Having fun in Vegas without losing (much) money

Paul had a conference in Vegas at the beginning of last week, so we figured, since he already had free flights we might as well make a vacation out of it. I flew out on Wednesday night, and we took the next four days to explore Sin City. Here's what we found.

1. It can be a little overwhelming when it feels like every one is trying to separate you from your money. Not just the gambling, but there are coupons and discounts for shows and meals, constantly pressuring you to buy now and not miss out on a terrific bargain.

2. Despite this we found plenty of things worth spending our money on. We really enjoyed Le Reve, which was like Cirque du Soleil (but not Cirque du Soleil) but in a pool, with synchronized swimming and diving, and trapezes and people being lifted out of the water on trapezes, then diving back in. Pretty spectacular. We also had a few really good meals out at B&B and La Cave.

3. On Friday, we rented a car and drove out to Red Rock Canyon. There, we hiked and climbed and took our only pictures of the trip.

The rocks

Rock striations (do you see the person on the ridge?)

Paul is making these rocks look small, in reality, they are very far behind him, and VERY big

There we are.

Calico rocks.

Noosa Race Report: Back to Oz

I went back to Australia for the first time 2 weeks ago. I had gotten an entry into the Noosa triathlon, so I planned a holiday around it. I went to Canberra, the Gold Coast, Brisbane and finally Noosa. It was fantastic to see old friends everywhere I went. It took several days to get acclimated to driving on the left, referring to my "mum" and thinking in metric, but it all came back pretty quick.

I did a terrible job taking pictures on this trip, but a great job catching up with people and making new memories. Lauren and I went to Question Time in Australian Parliament which was quite the experience, we hiked Mt. Ainslee with Kimberley and Hamish, I met Joslyn's new man Matt and shared a coffee with her overlooking the Brisbane River from the Powerhouse, I had lunch at Jamie's new cafe, had morning tea (and tim tams) with the ITIG guys, went shopping with Julie, shared homecooked meals with Julie & Jonathon, celebrated Jawad's birthday and finally headed up the coast to race.

[seriously, I can't figure out how to get this picture to rotate]

I went up with Vanessa Friday afternoon and met her elite brother and his elite girlfriend (who won the women's race after coming second at Kona 3 weeks earlier) and her parents. There were over 3300 individual competitors at the race. We registered at the massive bays:


And checked out the expo. Asics makes their own Noosa tri running shoe:


And we checked out the gorgeous sunset:

The race itself was not something I've been training for. Good races at the end of the season in the US had made me confident that I could have a good race at Noosa, especially relative to my last showing at Noosa in 2008. 2:48 was the time to beat.

Not sure exactly what happened on the swim. I got smashed in the left eye early on, and I couldn't open it for the rest of the swim cause my goggle was on so tight, so maybe I wasn't swimming straight with only one eye, but I came out of the water in 32 minutes and thought "sweet, oh, wait, this wasn't a half ironman distance. Suck." I expected at most a 28 minutes swim. Oh well. 3 minutes slower than 2 years ago.

On to the bike. The bike felt good, despite not being on my own bike. Heading out to the turn around, I was flying with the tailwind. I felt strong going up the hill, and cranked coming back home. My knee was a little cranky at about the 30K mark cause the seat wasn't high enough, but otherwise, everything felt good. 1:22 in the end. But I was watching my time and still shooting for sub 1:48, that meant I needed to do the run in 54 minutes, which seemed very doable.

Finally, the run. Two years ago, I had a terrible run. This year, I felt good. Ran it in 52. Sweet. End time was 1:47, so one minute better than 2 years ago, on no training and a bit of jetlag.

And on to the 4th leg. I went to the official Noosa after party at the surf club for the first time. It was fantastic. Every one was into it.

It was great having a chance to come back and see every one and even better to get to race in the 3rd largest race in the world. I'm thinking I might make a tradition out of it, and try to go back for Mooloolaba 2012. That will be another 18 months. Though having an extra week down there would definitely be in order.

The US through Austrlian eyes

Well, it's been a while. Life's been busy. A very large report I worked on is being published on broadband.gov today for public comment. It's very exciting, but it's been taking up almost all of my spare cycles. In addition to that, my friend Lauren from Australia was visiting and I took some time off to hang out with her. And other than that, my life just doesn't seem that exciting: work, the occasional training session, football on the weekends, repeat.

