South Coast Road Trip

Easter is a big holiday in Australia.  Kids get a week or two off school and everyone else gets a 4 day weekend (and hot cross buns take over cafes menues for the preceding month).  The 4-day weekend is important, because no other holiday here receives such a designation (they obviously don’t celebrate Independence Day or Thanksgiving).  We took advantage by renting a campervan and driving down the south coast, stopping and camping at little beaches along the way.  Our favorites were Congo Point, which had a 4 mile long beach perfect for barefoot running and a shallow break great for body surfing.  And Pebble Beach, with wildlife that you couldn’t make up in the movies: kangaroos and giant goanna lizards mingling on the bluffs, colorful parrots swooping from tree to tree, and at one point, we looked up from our beach chairs to see 15-20 dolphins within 50 meters from the beach.  It was one of those experiences that knocks you over the head and reminds you you’re not in Kansas anymore.

After 4 days on the coast we turned inland and drove into the mountains of Kosciuszko National Park.  While their “mountain” classification would be a stretch by Colorado standards, they nevertheless offered cool autumn air and beautiful scenery.  Also notable is that Mt Kosciuszko is the tallest in Australia, and therefore one of the seven summits of the world (tallest mountains on each continent).   So of course i had to run up and tag the summit while Kristin went for a nice run/hike lower on the mountain. A campfire that night provided a wonderful ending to our first road trip in Australia.

A few photos here.

Earth Hour

Normally things like Earth Hour sort of annoy me… it feels like a hype that people get excited about, participate in, pat themselves on the back for saving the world, then an hour later it’s over and everything goes back to normal.  But somehow this Earth Hour felt legitimate, or at least intriguing.  Maybe because it started here (in 2007) and subsequently has garnered an enormous amount of media attention with landmarks all around the world participating (Golden Gate Bridge, London Eye, Sears Tower, Eiffel Tower, Opera House, etc).

So we got some takeout, a glass of wine, and sat out on our balcony until 8:30 PM rolled around, at which time we switched off our balcony christmas tree lights and watched as the city went dark.  It was pretty cool.  The Opera House and Harbor Bridge, normally aglow in the night sky, eerily went dark, and the entire skyline slowly went a few notched dimmer.

The funny part is, the next day the entire city lost power when a substation blew out (yes, the entire city), and that was like 10 times darker than earth hour the night before.  Oh well… baby steps.

normal sydney sky

sydney sky during earth hour 2009

The Pool

I admire good recreational swimmers; I mean those who go to the pool not just to swim, but to “swim laps”. They are fluid and have a way of looking powerful without looking uncomfortable. No grunting, no contorted, beat-red, sweaty, miserable looking faces. Not these folks, they look as cool as cucumbers propelling their bodies as they stretch and pull their arms rhythmically through the water, periodically pivoting their heads to replenish their lungs. It is mesmerizing to watch.

Like many neighborhoods throughout Sydney, we have a public pool less than a 10-minute walk from our place. This is an 8 lane, 50 meter, salt water, lap pool overlooking Woolloomooloo Bay. Aside from the lively kiddie section, the pool is an amazingly quite place in the middle of city. With the Botanical Gardens to one side, harbor on the other, and open air above, there isn’t even the sound of traffic to contend with.

This pool also houses a small yoga studio where the classes are good, but the view is inspiring. There is also a small outdoor café that serves good brunch and a decent cappuccino (It’s no Toby’s… but it’s not bad). But again, it is the fantastic location that makes it such a desirable to place to have a post swim juice or coffee and browse the paper on a Sunday morning.

So although we mostly hang in the outer lanes (aka where the grannies and folks with broken arms inch along) our neighborhood pool inspires us to keep coming back and join in the fun of swimming laps.

Byron Bay

Every country has a few iconic places that manage to encapsulate the true essence of the country, or at least a slice of its people,  culture, or  attitude.  These are the places you refer to when saying “you haven’t been to X country until you’ve been to Y”.  (For example, I would say you haven’t truly been to the US until you’ve been to New York or Chicago, the deep south, southwest Utah and at least 2 or 3 national parks. Obviously totally subjective, but you get the idea.)

