raining pretty hard, we decided to head into the Sanctuary. It made for a more realistic "rain forest". First, we walked through the rain forest aviary to see the koalas. There we saw Lucky, a four year old female koala. She was actually active and moving from tree to tree. All the koalas previously seen were sleeping the whole time. Theresa went a bit overboard with her koala video and picture taking, but it was understandable. Lucky was putting on a show for us. We stuck around for the koala presentation. Our guide, Peter Walsh, gave a 30 minute presentation and then....let us hold Lucky! We finally had our chance to hold a koala after failing to do so in Adelaide and Melbourne. Her fur was soft and thick, with her claws sharp and also thick.

We asked the woman before us to take a video from our camera of us holding the koala. She seemed a little nervous about it, but we figured it should be pretty simple to do. We got our camera to check out the video. Two seconds of video. Great, thanks. I was able to get a couple pictures of Theresa holding Lucky, and she got a video of me petting Lucky so at least we got something. We also paid to have a picture of the two of us with the koala. The picture is kind of funny, it looks like we're holding our new born child or something. Lucky was a very good koala, clung on to Theresa very tightly. In the picture, you can see her sharp claws on Theresa. We kind of felt bad, cause Lucky didn't really want to leave his tree. Perhaps the koala picture taking thing isn't so good for the sanity of koalas.

After the koala presentation, Peter gave a reptile presentation. We got to pet a python and a baby crocodile. If you ever have a close encounter with a crocodile, pet its belly. It's all soft and fleshy down there. Also, remember to run zig zag. It works if you're chased by a gator, so maybe it'll work for a croc as well.

We had lunch at the Sanctuary which consisted of a buffet with the birds. Matilda, an eight year old larakeet, joined our lunch briefly. First sitting on Theresa's head then on my shoulder. Lunch included fresh barramundi, a local fish, which was very tasty, and a wide assortment of fresh fruit. There was something called Star Apple that we hadn't heard of.

Afterwards, we joined Peter again for a tour of the rest of the sanctuary. We got to see and play with many varieties of kangaroos and wallabies and with an emu. We also got to see a tree kangaroo and an echidna waddling around. We enjoyed the sanctuary. The rain had stopped and the day ended up being really cool and damp, perfect for the sanctuary. Unfortunately, we forgot to charge up our camera battery after the long day of scuba so our picture taking at the sanctuary was limited. We luckily had just enough battery to get our koala pictures and videos.

We took the public shuttle back to the hotel and then headed to the beach a little before sun down. We got to swim for a little over an hour. Even though there was a safety net, it was a little scary because it was obvious that even if they couldn't go through, things could go over the net. Things like jellyfish and sharks. We opted to not be the closest ones to the back wall of the netting.

After the beach, we cleaned up and then met up with Paul, Janita, Ross and the kids for dinner at Zinc. It was our last night, so we were looking forward to a good meal with great friends. Sadly, Jonah and Mattea couldn't make it through the dinner, so Janita had to leave early. We didn't get to say bye to the kids, but I'm sure we'll see them in the near future. By that time, Mattea may be taller than Theresa.

We went back to Paul and Janita's to pick up some laundry and to say our goodbyes. Tomorrow, we're saying bye to Australia and hello to New Zealand.

For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5407633002384526097&authkey=Gv1sRgCMPqna-Vg8XvXg&feat=email

"Scuba At Last!"

Day 60 - "Scuba At Last!" - Port Douglas - Great Barrier Reef, Australia

We woke up early to go to the Marina for our scuba diving trip with a charter boat called Poseidon. Destination: The Great Barrier Reef. There were about 60 of us, either discovery scuba divers, certified scuba divers, or snorkelers. Paul, Ross, Theresa, and I were discovery scuba diving with Herald, a Poseidon diver and marine biologist from Holland. First, we were fitted with the right mask, flippers, weight belt, BCD, tank, wet suit and stinger suit. The main concern out in the waters is not the sharks, but the jellyfish. The stinger suit made us look like the wiggles or members of blue man group. Even though the water was warm it was nice to have the added layer of the wet suit.

Our first dive started out with a test. We had to show that we could 1) remove the regulator, exhale, and breathe again with the regulator, 2) remove water from our mask underwater, and 3) be able to remove the regulator and without looking, use only one arm to retrieve it. Once we all passed, it was on to the fun stuff. We didn't have to go too deep, about 10 meters, which was just enough to see everything at the reef. We saw many different types of fish, Angels, Clowns, Groupers, Snappers, Butterflys, Lions, Parrots, Triggers, and Cuttles. There were also Reef Sharks, Barracudas and Anenome.

After the second dive, we were yelled at by Herald. Apparently, we were not staying close enough to him during the dive and his boss also scolded him for not keeping us together. I was a little slow because the flippers were chaffing my feet. We promised that it would not happen again. We were then given lunch with bread, salad, pasta, sandwich meats, and shrimp. We were pretty hungry so of course we stuffed ourselves. Probably would have not done that if we had known we were going diving again just 10 minutes after eating.

For the third dive, we all tried to stay close to Herald. So much so that we kept bumping into each other. I got the evil eye from Theresa when my hand knocked her on the mask twice. That was scarier than seeing more reef sharks at the bottom. Exhausted, we headed back to Port Douglas. It was nice to lay out on the boat deck and eat some snacks after a day of diving.

After taking a nap back at the hotel, we went to Paul and Janita's hotel for dinner where we had a couple pizzas delivered along with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from the local liquor shop. The "large" pizza is about the size of a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. Not the size we're used to, but still good. Since Paul and Janita's room had a washer/dryer, we wanted to do as much laundry as we could before going to New Zealand. Afterwards, I topped off with two scoops of ice cream from Zinc, a nice restaurant down the road.

The day at the Great Barrier Reef lived up to expectations and definitely something we would go back to do again but next time, we'd be certified.

For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5407605307824396481&authkey=Gv1sRgCOvTo-acy8y4FQ&feat=email

"Anniversary in Cairns-Port Douglas"

Day 59 - "Anniversary in Cairns-Port Douglas" - Port Douglas, Australia

We somehow woke up in time to finish packing, clean up and caught our 5:15 cab to the airport. The cab fare for the 45 minute ride was $78. *sob* To think we used to complain about getting ripped off for getting charged $12 in Thailand for the same distance. Again, we were reminded that we were definitely not in Thailand anymore.

We hopped on our early morning Jet Star flight to Cairns. It was about 3.5 hours long. As usual, I slept. I am a firm advocate in eye masks on planes. You really do get better sleep that way. Eric, as usual, couldn't sleep. We landed around 9:30 am Cairns time, and got our luggage. The Cairns airport is being renovated so everything is in makeshift buildings. Since Janita and Paul were not getting in until 12, we walked over to the nicer departure terminal to download pictures and write our blog.

Upon their arrival, we hopped into our Avis rental van. We volunteered to squeeze into the back seat. It was fine for me, since my legs are short. Eric looked funny though squeezed into the cramped back seat. We got to know each other pretty well back there. After many twists and turns, we made it to Port Douglas. A cute little beach town.

Our hotel, the Martinique on Macrossan, is about 4 buildings down from the beach. The room is a lot bigger than we expected which was a nice surprise. Our host, Antonia, is very nice and pointed out a few things on the map that we should check out. Surprisingly, you can walk end to end in Port Douglas in less than 10 minutes. Janita, Paul and family were staying in another hotel down the street, so for now we separated.

We decided to check out the local beach. Because of potential jelly fish dangers in the water, they have set up a safety net in the water and emphasized that all beachgoers should swim within the boundaries. We opted not to swim, but dipped our toes in the water. The water was like the Gulf of Mexico, incredibly warm, like bath water. Very different from the water we experienced in Adelaide, Kangaroo Island and Sydney. The sand was brown, not white, which wasn't as pretty as some of the other beaches we've seen, but at least it wasn't rocky.

After our walk, we were off to find something to eat. Antonia had mentioned this local joint called "Tin Shed" that we wanted to try but it was closed between lunch and dinner. So, instead, we decided to walk further down the street to the On the Inlet Seafood Restaurant, which was home to George the Grouper. We had heard about the restaurant and were reminded by Antonia that every day around 5 PM they do a grouper feeding. We didn't know what to expect. Eric was expecting this 1 or 2 foot fish while I was expecting this 100 lb beast. I think the actual fish was closer to my estimates. It was actually two goliath groupers! It was amazing seeing them come out of the water to feast on some tuna bones. We had prime seating, having gotten there at 4pm. Paul, Janita, Paul's brother, and the kids all came out in time to share in the fun. Check out our videos of the fish feeding. It was amazing. I had only seen a goliath grouper in captivity, so seeing them out in the water was pretty neat.

What was also fun about the restaurant is that they allow you to throw your scrap seafood into the water to feed all the fish that are swimming around. We ordered a pail of shrimp and proceeded to throw all the heads, tails and shells into the water. It was cool seeing the fish fight over the food. We also had a fish taco that was pretty tasty.

After the feasting and feeding, we headed back to Paul and Janita's place to put the kids to bed before the adults went out for a real dinner. We ended up at this place called Rattle and Hum that served simple fare - salads, burgers, pizza, etc. It wasn't the best meal, but it filled our tummies.

After making a run to the local convenience store and grabbing a gelato, we called it an early night. We have a full day of diving to do tomorrow!

For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5406685352968864769&authkey=Gv1sRgCOrCr_qW2_LdCw&feat=email

"Drive Much, Mate?" and "Foiled Again"

Day 57 - "Drive Much, Mate?" - Melbourne, Australia

We decided to go to the Healesville Sanctuary in hopes of giving Theresa an opportunity to hold a koala. Because there were six of us, we had to take two cars. It was time for me to step up and drive Aussie style; right side of the car, left side of the road. I will have to do a lot of driving anyways in New Zealand, so it would be good practice. Paul mapped out an easy route and all I had to do was follow him. It went smooth at first, but then I encountered two habits I could not break. The windshield wipers and the signal lights are on opposites sides compared to the US. Every time, I turned on the windshield wipers when I was trying to change lanes or make a turn. It was also tough to stay in the middle of the lane, often slightly veering towards the left side, driving on the shoulder of the road, and, of course, my first lieutenant, Theresa, had fallen asleep.

Before the Healesville Sanctuary, we made a little pit stop at the Yering Station Winery. We did a couple tastings. They even had chalk for Mattea and Jonah so they could draw on the ground. They know how to cater to families. We had a nice lunch overlooking the vineyards. Theresa had the Baby Snapper with Moreton Bay Bugs. It was our first time trying the "bugs" that Marianne kept talking about. They tasted like a cross between lobster and shrimp - not a bad combination. The lamb loin was nicely cooked, along with potatoes and a manchego salad. It was probably one of our favorite meals and settings in Australia so far.

After stuffing ourselves with a delicious lunch, we headed to the Healesville Sanctuary. Theresa's student ID came in handy once again and because we got there a little before an hour before closing, they gave us an additional discount. Despite all the positives, unfortunately, we found out that holding koalas is not allowed in Victoria. Boo. Nevertheless, we did get to see some animals that we had not seen yet like the wombat, echidna, platypus and reptiles and managed to see bigger tasmanian devils. We also got to see a laughing kookaburra. Theresa had an ephiphany and now realizes that the song "kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, merry merry king of the bush is he, laugh...kookaburra...laugh..." was an Australian song about a real bird called a laughing kookaburra sitting in a eucalyptus tree. Her life is now complete. We stopped by the animal hospital and saw a surgery occurring on a duck that broke its leg. They were adding pins in it to straighten it out. The weather was nice, not too hot, not too cold and slightly breezy. We finished off with some ice cream and headed back to Surrey Hills.

We took a different way back, faster and a little more challenging. More city and highway driving, not as straightforward as on the way to the sanctuary. Paul really put me to the test. I think I passed! It was about 7pm when we got back to the house, so the kids ate first and then went to bed. We then ate some delicious homemade meatballs and ravioli (We want the recipe, Janita!) and what better way to top it off than with more ice cream and chocolate chips.


Day 58 - "Foiled Again" - Melbourne, Australia

Again, another lazy morning. Not only did we get to sleep in, we got homemade bacon, avocado, tomato, and cheese sandwiches. Janita and Paul were really spoiling us now!

Since our access to free internet going forward was going to be virtually nonexistent, we decided to take advantage of the internet access at the Gallagher-Riley household and plan part of our trip to New Zealand. As Janita noted, we were very studious in our planning. We planned the Northern Island part of our trip. Feeling a sense of accomplishment, we decided to take a break and head out to City Centre for some shopping and eating.

Our goal was to buy some presents for Mattea and Jonah. We ended up at Myers' toy department and found a few things. Any Dora item for Mattea we knew would be foolproof. We also picked up some other items (ice cream maker and lego set) that were probably more of a reflection of our own childish interests than the kids but we had to get them.

We then took a walk around town. We came across the Block Arcade that Eric had read was a really old historic heritage site. Beautiful architecture but nothing in it that we wanted or could afford.

Since we were close to Tasmania, I was still hoping to be able to get a piece of that Tasmanian King Crab. Janita had provided us with two probable options for getting the crab. The first was Flower Drum, a Michelin-rated Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown. As expected they DID have the crab available. Sadly, they DIDN'T have any openings for the rest of the evening :(. Oh well. In any event, the manager there warned us that there was no way the two of us could eat an entire Tasmanian crab between the two of us. Obviously, he's never seen us eat.

Our second option was to head over to the Crown Entertainment Complex in the South Bank area and hit Waterfront Fish Market. We didn't realize at first that it was in the Crown Entertainment Complex (which is a huge casino) and ended up walking up and down the Yarra river and around the complex for probably a good 40 minutes. The river walk was not pleasant. More flies than Kangaroo Island, if that is possible. Lucky for me, they all took a liking to Eric's shirt that he bought in Saigon. At any given moment, there were at least 6 flies hovering around or on him. Makes us a bit suspicious of what material was actually used in that $4 shirt. Perhaps we don't want to know.

Anyhow, we finally found the restaurant and they DID have the crab available, but we were foiled again. The crab was $85 per half kilo, and we were told each crab weighed about 5 kg. Um, yes, you did the math right. That was an $850 crab! Sadly, that was too rich for our blood, so we had to pass the opportunity up. At least this time, we had the option to not order it. Perhaps if we had a party of 10 maybe we'll get it next time.

Instead, we ordered a salt and pepper calamari dish - which seems to be an Aussie staple. It was very good. Then Eric had a seared scallop and roasted duck dish while I had the spaghetti with crabmeat. Eric said his was just OK, but mine was absolutely delicious. Perhaps one of my top 10 meals since I've been on this trip. It reminded me a lot of the bistro shrimp pasta at Cheesecake Factory that I love, but perhaps less creamy. I couldn't get enough of the dish. Good thing for me, it wasn't that big of a dish or else Eric would have had to roll me home.

We then took a walk through the casino. Lots of baccarrat and slots. There was only one craps table. There were some stupid games like War. Who gambles on War?! There's no skill involved. So silly! There was also a game that I'd never heard of called "Si Bo". It seemed like a roulette-type of game but with dice. Eric considered playing craps but the table was always full. We then remembered we still needed to pack for our 7am flight the next morning, so we headed back to Surrey Hill. A big thanks to Janita for ordering us a cab for our 5:15am departure!

We finally made it home after some detours on the city rail, and packed quickly before I fell asleep. Eric, on the other hand, stayed up a few hours longer.

For pictures of days 57 and 58, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5406112316776823281&authkey=Gv1sRgCITD0sXbsc3JhAE&feat=email

"Home Sweet Home (Paul and Janita's)" and "Lazy Tourists in the City"

Day 55 - "Home Sweet Home (Paul and Janita's)" - Melbourne, Australia

We bid our farewells to Amy, Mar and James and headed to the airport for our JetStar flight to Melbourne. The flight was about 1.5 hours, again, no food or drinks. We're starting to feel like we're flying on some U.S. airline. Heheh. We were picked up at the airport by Paul and little Mattea. She started out shy, but eventually would warm up to us!

We went back to Paul's home and met up with Janita and baby Jonah. Their kids are absolutely adorable and so cherubic looking. We decided to take a walk to a local restaurant for some brunch - sandwich for Eric and french toast (with bacon and balsamic vinegar) for me.

After a tasty brunch, we headed back to the house with a mini side trip to the playground for the kids. Once we got home, I passed out for a 3 hour nap. I think it was the benadryl I took the night before that did me in. It was either that or Amy constantly hounding us for sleeping in. Heheh.

I finally woke up and joined the rest of them outside for some relaxation in the backyard. It was nice seeing the kids roam around a backyard. You don't get to see that often in San Francisco. Mattea has this awesome trampoline that I will have to try before I leave.

We then had a delicious BBQ roast beef dinner prepared by Paul and Janita. The meal was accompanied by cole slaw, roasted potatoes and roasted pumpkin. I took a liking to the toasted pumpkin. It was better than sweet potato.

Afterwards, we just sat around and relaxed. It was nice finally settling into a home and not a hotel. The perfect day of relaxation after some rigorous sightseeing in Sydney!


Day 56 - "Lazy Tourists in the City" - Melbourne, Australia

I guess we needed the sleep. We ended up getting at least ten hours of sleep. It was wonderful. We then had breakfast and laid out in the yard with Janita and the kids. We did a couple of loads of laundry just so we weren't complete sloths.

We decided to check out some of the city, so we took a tram to Flinders - City Centre. Once inside Flinders station, we spotted a stand called Lord of the Fries, which we had planned to eat at anyway. You can pick from a list of sauces for your fries. We ordered fries with a French-Canadian sauce also known as Poutine - cheese with hot brown gravy. It was just as tasty as it sounds, really was heaven.

Melbourne offers a free tram that goes around city centre. It offers free commentary too. Being the lazy tourists, we hopped on for a few stops. Saw Parliament and some other old looking buildings. We got off near the Carlton Gardens, where we went to check out the Royal Exhibition Building. Walking over there, we thought we were on some college campus. The place was packed with what looked like college students. Turned out they had just taken some exam at the Exhibition Building. We think it was some nerdy math/engineering type of exam cause about 90% of the students were Asian - not to be stereotypical or anything. As a sidenote, Melbourne appears to be a very culturally diverse city. I would say it is at least 50% minority. Hmm, is it considered a minority if they make up 50%?

Anyhow, we couldn't get into the Exhibition Building so we headed out to try to find this bakery I saw reviewed on Trip Advisor. Sadly, we weren't able to find it, so we decided to backtrack and walk through Greektown and Chinatown. We found a Target in Chinatown so naturally we had to go in. We decided to get some supplies for the rest of our trip. We considered getting some clothes for New Zealand, since it's supposed to be colder there and I have no sweaters and Theresa only has one pair of pants. Unfortunately, things are not as cheap in Target over here. In fact, dresses were being sold for $70-$120, at Target! We bought some toiletries and were on our way.

We definitely stuck out as tourists. As a future reference, not only do Australians drive on the left side, they walk on the left side too, using the right side on escalators as the walk up way. There were many times we were on the right side and were battling crowds like salmon swimming upstream. Also, we definitely felt like the typical tourist in SF who assumes that it will be warm, wearing shorts and t-shirts, but ends up buying those sweatshirts that say San Francisco across them. It was very windy and the air was freezing. We later learned from Janita that you can get all four seasons in one day in Melbourne. One day it's 90 degrees and the next its 50. Bizarre. We were getting cold, so we opted for an early dinner at il Solito Posto. Janita recommended this penne ragu with veal that was delicious. Theresa had a yummy fusilli with pancetta, chilli and onions.

We wanted to do more sightseeing after dinner, but it was just too windy and most shops had closed so we'll have to save it for another day. We caught a nice sunset, warmed up with a cup of hot chocolate and called it a night.

For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5405426625320145297&authkey=Gv1sRgCO3whLCQlcWAXA&feat=email

"'For The Climb of Your Life!'TM" and "Perfect Day of Bats and Crabs"

Day 53 - "'For The Climb of Your Life!'TM" - Sydney, Australia

OK, we're a few blogs behind, so we'll try to keep these short.

Eric for some inexplicable reason, woke up before 7am and headed out to explore the local Woolworths (a huge retail chain in Australia) while the rest of us slept. After coming back and telling me how wonderful it was, I went back with him and bought some croissants and crullers for breakfast. They were still warm from coming straight out of the oven. Looked like they were a great alternative to the stale items being sold at the Starbucks down the street. We will be back.

The five of us then jumped on a local bus to head to Bondi Beach (btw, it's pronounced, "Bon-dye" not "Bon-dee"). There was a sculptures by the sea exhibit going on this week that we wanted to catch. It was quite interesting. Lots of different sculptures varying immensely from one another. Some seemed to have meaning, others seemed very arbitrary. My favorite was probably the most simplistic. It was a ginormous plastic straw stuck into the ocean. We had fun taking pictures with that one.

Amy had read about this one controversial sculpture of a naked boy. We kept trying to find it but with no luck. We took a break at this local surfers beach to catch some rays and enjoy the surf. It was a pretty windy day, but temperature-wise it wasn't too bad - similar to SF. We were about to give up on finding the statue when Eric spotted it. It was right behind us! Anyhow, after some amusement with the naked boy, we decided to head off to find some grub.

Since none of us were that hungry yet, we decided to hop back on the bus to Sydney to grab food there. Mar had read about this Thai fusion place called Longrain, so we went there for lunch. We started with some prawns wrapped in betel leaf, then had minced chicken with long bean, fried river trout with mango salad, and some mixed veggies. The food was very good but a bit pricey for my blood. Kinda like Slanted Door.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to change into our climbing gear in anticipation of our Harbour Bridge Climb. I'm not sure why, but I assumed that all we were doing was walking across the bridge. I didn't realize that we were actually climbing up to the top of the bridge! We opted for a twilight climb, so we caught both the day and night views of the city.

We had to change into climbing gear which consisted of a full body suit, a belt with a chain to strap us to the bridge, a head lamp, a fleece, a headset radio, and optional accessories included a beanie, a snot rag, and gloves. After gearing up and taking a practice climb in an indoor area, we were ready.

Our tour guide was Sophie, a college student and a charismatic leader. She took us up the bridge - the peak is over 450+ feet. I was a bit scared climbing up and down the ladders and then looking down through the grated floors to see nothing but water. That was soon forgotten though by the breathtaking view you get from up there. It's amazing!!

We had a fantastic climb (over 3.5 hours in total) and as an added bonus, got to see into the windows of a few apartments and caught one person getting out of the shower and another sitting on the thrown. hahaha!

After all that climbing, we were starving, so we headed over to the Australian hotel for some barbecue emu pizza, margherita pizza, Greek salad, and some local beers. The emu was quite tasty. It tasted like a tougher smoked beef. Not as gamey as the kangaroo. Amy didn't like it, but the rest of us thought it was pretty good.

As usual, after dinner, Eric was still not full, so I accompanied him to Hungry Jacks for a cheeseburger. Not as good as Burger King - it wasn't flame-broiled!



Day 54 - "Perfect Day of Bats and Crabs" - Sydney, Australia

Tired of the high food prices we've been experiencing, we decided to have breakfast at Woolworths. While James and Mar slept in, Amy and I ventured there to get a breakfast of chocolate croissants and hash browns. Eric joined us a bit later, and then we met Mar and James back at the hotel. Amy and I really wanted to see the aquarium, so Mar and James decided to join us. Eric opted out and decided to hang out around the hotel instead.

The Aquarium was a bit pricey, about $31/adult but again my student ID came in handy - knocked $10 off the price! Go me! Amy and I enjoyed seeing the dugongs (it's what they call manatees out here), sharks, and giant turtles. After seeing the great barrier reef exhibit, I am both excited and nervous as to what sort of sea creatures we're going to encounter. My favorite exhibit was the leafy sea dragons. Those things are just so darn cool. Sadly, the aquarium wasn't that big, so we were done in a little over an hour.

We then met up with Eric at the Fish Market. Apparently, at 5:30 am everyday they have an auction for all the fresh tuna and other fish that come in and some get shipped back to Japan for sashimi. After entering the fish market and seeing all it had to offer (fresh fish, oysters, crabs, lobsters, sea bugs, abalone etc.) we quickly split up and it was every man for him/herself! Mar, James and Eric opted for various types of fish and chips while Amy and I had to have the uber-fresh sashimi from Peter's. The line was long, but after eavesdropping on some locals talking about how this was the place to get super fresh sashimi, we knew we had chosen right.

There was so much fresh fish, we were overwhelmed. The lady behind the counter was getting annoyed with us and was like "Just pick one!" We finally settled on salmon, tuna, king fish sashimi and abalone sashimi. Everything was so tasty! The abalone was interesting. It was a little sweet, had the texture of oysters but was crunchy. Eric says the fish and chips were just OK. They didn't come in a paper bag with vinegar like in England. We heard New Zealand may be better, so we'll try again there.

After lunch, we decided to take the ferry over to Manly Beach which is north of the harbour. It was similar to Bondi Beach, but not as nice as Kangaroo Island. It was pretty crowded on the beach and lots of surfers in the water. Eric and James went into the water. It was a little cold, but fun to go up against the waves. Meanwhile, the rest of us laid out on the beach and ate the bag of chips we had bought from Woolworths. We've become addicted to these honey soy chicken chips.

We caught the ferry back to Sydney Harbour so we see the flying fox bats come out at night. These bats were flying in every direction. There was this tree between the Opera House and Botanical Gardens where some of them would fly to either eat the fruit or just hang there. It was pretty neat to be up close to watch.

It was getting late and we were all getting hungry. So we made our way to the Golden Century Restaurant for some Chinese food. We had heard and read about the Tasmanian King Crabs here that was supposed to be really good. Even at 8:30pm, there was a wait of 45 minutes. We finally sat down ready to feast on some King crab, but it was not meant to be. No more Tasmanian King Crab left. I was devastated. I had been looking forward to this meal ever since arriving to Sydney.

Instead we had mud crab cooked with ginger and shallots, steamed Barramunda fish, baby bok choy and snow pea sprouts. Everything was really tasty, especially the mud crab. Its shell was more like a stone crab and very meaty. It was perfect, the sauce on the crab was delicious. Maybe there will be another opportunity to have Tasmanian King Crab. We'll see.

With our bellies full, we went back to the hotel to rest.

For the pictures of days 53 and 54, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5405003126454736529&authkey=Gv1sRgCPqC96mbp5DRHQ&feat=email