It was fantastic to see Loz again. We did some shopping, visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History (which had a giant whale skeleton from Queensland), sampled some authentic (or as close as you can come) Mexican food, watched a football game (well, ok, she took a nap through the third quarter), enjoyed some Karaoke (thank you, Boston, for verifying that the appropriate response to the lyric "Sweet, Caroline" is "Bah, Bah, Baaaaaaaaaah"), checked out the Topsfield Fair (the US's oldest fair - not all that different to Australian Shows - sans show bangs), and took a walking tour of Back Bay.

I still wish we had fit in jackolantern making, but somehow it just didn't happen. Overall though we tried to do more "authentic" American experiences than tourist ones. Still my favorite moments were ones where something American would surprise her. For example, at lunch one day burst out, "Oh, look, there's a squirrel out the window!"

On the road again

We're now halfway through our 2 week road trip, and hanging out in Asheville, NC.

We started out last week with 3 nights in Cincinnati. We visited Paul's Uncle and my brother and sister-in-law there. We also ran for 30 minutes, up hill, in 90 degree weather, got lost in one of Cincinnati's "up and coming" neighborhoods, visited the Findlay markets and went to see the movie The Brothers Bloom (which was excellent).

From Cinci, we drove down to Chattanooga. We had been planning Nashville, but our scheduling didn't work out and we were going to miss Paul's Aunt and Uncle there, so we opted for Chattanooga which was more direct to Atlanta. We stayed at the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel, in one of the antique train cars for the night. I went to this hotel when I was a kid with my dad. I remembered it vividly. It is exactly the same, if showing it's age a bit more since it hasn't had any upgrades since 1989. Still seems like a fantastic spot for the kids, but maybe less so for the adults.

We left Chattanooga early to head down to Columbus, GA before stopping in Atlanta for the night. My ex-step-sister (yes, that's right) lives in Columbus with her family, so we went to visit her and meet her 2 year old for a few hours before driving back up to Atlanta on Friday night. My friends in Atlanta that we were staying with had a wedding to go to that night, so we were on our own for dinner. We drove around hunting for Decatur square, but ended up stopping in a blues and ribs joint. These were the best ribs I've had in recent memory. They were huge! We couldn't eat half of them. So if you're ever in Atlanta and have a hankering for ribs, check out Maddy's. We stuck around for the live blues that night, which was a high school band. It was really cute, their families were all there to support them, and the lead guitarist was really good.

At 9pm, we decided, we'd fit in one more tourist attraction for the locals, the Stone Mountain Laserlight Show. Here's another event that I went to many times as a child, that I haven't seen in 20 years. It was just as popular as I remember it, with picnic blankets knitting a quilt along the lawn. They've done a few updates to the show, it now includes a tribute to 911, and it no longer includes "Proud to be an American". Despite these changes, the show has stuck to its roots. The main event is still 80s style animation and highlights Georgia's role in the civil war and music history. We thoroughly enjoyed this.

We spent the next day catching up with friends, grilling out and playing incredibly complicated board games. Then headed North up to my old home town for lunch with a friend from junior high school and a tour of my old haunts. It's been 12 years since I've really lived there. And the town just feels like a town now, like any other, it doesn't hold all the significance it once did, and it actually seemed, like a nice place.

Last night we got into Asheville, after taking the back roads up through the beginnings of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is incredibly green here.

Pittsburgh has been cut from the itinerary with the plan being to go direct to DC, with an extra day here and an extra one there.

All in all, a fantastic way to spend two weeks when you're homeless and unemployed.

Our new lease in Boston starts 15 June, but Paul's sublet his apartment in South Bend on 1 June, so we're officially homeless starting tomorrow.  What better to do when homeless than to take a roadtrip.  We thought about going somewhere exotic, but after two years overseas, I'm ready to see old friends and take a few trips down memory lanes.  

The stops on the tour are:  Cincinnati, Nashville, Atlanta, Asheville, Pittsburgh, DC, New York (probably).  Plan is two nights in each destination, though we're not totally wedded to it.  If you're anywhere along the way, we'd love to see you.  We take off tomorrow.

In other news, I need to decide what to do about the blog.  I think I'd like to continue it, at the very least to keep me true to my training, but I think I need a new name.  It's certainly no longer my "continuing journey through Australia".  And the title no longer fits either.  Thoughts and suggestions?

