Australia 2007 - 2008

I fell asleep and woke up at around 6:00am just outside of the country of New Caledonia. I could see the runway at the airport in Noumea.

When we arrived over land in Australia, we flew over areas that had houses with swimming pools in the back yards that looked reminded me of California. The trees and hill reminded me of England when Karen and I landed in London on our way to Spain in August of 2006.

            Once we arrived at the airport, we got went through customs and immigration, which was an easy process. We then went to an ATM to get cash and found a Starbucks upstairs for a coffee. We met an Australian with a snowboard that was going to Canada. We had a brief conversation with him about snowboarding, Whistler, etc. When he left Starbucks, he forgot his snowboard, which I alert him.

            After Starbucks, we got a cab for Bondi Beach. The ride was nice and I started to notice the interesting architecture of some of the old apartments/flats in some t naborhoods. It had an interesting look that I have never seen before. The taxi drive was friendly and interesting and like to talk about “bushwalking”. This was the first time I heard of this term. We interpreted it as hiking or camping. He told us about places to go and see in around Brisbane and was particular keen on the Australian Zoo and theme parks on the Sunshine Coast. I spotted our apartment called, the “Ultimate Apartments” as he drove by.

Checked in apartment and had an interesting conversation with the lady, Jill, at the front desk about the differences on North American and Australia on things such as drug laws, public nudity, etc. We also, discussed my Canadian “Roots” shirt and what “Root” meant in Australian.  She was entertained and amused with what Karen and I had to about the cultural similarities and differences between North Americans and Australians.  The apartment was small but nice. There were tennis courts behind us that we could clearly hear.

After checking in, we dropped off our bags and when for a walk down to the main street “O’Brien” which had a lot cafes and small store fronts. We went for a walk on the beach and layed down on the grass area of Bondi Beach.

We had lunch and a smoothie on the beach which was nice. The wrap was good. The girl at the wrap/smoothie place was from Minnesota. I could understand why she would want to be at Bondi Beach instead of Minnesota during the North American winter months.

After hanging out at the beach for a while, we picked up items that we needed at the IPA and window shopped. We then went back to the apartment to unpack, etc. I could not believe how much sun I got after just a few minutes of laying down.

We had dinner at a sushi place on the main road Karen and I were not impressed with the sushi place. It was also our first experience of “BYO” of many more to come.

I noticed that the surfing was still good after dinner and how so many people were still surfing after 6:pm. The waves will still good as well.

We went back to the apartment and watch TV. There was a story on the news about a terrible head on car crash that kill a family. It was very sad. You could see all of the family belongings on the road. There was also a segment on how to properly cook a turkey and a segment on a Australia company that was not doing well.

Karen and I commented on the segment about buying a Turkey at "Woolworths". We thought that was interesting becuase in North America a Woolworths was an old department store.

We heard the tennis players playing behind our room.