Happy Times

Baggage handlers shut down airports

Massive power blackout brings Sydney to its knees

Guess which 2 lucky travelers where affected by the above headlines during their first 5 hours in Sydney, Australia?!?! If you guess Jason and I, you are absolutely correct!!

We arrived into Sydney Airport on March 30 only to be doused with a teaspoon of airline baggage strikers, and a dash of blackouts. The first news paralyzed us because we were given no information as to when we'd receive our baggage, other than "later". With no clean underwear, sleeping clothes, toiletries, and clean clothes for about 2 days, you can imagine how much I didnt love Sydney.

We finally got our luggage yesterday night-I have never been so happy to see my heavy backpack!!

So far, Jason and I have walked through Darling Harbour, Chinatown, Circular Quay, Sydney Opera House, visited the Sydney Aquarium (highly recommended) and met up with Diana, one of Jason's friends from Accenture. Sydney is one of the prettiest metropolitans I have been in, but unfortunately, it is as expensive as NYC, which was one thing I was realllly hoping to veer away from during our travels. Luckily we've got a rental car and will be driving up along the western coast towards Brisbane over the next 8 days.

Interesting things we've learned about Aussies from personal experience and from Diana (Chicago native, studying in Oz for past year)

- there is no such thing as customer service here. no one "can be bothered" to care about your problems, as demonstrated by our suitcase situation.

- Quay is prounouced "Key" and Cairns is pronounced "Canes"

- They abbrviate everything here. Instead of saying "thanks", they say " ta"

Nevertheless, still having a grand old time and eating lots of chinese food and blending right in with the rest of the Asian immigrants here :) We're told that as we leave Sydney, we'll be in redneck country so we're saddling up!

Jennifer

Last Day in New Zealand

Queenstown Hike - waterfall, originally uploaded by jasonwmak.

Today is the last day in New Zealand. We had such a great time and I finally fulfilled a 5 year dream to come to this wonderful country. I hope I will return very soon. We will be going to Australia for 12 days next. Some thoughts about New Zealand.

- the people here are genuinely very friendly...even bus drivers and gas station attendants
- once you get used to driving on the other side of the road, it's very driveable
- yes you will encounter scenery and landscapes that look like Lord of the Rings
- hiking and camping is so fun!
- old people and travellers stay at hostels, not just young college grads
- we need to start being even more "green" at home, people here genuinely care about being green
- work to live? or live to work?

- Kiwi rugby is intense and looks more demanding than American football

- the beer here is good, as are the kebabs

Jason

Being green

This country is both literally and culturally green. Public facilities are visibly outfitted with energy conserving bulbs, SUVs (frequently seen in USA) are eschewed for more practical, but equally spacious, hatchbacks/station wagons. Even our YHA (youth hostel) advertises that it uses chemical free detergent, although i'd prefer they bleach the bejeesus of soiled linens. The toilets here (and in Taiwan, suprisingly) come with the option of the full or half flush. It took me awhile to internalize this concept, but now, even when I wake for a midnight number 1, I unconsciously push the waning-moon icon. The full-moon icon is reserved for my duties after my cup of warm water in the morning. I wonder how much water this really saves, and I wonder why this phenomena isn't employed in the US?

I am in complete awe of the freedom allotted to livestock here. Jason and I have seen huge bulls running, yes running! Oh, to be a sheep in this country-! Sheep graze all day long and when they are full, they collapse with full bellies on the greenest hills and bask contentedly in the beautiful New Zealand sunsets. For some odd reason, we haven't seen any pigs, but I've seen them on the butchers block at the markets.

Jason and I have eaten a lot of lamb kebabs and New Zealand Gala apples, which taste SO much better than the imported rubbish we get in the states. Beyond apples, Autumn isn't such a great time for fruit here.

These are just a few things I've noticed. We are in Christchurch right now, it seems to resemble San Francisco mixed with the small English town-feeling. In case any of you decide to visit...So far, this is a list of the NZ cities ranked in order of personal likeability: Wellington, Queenstown, Christchurch and Auckland.

Arrived in Christchurch

Don't have much to report on Christchurch yet...it looks like a nice city and we only have one day here. I'll make sure to take good photos tomorrow for everyone to see.

Jason

Wet my pants in Quennstown!

Greetings from Queenstown. Today is our relaxing day as the past few days have been filled with roads, rides, and jumps. I am really enjoying Queenstown, a small town that is claimed to be the "adventure capital" of New Zealand. As Jennifer mentioned there are so many tours and sports to do here and so many cool REI-like stores. I'm loving it! So far, Jennifer and I have went luging (think Mario Cart), which was really fun, as we careened down the top of the mountain in little plastic luges. We also tested our will on the famous AJ Hacket Bungy where we did a canyon swing and bungee jump (videos will be posted when I return). Bungee jumping was by far the scarriest thing I've ever done, scarier than sky diving. The canyon swing was no tamer.

Yesterday, Jennifer and I took a BBQ bus ran by a Japanese and Kiwi couple to the famous Milford Sound. Sadly, I would have to say that Haloong Bay in Vietnam is much better but it was a nice day, even though I got a bit car sick. Anyways, hope everyone at home is doing great. Eddie and Janet, have a great wedding. We wish we could be there with you all but I hope you guys have a great time and post many photos for us to see!

Jason

XQueenstownX

Hello from Queenstown, NZ- home and birthplace to all that is X-treme. I want Jason to give you more details about our day since he's madly in love with this city and keeps threatening to move here :) In a nutshell, Queenstown is a full sized city in the likeness of REI; there are seemingly endless amounts of stores carrying sporting/camping/outdoor gear. Bascially, this is Jason's utopia!

I can't remember when we left the States, sometime in February, I think. Taiwan and Hong Kong didn't really feel like travelling because we were in our home countries, spending time with our families and busy doing wedding stuff. Now that creature comforts are hundreds of thousands of miles away, the idea of being away from home for 5 more months, at times, seems pretty daunting. I suffered my first bout of "homesickness" during my first week in New Zealand, missing "home" (wherever that is, at this point), missing my family/friends, missing my dogs, missing familiarity. I really have nothing to complain about, I'm on the trip of a lifetime, and I totally recognize and appreciate.

When we did our kayak through Abel Tasman, we met a girl who had spent the last 1.5 years in both India and Spain and was now couch surfing and hitch hiking through NZ. There must be hundreds of similarly situated people in NZ, and I regretfully acknowledge that I dont have the capacity to be so free.

No real point to this blog, just thinking.

I miss my dogs

Hello Everyone,

I'm giving Jennifer a break from the blog as she is asleep right now. Anyways, today we continued our drive down New Zealand's SH6. For anyone who will ever visit New Zealand, I recommend to skip Auckland and the North Island and come directly to the South Island and drive from Wellington to Queenstown via highway 6. It's has been absolutely beautiful. Morever, Wellington and Queenstown are far superior to Auckland (another big city!). Wellington is artsy and hip. Queenstown is serene, on the lake, sorta like big bear.

Today we visited the Franz Josef glaciers. We just walked to the observatory since actually walking on ice wasn't worth the hassle to us. Then we drove down highway 6 and passed through a few interesting towns and turnsoffs. One of them happens to be Fantail Falls, a 2 min hike to a waterfall that happens to be surrounded by little manmade stone statues. Very cool!

Anyways, off to nurse by bug bites. We'll be in Queenstown for the next few days relaxing and doing some excursions... will keep you posted.

Here are some pictures from today...in case you don't know, I've been trying to post pictures daily to my flickr account. Just go to www.flickr.com\ruchbum

Jason