Four bags and a box

I've finished packing:

Canberra

Last weekend I went to visit my friend Kimberley and Hamish in Canberra. They're both public servants there. Canberra, like DC, was the capital designed when the country couldn't decide if Sydney or Melbourne should be the capital. As a result, it's the only major city not located on the ocean. Ok, calling it a "major city" is probably not quite right. It's more like a "major town". Canberra only has 300K people, almost all of them working for government.

The visit was mostly about hanging out with friends, but I also wanted to take in some government, and K and H are excellent tour guides when it comes to that. We went to see New Parliament House on Saturday. New Parliament House is 20 years old, but the "New" differentiates it from "Old" Parliament House which preceded it. It struck me just how similar our governments are. Sure there's the big difference about having a PM instead of a President, but once you get beyond that, bicameral systems descended from Mother England just aren't that different.

That afternoon we checked out the War Memorial. Which is much more of a museum than a memorial. After being thoroughly educated on the Anzacs at Gallipoli and the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese, I came out stunned at the rules of war. How, in the midst of the bloody and futile months long battle with the Turks, they would call a temporary armistice with their opponents to collect their dead. Then, they'd each go back to their sides to continue fighting. It seems that the wars we're involved in today don't follow those gentlemanly rules.

The following day we saw Old Parliament House. It's must more British, and not nearly as circa 1980s as New Parliament House. In fact the chair for the Speaker of the House is a replica of the one used in the House of Commons in England. However, the original was destroyed in the bombing of London, and now the Brits have a replica of the replica made out of timbers from Queensland.

We also covered, what I can only assume to be, the defining event in Australian Political History. Since Australia remains a commonwealth of England, the Queen has ultimate power over the government. In the 70s, the Governor General (ie, the Queen's man in Australia) told her that government wasn't functioning because the PM refused to call an election (the PM can call an election at any point in his 3 year term). And so the Queen sacked the PM, and put the opposing party in power and demanded an election. Most famously the dismissed PM Whitlam stood on the steps of Parliament and said "May God save the Queen, because nothing can save the Governor General." This story was told and retold in both Parliament Houses.

We also explored the National Gallery, which was a sweet abridged museum. Each room covered one genre of art. It had all a work from each major contributor to the movement, then moved on. Here's the Monet in the impressionists, now just to your left you'll see the Dali in the surrealist corner.

Other than the political history, the biggest impression Canberra made on me was the weather. It was freezing. It rained on and off all weekend and never topped 50 degrees. In fact there was even snow reported in the mountains. Brrr. This queenslander can't handle that sort of chill factor anymore.

Canberra

Things to do before you die

My time in Australia is limited. I will, someday, go home. And I don't want to settle into that, I just live here I've never done the tourist things. I mean I don't want to do the touristy-tourist things, but it's like living in Paris and never going up the Eiffel Tower. My friend Julie gave me a deck of cards today each with a Brisbane Day Trip on it. They cover museums, markets, vineyards, ranches, rainforests. So, I thought it's time to put together my list. Things I want to do in Australia. Here we go:

• Uluru (I'm on the fence on this one because of time and money, but it's supposed to be awe-inspiring)
• Play on a touch footie team - Aussie rules or league doesn't matter much. I'll be equally ill-equipped in either of them. Maybe Aussie rules is better cause I can run. But either way, I think this will go nicely with my netball experience.
• The Outback Spectacular, brought to you by RM Williams (they make the boots) - ok, they advertise this on TV and it looks like a Medieval Time Restaurant with an Outback theme. I mean seriously, how could I miss this?
• Australia Zoo - I don't even like zoos, but I might be able to see a Bindi Irwin in her natural habitat, that alone is worth the price of admission
• Canberra - I'm going next week, so it's sort of a gimme, but both old and new parliament houses are on the must tour list
• Hangliding - I wanted to do this in Cairns, but never got around to it before the wind died for the wet. I think I can find a place around Brissie to do this.
• Climb the cliffs at Kangaroo Point - I see people do this every weekend and it looks like fun. I've never been rock climbing before, but this seems like as good a place as any to try it out.
• XXXX Ale House - it's shit beer, but it's local shit beer. And for ages the only beer in Queensland, and the brewery is right across the river.
• Witch's Chase Cheese Co - (no explanation needed)
• A half ironman. It's not uniquely Australian, but triathlon is a big part of my Australian experience, and I'd love to do my first one here. There's one in Feb, but with christmas, I don't think I'll have the time to properly train. Then there's another one in May, so that may be the goer.

I think that's enough for the time being. Any other suggestions?

Pay cuts

here's what the currency exchange has done over the last year. When I arrived the AUD was worth about 86c USD. From there it went up, almost one to one, but it's always sorta hovered around that area. This means things in Australia are expensive relative to the US.

But recently, it's taken a serious dive. Today it's trading at 66c. This means a few things:

1. I'm rich! All my US savings, where most of my money is is worth almost 25% more than it was when I arrived, what a fantastic return!

2. I've gotten a serious pay cut. I knew leaving BCG would be a big pay cut, but every time the AUD falls it's like I'm getting another pay cut. Sorta hurts. Not sure what this will mean for my earning potential when I get back to the states.

3. Things just got a whole lot cheaper. So sure, my salary just took a nose dive, but so did my rent, my groceries and my tri fees. Sweet.

4. Now is a great time to be paying my aussie taxes with USD. Glad I've held off on moving that money over. Wonder what rate I use when I file my US taxes next year.

Back in the states

I'm back in the states for a few weeks to catch up with friends and visit Paul.

After being in Australia for over a year there area few American things that seem foreign to me.

1. Automatic flushing toilets. Sure, you only really encounter them in the airport, but still. The prevalence of dual flush toilets (giving you the option to use less water if you see fit) means that toilets don't automatically assume that you want to flush. What a fun change.

2. Paper towels are huge. Ok, many things are huger here than in Oz (SUVs anyone? And to quote a long favorite traveler: "In the US I'm over 5 feet, here I'm less than 2 meters"). But I had forgotten that US paper towels routinely come about 4 inches wider than Australian ones do.

3. Airport security is more of a burden. I swear when I left you didn't have to take your shoes off at every check point in every airport. Australia's check points hearken back to a day pre-9/11 when really all you needed to do was take out your laptop. In SF, I was treated like an imbecile when I forgot to remove my shoes. And I thought I was doing so well remembering not to pack any liquids or gels.

Otherwise, driving on the right seems ok, not too foreign, and I've stopped wanting to ask people where they're from every time I hear an American accent across the room.

Package karma

Sometimes I receive mail for former tenants from my apartment. Generally, if it's not important, I throw it away. If it seems important, I return to sender it. But with packages, they don't get delivered, I just get a package slip to go pick it up at the post office. Of course, I can't pick up the package, cause it's not addressed to me. Fair enough.

But then they send a reminder to come get the package. So I'm thinking maybe there's some one this girl hasn't given her new address to, whatever, it will get sent back to the sender. A few days later my mail box is stuffed (in the American sense, not the Australian one). There's a very thin package in my box. Also addressed to the former tenant. Wasn't sure exactly what to do with it. But it was from the states, and the customs form said swimwear. Now, that's intriguing.

So I thought, I'll open it and see if I can return it to the vendor. Well, it's a swimsuit top, green, this one in fact:

I can return it, but it will cost me $40 to ship it back. And I don't have the tenant's forwarding address. Yeah, so I tried it on. But it doesn't really fit, and it's only the tops. Now what do I do with it?

Now I think this transaction has ruined my package karma. Last week I got a package slip of my own. I picked it up on my way to work. Or rather, I made a detour on my way to work to get the package, but since it's not on my way, I had to take a second bus. Which the first time it came by was too packed to take on more passengers. So I had to wait. By the time I finally made it to work, I was running late. I got off the bus and started walking to work. I was on the bridge when one of my coworker's caught up with me and made a comment about our both running late. It was then that it occurred to me that I'd left the package on the bus, and the bus was already gone.

I got into work and called translink, turns out they don't run this bus, city council does. I call city council, turns out the bus could have gone to one of 4 different depots, and that I should wait til the following day to call back. I've called back, it's not there.

So I've screwed my package karma. If you'd like to test out my package karma, may I recommend sending to my work address.

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oy! Oy! Oy!

A few thoughts on watching the Olympics from Australia:

Give me the medal count, I'll show you my country is on top.

American news is always touting the total medal count. China shows the count ordered by gold medals. Australians like to show the medal count per capita, which was showing them on top until Armenia, Slovenia and the Bahamas got medals.

Bring on the Asian.

Seriously, who thought this was a good idea?
How about, after Stephanie Rice won her race, the comedy team that polled random Chinese people to see if they "love rice?"

The American basketball team is still called the "Dream Team."
(Thanks, Paul, for pointing this one out)

Gymnastics are still part of the summer games.
Aussies are good athletes (just check that per capita medal table). But, due to the massive number of events, and all those great Aussie athletes, the coverage focuses on Aussie sports like swimming, polo or basketball. Australians are terrible gymnasts. It's easy to forget that there's even gymnastics at the games.

Coffee

Coffee is a cultural obsession in Australia. Some claim it's the influence of Italian immigrants last century, but regardless of the impetus Australians love their coffee. And they're snobby about it. They have their own names for coffees a "no-foam latte" is a "flat white" (my personal favorite). They also serve a "long black" which is just shot of espresso with extra water.

I'm not quite the fanatic that Melbournians are, but I enjoy a good coffee, and I need a coffee, regardless of quality, each and every morning. The UniQuest office has a good coffee machine, complete with a milk steamer, and we're only charged $1 for it, a significant savings over most $3 coffees around campus. The ITEE tea room has a coffee machine as well, and also charges just $1. So every morning I can choose, do I want to visit my UniQuest colleagues, or hang out with the nerds. I've been trying to hang out with the nerds more, it is my job.

Last week, the UniQuest coffee machine broke. This was devastating to most, but I, of course, could visit the ITEE tea room and continue on my merry way. This week the UniQuest coffee machine is back in order, but I visited it on Monday and some one had left milk in the steamer over the weekend. It was disgusting and nearly put me off milk entirely. This morning I opted for the ITEE tea room since the image of curdled milk in the steamer hasn't quite left me. But this morning there was something wrong with its steaming apparatus. Just steam, no milk. :-(

Now, like I said, I'm no coffee snob, but I'm really hurting for a good cuppa.

Turning Australian

It's been over a year, and I still sound like a yank. This isn't particularly surprising to me. I never picked up any Boston overtones besides "wicked", and after 6 years, I still couldn't put on a good Boston accent. Even here, being immersed, I can't put on a good Aussie accent, it always sounds British.

I called a friend from Cairns yesterday, and the first thing out of her mouth was "You sound so American." I think after several months of not hearing me talk, she had forgotten that I don't sound like her.

The thing is, slowly, I know I am picking things up. There are new vocabulary words: I put "reckon" into my vocabulary on purpose. But I say things like "cheers", I call "stores" "shops" and I describe them as "shut" when they're "closed" without even thinking about it. There are particular colloquialisms like adding "hey" to the end of questions.

Yesterday, I realized there's another form of Australian influence in my speech: new words are inherently Aussie. Recently, I learned the word "imprimatur," which in Aussie is pronounce im-prim-ah-tah. It was only pointed out to me by another American that it's actually (in the states) pronounced im-prim-ah-ter. Awesome. Good thing I arrived in Australia with a huge American vocabulary.

Laura has questions for Australian universities

1. Why is there no food available on campus after 4pm? Will this change when classes are in session?

2. Should potato chips (regardless of whether they are chicken or pork flavoured) be considered food?

3. Not really a question: I want my $2.10 back. I paid for 2 bags of peanuts, cause the first bag got caught in the machine, and I still only got the first bag.

Longtime silence is a prime indicator of romance

Sunday, I received this email from a friend:

"What is happening in Australia? Nothing on ye olde blogue for a while, nor Facebook ... have you got a boy? Longtime silence is a prime indicator of romance, I say."

Very astute. My hiatus has been caused by a man. Way back over christmas I had a date in Boston. Well, I've just had my second date: a two week holiday in Australia covering Sydney, Cairns and Brisbane. Allow me to introduce, Paul:

We spent the first week in Sydney (at the Westin, which we can highly recommend, especially the club lounge with free breakfast, cocktails and canapes everyday) doing touristy things. We took the ferry across the harbour to the Taronga zoo, which is built into the side of the hill and has spectacular views of Sydney and some pretty cool animals as well.

Day two, we went to high tea at the Opera house (pictured above). Tea included tea, champagne cocktails, tiny sandwiches with the crusts cut off, and more sugar on one plate that one could possibly manage. It also included a short program by one of the opera's sopranos who sang one of my favorite arias, O Mio Babbino Caro (yes, the one from a Room with a View).

Day three, we nearly missed our wine country tour when we didn't change hotels (I mean really how can you change hotels when there are canapes every night). But we made it. It's a two hour drive from Sydney to the hunter valley, where we visited several small wineries, then went on a cheese tasting tour on our own. Ok, I'm going to be honest. We spent about 3 times as much on cheese as we did on wine. And we ate all of the cheese the following day. I love cheese.

Day four, we ate cheese.

We did eventually make it out to the Victoria Room in Darlinghurst for several amazing cocktails: tequila manhattan, a drink with bourbon, chambourd, and ginger beer that we couldn't get enough of, and finally a cuban blazer. Our bartender, far more the cocktail enthusiast than most, was fantastic. We were rifling through the cocktail book (not really a list) and she asked us what we liked and devised our cocktails for us. Devine.

Day five, we hit the paddington markets, then headed up to Cairns.

I was more sentimental about Cairns than I thought I might be. I believe I narrated every shop and corner we passed. And Paul was good enough to feign interest in my fun facts (couldn't really call them stories, "This chemist is new!!"). We took the skyrail up to Kuranda, mostly just to take the skyrail (Gondolas that take you from the coast over the rainforest to the tablelands). And had a fantastic Aussie BBQ on the Esplanade with Kimberley and Hamish, complete with a park ranger asking us to at least not be so blatant with our alcohol. We weren't rowdy, but we'd decided to recreate the bourbon drink from the Victoria Room, so we had many alcohol bottles out on the picnic table.

The following day we went up to Port Douglas and took a reef tour with two intro dives. It's scuba diving without any of the training! That sounds unsafe, but really, you have a guide who adjusts your buoyancy, and we never went further down than 8 or so meters. It was fantastic. Giant clams, gorgeous coral, a shark, a barracuda and nemo. The drive to PD also included a bit of narration ("the paddock with wallabies", "the turn around point for a 50K ride", "the turn around point for a 60K ride", "the furthest north I've ever cycled" - exciting stuff).

Next we drove South to Mission Beach and stayed in the rain forest for two nights at Sanctuary. Here we stayed in a tiny hut (think screened in porch) in the heart of the jungle. I took a lovely yoga class, and we watched Queensland get spanked in the state of origin game*.

Upon returning to Cairns we spent the afternoon in my favorite bar, Tides before heading down the Brisbane.

Contrary to Rowan's suggestion, I did not just import Paul to help me do household things. However, he did help me hang my curtains. In Brissie, we mostly just explored my neighborhood. It was fun just to have some one to check things out with. We tried out the jazz happy hour at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, had dinner at Satchmos with a live band, pub crawled our way back to my house from the West End and had the world's largest tapas at Sling.

And now he's back in the states. So what does one do for a third date?

Paul in Sydney

Paul in QLD

*State of Origin is a three game rugby league series where professional players play go back and play for their home state. Only Queensland and New South Wales play rugby league, so it's always the rivalry between the two. This was the first game of the series. Game two is in several weeks.

Cycling the Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road runs from Warrnambool to Torquay, just West of Melbourne. When I signed up for the tour, I didn't realize how much time I would spend not cycling the Great Ocean Road. On the above map, only about a third of it is GOR. The rest is a whole lot of desert.

The week on the road settled into a nice routine. Wake up, breakfast, pack up, ride, stop for morning tea, ride, stop for lunch, ride, check into next motel, shower, lay out smelly, rainy clothes to dry, dinner, sleep. It also has created some bad habits I need to now rid myself of, like eating anything in sight, wiping my nose on my sleeve and spitting. Not appropriate for polite company.

I kept a daily journal on the road, with the hopes that somewhere in that routine I'd bump into the internet. Alas, no such luck. So here are a few back days of travel in the desert and the GOR.

Great Ocean Road, Day 1: Adelaide Gorge Rd

I wouldn’t say I’m having doubts, maybe just second thoughts. I’ve signed up for an 8 day cycle tour from Adelaide to Melbourne, supposed to be one of the most beautiful roads in the country. The tour is organized by a New Zealand company. And on this tour in particular, I’m the only non-kiwi. In fact, I’m the only non-Christchurcher. Actually, I’m the only person who doesn’t race 100Ks with this group every Saturday. And aside from the guide’s sons, I’m the youngest person by at least 10 years.

I know that South Australia is in severe drought. However, I feel that I deserved a long (read: more than 4 minute) hot shower. After all, I did ride through the rain for two hours. To kiwi’s this sort of weather is delightful (or “dilotful” in kiwi). Our guide said it was 18 degrees when we left (low 60s), but I feel pretty sure it was more close to the low 50s most of the day.

We took off on our intro ride from North Adelaide along Gorge Road. Gorge Road lived up to the images that are conjured when you hear “Gorge.” It was hilly, windy, windy and beautiful. We stopped after 30 minutes, and I took off my sweater and opted just for my wind/waterproof shell. This seemed like the right move, I felt cool, but comfortable while I was riding, and got a bit cold when stopped. Then, it started raining. Even though I wasn’t wet, the rain evaporating from the jacket made my arms particularly cold. Then, when I was stopped I felt warm, and when I was riding I was freezing. So a lesson learned for the rest of the trip. Get your gloves out of the van when you have a chance. At the last 15K where, going down a very long hill, my hands got so numb I had trouble keeping them on the brakes, I decided to ride in the van.

In the van I stripped off my socks and shoes to discover my toes were white: there was no blood in them at all, and I had trouble warming them up. Even after my hot shower I seemed to have trouble regulating my body temperature. Lesson number two: keep a warm change of clothes in the van.

Tomorrow we actually leave Adelaide. It’s supposed to be 115K ride (that’s 25K longer than my current longest ever). It’s also supposed to be hilly, and rainy, and cold. I’m still glad I’m doing it, but I’m also a little weary of what the trip has in store, particularly tomorrow and the next day as my body gets used to this new bike.

Great Ocean Road, Day 2: Adelaide to Victor Harbour
The plan this morning was a 9am departure. At 7am I woke up to the rain pounding the roof. At 8:45 I received a call saying, we were putting off riding for a few hours. We packed the bikes on top of the trailer and drove out the Glenelg, a beach town just south of Adelaide. It was gorgeous. Clear skies, sunny, grabbed a coffee and hit the road. Climbing, climbing, climbing.

And then, the clouds roll in, the skies open up and it… hails. It fucking hails. Not big hail, only about the size of Styrofoam pellets. But still. We catch up with the van, I grab my waterproof shell. (Using my lesson from yesterday I’ve been cycling with my gloves all morning) After another 8K or so, it’s pouring, the van pulls over, and we load our bikes back in. We’ve covered 27K or so. And give up on making the other 100 or so. We drive out to Victor Harbour, get quick showers and head for lunch.

Great Ocean Road, Day 3: Victor Harbour to Meningie
I think I’m officially an Aussie. I had vegemite on toast for brekky this morning.

I rode 102K today, a new record. The morning was littered with mechanical troubles. But once we got away from the coast and worked our way inland through stunning South Australian wine country and then shut down farms, things started to flow.

Every time I do a new longer distance it feels like crap the first time, and the next time it feels ok. Today was no exception. We have a support van that carries extra gear, food, water, etc. It drives up ahead then waits for us to catch up. Today, the real trouble was that the fast group was so far ahead, that for the van to set up our picnic lunch in the town of Wellington (one gas station, a caravan park, and a ferry), I didn’t see it for the last 40K or so of the ride. Which was ok, but I ran out of food and water. 40K takes around 1.5 hours. That’s a really long time to go without water even when it’s 60 out. We passed a sign saying 11K to the town, and I was psyched, I knew I could make it. By 9K I was really starting to struggle, started getting dizzy and worrying that I wouldn’t make it. But at 5K I knew I could. I might have counted down every 100m, but I made it.

Not a very happy lunch, but a good one. And after lunch, a van trip to Meningie, a nice long hot shower, I was very proud. And the tour group is very supportive, even toasted my first 100K at dinner tonight.

Meningie is a tiny, no stoplight town, slightly bigger than Wellington (it has a pub and a grocery store). It’s situated on Lake Albert, which is a vastly dwindling lake that’s been hit hard by drought. Our motel is straight out of the 70s, complete with ugly carpet and framed tiger photo. Brilliant.

Three 60K rides tomorrow, I’m hoping to make 120!

Great Ocean Road, Day 4: Meningie to Robe
I missed my chance at free wireless internet today. I didn’t think to check til it was too late, and the password must be obtained from reception. We leave tomorrow at 8am, when reception re-opens. Oh, the joy of staying in some of Australia’s best motels!

Today we rode 60K to Salt Creek where we had morning tea at a roadhouse. A roadhouse is the Australian equivalent of a gas station/diner/motel. This one claimed to have real coffee, but apparently just had drip that they added foam to. It was terrible. The first 20K felt shit, but from there on felt good. A few things contributed to that: we all road together in a pack, I ate at least every 30K, we had breaks every 60K or so.

Picture a long straight road fading off into a vanishing point on the horizon, you know, like the picture you drew in elementary art class when you learned about perspective. Now on either side of that road plant dried grass and scrubby gum trees. That was all we saw today. You can almost see why early Europeans might have thought running cattle on this land to be a good idea. It was later proved that running sheep and cattle would only ruin the vegetation and stomp down the ground til nothing would grow on it. We saw many abandoned farms. We stopped at the 85K mark and I felt good. Decided to ride on to 120. Luckily, the van had stopped around 112 for lunch. So my total distance today was 112, still 10K further than yesterday, but not quite the 120 I had hoped for. Tomorrow is 140 total. Do I dare?

Great Ocean Road, Day 5: Robe to Mt. Gambier
I woke up this morning to the rain with legs that felt like lead. I decided I needed a day of rest. I packed a bag of my cycling gear in case I had a change of heart. In the car on the way to tea I was starving. I had a big egg sandwich at tea, took a nap in the car, and by lunch I was ready to get back on the bike. It was only 37K, but it helped. It got my legs moving and made the day not feel like a waste.

It’s funny, I saw more wildlife today than other days. From the van, it’s easy to watch the landscape pass by. On the bike, riding in a pack, most of your focus has to be on the wheel in front of you, to make sure that you maintain a close distance, but not too close. Today, I saw emus from the car, and a dead kangaroo from the bike. Otherwise, I saw a cassowary on day 1 in a pen, and some white wallabies. And I’ve seen many many cows and sheep.

Great Ocean Road, Day 6: Mt. Gambier to Port Fairy
172K. That’s over 100 miles. I rode the entire distance from Mt. Gambier to Port Fairy. I did not get in the van, not once.

Also, we lost 3 of our riders today. The guy driving the van is a little bit of a space cadet. We’d sorta split into 3 groups: Anna, Craig and John in front, me, Marg and Ross in the middle and Ralph, Simona and Jacob at the back. We got to the lunch stop and the front group wasn’t there. We asked Stu (the van guy) and he said he couldn’t find them. This is worrying. Had they made a wrong turn? Were they just up ahead of where we were having lunch. Stu left us with the lunch and went looking for them. He returned, and still couldn’t find them. We decided to continue on, and he’d go ahead looking for them. When he did find them they were 10K out of Port Fairy, and had stopped for lunch on their own.

Today was the best day of riding yet. It was sunny and warm, we crossed the Victorian border and the landscape changed, we got rolling hills, green fields, and wind farms. At lunch, we’d ridden 108K. I still felt good, and since I hadn’t broken 112, I wanted to keep riding. It was just me and the boys. It was 65 more K to Port Fairy. I wanted to hit 130. When I did and the van wasn’t around, I wanted to make it to 150. When I hit 150, Ralph told me it was only 10 more K to hit the 100 mile mark, he also mentioned it was only 25 more K to get home. 25K is just under an hour. In my head, I thought, “Ok, one more hour, that’s not so bad.” Then I thought, “one more hour of exercise, after 5 hours of riding, who thinks that?”

Great Ocean Road Day 7: Port Fairy to Apollo Bay
Today we finally made it onto the Great Ocean Road.. It was cold, wet and miserable, but I was determined to get my 100K in and to actually cycle on the GOR. We didn't hit the GOR til about the 55K mark, where the sun briefly made an appearance, I removed my rain gear, only to be pounded once again about 20 minutes later. Things were starting to fall apart on my bike as well. I got a flattie that slowed me down a bunch. It was a nail. I've only ever gotten two flatties, and they were both nails. