Oz Day 7, 8, 9 - Animals and Going Home

Last couple days we exhausted the interesting things going on in Sydney, so we visited the Wildlife World and the Aquarium. There was an amazing amount of animal life diversity there, so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

The flight home was among the worst I've ever had. I was sitting in Economy, which had even less leg room than I remember. I spent the entire 13 hour flight with my knees in the seat in front of me or standing in the aisle while the very polite Canadian couple next to me went to the bathroom. It's a good thing I didn't try to sleep that much, because that would not have been remotely successful (and when I did try to, it wasn't). Luckily, my laptop lasted long enough for me to watch 2 movies, so I watched Hamlet 2 (had it's funny moments, but seemed to be trying too hard) and 3 Fast 3 Furious (utter garbage, but I like cars and I have to get caught up for 4 Fast 4 Furious). All in all, I'm glad to be back.

Pictures

A Crocodile




Huge Ants




A Baby Koala (awwww)




This duck isn't moving for anything




Oh sign writers, you're so funny




Oh shit! A shark




Oh shit! A turtle!

SE Asian Restaurants: 6

Page in Blink: Still 98

Oz Day 4, 5, 6 - Is there some sort of party going on?

12/30: We visited the Powerhouse Museum, which was very interesting. They had a traveling Star Wars exhibit that was very interesting. Later we played Laser Tag, which was a lot of fun and we visited Luna Park, home of the incredibly sketchy sign.

New Years Eve: The city is absolutely packed. Entire parks are cordoned off at noon for the fireworks show at midnight. It is utterly insane. There are people everywhere, most places already have people camping out for a good viewpoint of the fireworks. I am really, really glad we already have tickets for Goat Island. Nothing interesting happens during the day because everyone is much more interested in the fireworks.

6:30 rolls around and we board the ferry to Goat Island, a national park in the middle of Sydney Harbor. We have tickets to watch the fireworks from a lawn facing the Harbor Bridge. The ferry we get on is packed to the rafters, 400 people get on. Personal space is a quaint memory. Around 7:30 we get to the lawn and get ourselves situated, enjoy a picnic dinner and set in for hours upon hours of waiting. There is a "family" fireworks show at 9, which was the best fireworks show I'd ever seen, which was a great way to break up the waiting. They followed that up with a "parade" of ships through the harbor, that was less impressive (mostly just ships with Christmas lights forming very crude shapes on the sides). I spent most of the waiting time listening to my ipod, while the rest of my group slept and (seemingly) everyone else got plastered. Then it was midnight.

Holy. Freakin'. Shit. The fireworks were amazing. I never knew what 6 million dollars worth of fireworks looked like, but now I do (about 15 minutes of constant light and explosion). Goat Island was between 2 fireworks barges, so we got explosions from the front and the back. It was like we were being shelled. The fireworks were so bright they lit up the air around us and we could see each other without any aid. The finale was a number of streams of fire coming off of the bridge and surrounding buildings, and it was spectacular. I don't think my words can do it justice, hopefully pictures (and video) can.

New Year's Day: It seems as though the entire city is nursing a massive hangover. Barely anyone is out and there are a lot of stores closed. We take it slow, the only thing we planned to do that day was climb the Harbor Bridge. We get to Bridge Climb and I am immediately impressed by the scale of the operation. They have groups going in an out, getting suited up, derobing and gawking as a well oiled machine. They must have had 100 people in their store/operations center. When we actually got out to climbing the bridge (in our matching jumpsuits, natch) we got blasted by wind. It must have been about 20 mph, blowing us every which way. As someone who normally gets freaked out at heights, I was surprisingly calm. I think it was because I was too fascinated with their harness mechanism that used a very clever rotational locking mechanism. I'll stop there. As amazing as climbing the bridge was, what really annoyed me was how much waiting we did on the bridge. In the time we were actually climbing the bridge, there were 5 groups in front of us, each of which we had to wait for while they took pictures. In the 2 hours we were out "climbing" on the bridge, we probably only spent 30 to 40 minutes climbing. But it was still an amazing experience. The views were outstanding, we could see for miles. Unfortunately, their picture system was down, so I don't have the photos yet, but I will get them.

For dinner we took at ferry out to Manly, which was a very nice beach, but very crowded and very touristy. I can understand why it's lauded as the greatest beach in Australia, but I don't feel a particular need to go there during the day, when it will surely be twice as crowded as when we were there at night.

Pictures (and Video):


Me and Chewbacca



My view of the Sydney NYE Fireworks show. It was amazing



Twilight falls upon the crowd



The Bridge at Twilight. Anticipation is building.



Hiss!



Boom!



Ahhhh!




Beer Can Boat

Videos once I've uploaded them to Youtube.

SE Asian Restaurants: 4.5
Place in Blink: Same as last time

Oz Day 1, 2, 3 - It's beginning to feel a lot like summer

Sunday 12/27: While Christchurch was rather temperate, like the Bay Area in fall, Sydney was hot and muggy, with a side of muggy. When we got to Sydney it must have been about 85 F with a humidity around 70. It almost made me miss the cold, rainy California winter. Almost.

Getting to our hotel was a bit of an adventure. Getting off the Metro led us right into an underground shopping complex with twice the people of Hillsdale during the Christmas Rush (in fairness, it was the middle of a Sunday with after Christmas sales). We eventually made it through and got to the hotel and just crashed (having gotten up in Christchurch at 4:00 am). Upon waking up at the crack of 2 we travelled across Sydney in search of the Australian branch of The Counter. After a lot of walking (and map reading) we found it. And it was glorious. Almost better than the Palo Alto one (probably because it was the most spicy food I've eaten in a week (NZ is culinarily bland) ).

Monday 12/28: Started off the day with a trip to the Australian National Maritime Museum, where we toured a submarine and a destroyer. I can definitively say that I will never join the navy, I'm too tall (and I don't like the smell of diesel). After baking for a few hours, we wandered over to the Rocks for lunch and to pickup a bike tour. The bike tour was called the "Highlights of Sydney," but they just as easily could have called it "All of Sydney" because the tour lasted 5 hours. I learned and forgot more about Sydney than I ever thought I would, at least we got to enjoy a great pub. We eventually found our way back to Darling Harbor for dinner, where we had a solid (but over priced) dinner at the Australian equivalent of Gordon Biersch.

Tuesday 12/29: Today we toured the Blue Mountains. But before we got to the mountains we stopped at a wildlife park in Featherdale. The wildlife park was very hands-on, I got to pet kangaroos and koalas. Frankly they didn't seem that interested in me, only the food I had (so, so similar to dogs). After the wildlife park we progressed into the mountains, where we stopped at half a dozen rock outcroppings to look into the valley. The views were amazing (reminiscent of Half Dome in Yosemite), but they tended to get repetitive (you can only see so many views of a valley before you get bored).

Pictures:

Seemed Appropriate



The Opera House and the Bridge



The Quilt Bird



Wombat



Southern Cassowary



Me and Kangaroos



Me and a Koala



An Emu




An Albino Peacock




The Three Sisters rock formation in the Blue Mountains

SE Asian restaurants: 3.5
Page in Blink: 98

NZ Day 6 - Fire and Ice (Mostly Ice)

Today was an eventful one. We started off by walking clear across Christchurch to pick up a rental car, which actually only took about half an hour (it's not a big city). Then it took them an hour to get our car ready :/ But it was worth it, because they let me drive (only have to be 18 in NZ), and not only was it a rental car, but it was on the wrong side of the road. There is a pretty steep learning curve, but eventually is feels natural. Except for traffic circles. I fucking hate those.

We drove out to the International Antarctic Center (which touts itself as the world's best Antarctic museum) by the airport where the US (and Italian and New Zealand, etc) Antarctic Programs are based. The museum didn't have much to offer in way of interesting things, but they did have a room with simulated blizzard conditions (awesome) and a giant tractor (like the ones they use in Antarctica) ride (double awesome). If you ever find yourself with a 4 hour layover in Christchurch (but I have no idea why you would), go across the street to the IAC (they even have luggage lockers).

From the IOC we drove out to Akaroa, a little French settlement on a bay on the other side of foothills from Christchurch. I'm sure it's normally a lovely place, but with crappy weather and it being Christmas Eve, everything was closed. When we got back to Christchurch, we stopped at a grocery store (to stock up for our mini roadtrip tomorrow) and an Aussie expat got to talking to my dad and came under the impression that he (my dad) had just returned from the American McMurdo Antarctic Base. No, I'm not making that up.

We had dinner reservations at Cook'n with Gas, whose rather hokey name doesn't do justice to the amazing food. I had the lamb (exquisite) and the crepes (richer than anything I've ever eaten). Their style is apparently New Zealand Bistro, which is very similar to American Bistro, but with great hospitality. We spent more than an hour talking after desert and they hadn't offered us the check once. I absolutely love the hospitality at New Zealand restaurants, they are great to their customers.

Giant Chess. Oh no, it's not the first time I've seen it.




I'm driving on the wrong side of the road!




The headquarters of the US Antarctic Program




It's cold. But I still want to beat kal.

SE Asian restaurants: 3.5
Page in ASHONE: Done
I bought Blink by Malcolm Gladwell to have something to read.

NZ Day 3, 4, 5 - It's a fast day(s)

These last 3 days have been much faster than the first day in Christchurch.

On Sunday we took a tour of Christchurch's Cathedral (history's good, I approve of it) followed by a search (successful) for a sweater because it was about 50 outside and I was freezing. When we left the store we happened upon a busker whose cape proclaimed him to be Basketball Man. He was quite amusing (while trying to get people into it: "Alright everybody, give me the clap"), although he possessed the most grating, annoying (hopefully fake) voice I have ever had the misfortune of hearing. It was like a fake Jamaican sucking on helium while trying to accent all his vowels. It was terrible. After that we had a bike tour through the city (mostly the suburbs actually) with our guide Ben (or as he pronounced it Beeen (rhymes with Ian). Aren't subtle verbal differences grand?).

Monday we took an Alpine Safari, which consisted of a long bus ride out to the boonies (boring), wild life 4WD tour (at times exciting, mostly boring), jet boat tour up the Waimakariri River (fuckin' awesome), another bus ride (I slept through) and Scenic Train ride (actually pretty nice). The scenery was beautiful, but a lot drier than I was expecting. I was expecting completely damp dark (like Lord of the Rings), but it was actually very green and lively (although we did get some LOTR setting on the jet boat ride). Oh, and jet boats are very popular in New Zealand, but I don't think they are common in America. What they are is basically a jetski blown up to the size of a boat and they are amazingly fun. By the way, the town in the boonies was Springfield, NZ, who's claim to fame was being one of the places the Simpsons Movie premiered and the town received a giant pink donut for participating. 

When we returned to Christchurch we went to Flying Burrito Brothers, which I think is supposed to be their attempt at Mexican food. It was a good try (what being thousands of miles away and everything), but it couldn't hold a candle to real Mexican food. The only way to get spiciness at that restaurant was to use one of the (thoughtfully many) bottles of hot sauce, including tapatio.

Tuesday was another day in town. We started off with a bone carving lesson with the Bone Dude, who is this really cool 1-armed Maori guy running a gallery who also does carving lessons. We all made pendants with maori designs and they turned out really nice. We had a lot of fun, he was really welcoming and I whole-heartedly recommend the Bone Dude if you're ever in Christchurch. After that we walked back to the City Center and had a cheese fondue lunch a Swiss restaurant (it wasn't nearly as good as real Swiss fondue) and toured the Arts Centre (slightly fancy clothing/specialty goods, similar to University or the Stanford Mall). I saw "The Pot Shop" on the directory and I had to check it out based on name alone (and my mom was destined to spent an hour looking at yarn). I got some strange looks as I entered the homemade pottery store (being twice the size and a quarter the age of the woman working the counter), but that subsided when I bought a nice big mug. After that we strolled over to the Cantebury Museum, where we perused many mildly interesting (and one utterly awesome, that you can see in the photos) exhibits. For dinner we went to Bohdi Tree, which is apparently really hard to get a table at. The cuisine was Burmese (and very, very good), so I will revise my Thai restaurant count to SE Asian restaurant count. After dinner I went to do a little shopping and what should come on, but More than...  Words. I laughed as other tourists thought I'd lost it.

Sheep are fuckin' everywhere. On farms that is.




I wasn't kidding about the Simpson's donut




Keas. They're a giant, alpine parrot. They aren't afraid of taking food from people, I mean actually taking




A Penny farthing! That works! And that they'd let me ride! I'm excited!




Ducks are also not intimidated by me. I don't know what it is about New Zealand birds.




A better front view of the Christchurch Arts Gallery. I love the design of this building.

SE Asian restaurants: 3.5
Page in ASHONE: 270