Well, we went to one of those places in Australia this weekend that we felt truly embodied the country we are living in… a little slice of australiana, if you will.  Byron Bay.  It’s a 1:20 flight north of Sydney on the east coast (hooray for $49 internet fare sales!) and is known as a surf haven.  At 28 degrees latitude it has a climate similar to say, south Florida, so the nights are balmy and the ocean is warm.  It’s a small town and the vibe is decidedly chill.  Lots of beat up old vans with surf boards, fish n chips shops, outdoor bars, and the dress de rigueur is board shorts, sunglasses and flip flops.. Super casual, friendly people, slow pace… it was great

The highlight was taking a surf lesson with a guy named Marco (i wonder if any surfers go by their real name?).  Happy to say we both got up a dozen or so times in our 2 hour lesson and are craving more. Let’s hear it for slow waves and long boards.

I think what we are starting to understand is that even though Sydney represents 1/5th of Australia’s population, it’s not necessarily a proportionate representation of the culture or attitude  (it feels rushed and fast paced here in Sydney, a bit of a rat race at times.)

So it was nice to experience a more easy-going, fun-loving slice of this country… with many more yet to come.

Tasmania

The South Coast Track

We happily received our first family visitor this month!  My dad, Buzz, flew in from Boulder on January 30 for a 3 week visit to Australia.  After a week of trundling around Sydney, he and I left for an adventure together in Tasmania.  It had been eight years since he and I joined up on a trip like this (we traveled to Patagonia and Peru together in 2001-02), and it was good to be on an overseas trip together again.

Movie with a View

Last night Galen, Buzz, and I went to the The Open Air Cinema. Every summer we have all enjoyed our respective home cities’ summer outdoor movies…each with a slightly different variation on the theme… San Francisco has “Film Night in the Park”, Chicago’s “Movies in the Park,” Boulder’s “Outdoor Cinema.” We all agree it is a great way to spend a summer evening, pack a picnic, share some wine, and eek out some play time in the last of the sunlight.  All that and then you still have a movie to watch.

This particular outdoor cinema is sort of on another level. Never mind the cost, and the difficulty obtaining tickets (two months of screenings sold out within a couple of hours), it is worth it. The event is held in The Royal Botanic Gardens, and the screen is IN the harbor. Yes, the big screen stands in the water with the Sydney skyline, Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge as a backdrop. Hey, if the movie is getting dull you just watch the fruit bats flying around or admire the view. It is hard to beat.

We knew we wanted to do this with Galen’s dad, so we made our movie choice based on his time with us, and were then pretty much locked into seeing The Day the Earth Stood Still. Our expectation were not high (Keanu Reeves…world coming to an end…), but it turned out to be a great choice for the venue (sci-fi remake of the 1951 classic).

Not to forget….the picnic. It was tasty: sweet potato salad, fresh zebra tomatoes with olive oil and basil, fresh fruit, and a Rose collected on our trip to New Zealand. Lindt was a sponsor, so we indulged in a couple of free Lindor truffles for dessert. Yum.

Australia Day

Two hundred and twenty one years ago today, Captain Phillip led a boat of English criminals to the shores of Australia  to start a new (penal) colony for the British Empire.   Since then,  that initial group of several hundred  has grown into a nation of 20 million Australians… and this year, we are two of them.

It’s interesting that Australians celebrate their “national day” as the day their land was colonized by England – not the day they achieved their independence from England (like we do in the US).  Nor is it the day Australia was discovered by Europeans (most attribute that feat to Captain Cook in 1770).  I think this is an interesting difference between the US and Australia.  We celebrate our “national day” – Independence Day – as the year we defeated our mother country in war and declared our independence, our freedom.  It was  a pivotal and victorious event in our history, and has defined our  view of ourselves as a nation ever since.  Australia, on the other hand, never really experienced such a  defining moment.  Their independence has been a slow and somewhat nebulous evolution over the last 100 odd years.  It wasn’t until the Australia Act of 1986 that Britain finally lost its ability to form laws for Australia, and Australia still celebrates the Queen’s birthday as a national holiday.

I can’t claim to draw too many conclusions from this simple difference, but it’s interesting to consider on this national holiday.

It should be noted that aboriginals (like our own native people on  Thanksgiving or Columbus day),  view this day quite differently, and often refer to it as “Invasion Day”.  Good point.

Anyway, we celebrated Australia Day weekend with a good movie (Milk), relaxing pancake breakfasts at home, and finally an enjoyable picnic with friends on the harbor.  It was a great weekend.

While i’m at it, below are a few quick updates to our list of favorite and least favorite differences of living in Australia:

The Good

• Cinemas: Assigned seating, and many have a bar where you can purchase beer and wine, good chocolate, and bring it to your seat with you!
• Cheap airline tickets.  We bought tickets in January to fly round trip to Byron Bay (a beach town up the east coast) for $49 each way per person, including taxes.
• Vegemite
• Asian food: Thai and Indian is everywhere here, and the quality is generally very high.
• Turkish bread

The Bad

• Bike commuting: No doubts about it, Sydney is the least bike friendly city I have ever lived in.  No bike lanes, minimal shoulders, bad traffic, and drivers not used to bikes.
• Peanut butter: No such thing as peanut butter without sugar or vegetable oils as far as we can tell.  Ironically, we found incredible all natural peanut butter in New Zealand made from Australian peanuts!  Go figure.
• Sprawl: It takes the better part of an hour to escape the spawl of the city.
• Cost of public transit: The network of trains and buses is reasonably comprehensive, but the cost is just silly.  $3.20 for a single bus ticket is robbery

Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains National Park is a two hour train ride west of Sydney and offers an easy weekend getaway for the wary Sydneysider (as we are called).   Kristin and I ventured there this weekend for some much needed respite from our urban environment, namely fresh air and open space.

Before we go any further and you develop imagery of grandeur in your head suggested by a name like the Blue Mountains, let me set one thing straight: the blue mountains are neither mountains nor are they blue.  If I was an explorer back in the day and I discovered this swath of land, i probably would have named it ‘The Green Hills with Some Cliffs’.  But that’s why I ended up as an engineer instead of a storyteller.  Anyway…

On Friday afternoon Kristin and I hopped on a train and headed west for our weekend getaway.  After about an hour of tunneling through Sydney urban sprawl, the countryside started to open up and we soon reached Katoomba, the region’s primary urban center and our home for the weekend.

Monet: My Impression

There are times in life when you feel obligated to “better yourself” through exposure to cultural or artistic mediums. Yesterday I ventured to the Art Gallery of NSW for Monet & The Impressionists with the intention to satisfy that obligation, and came out pleasantly surprised at the authentic satisfaction with the whole experience.

I took advantage of a free guided tour of the the exhibit, and I believe that made all the difference. The no nonsense tour guide was key. She led the way, showed us the goods, banged us over the head with some interesting notes, and some of the artists’ intentions, and then let us be. Plus she pronounced the French words in that perfect way so that she commanded respect, but not so over-the-top that you wanted to give her a cute smile and remind her that she was, in fact, an Australian. Despite the obligatory tour behavior… hushed shuffling, some craning of necks,  and silent jockeying for the best vantage point, I found it the perfect way to get my cultural fix.

Fun tidbits from the exhibit…

It was not the subject, or landscape the artists were attempting to capture, but the sensation, hence they were given the name “impressionists.”

Japanese art, mostly woodblock prints, had a great influence on Monet’s style.

One reason why I still prefer running

Sharks Rampage in Australia

A surfboard with a shark bite in Binalong Bay, off the Tasmanian coast in Australia’s far south, on Jan. 12 (Tasmania Police / Reuters)

Running will never be as sexy or as cool as surfing.  Ever.   I often wish I was blessed with incredible surfing abilities as I admire surfers gracefully riding the waves out in the break.  But at least this will never happen to me in my running shoes.  (unless i get bit by one of the ten deadliest snakes in the world that also happen to live in this country)

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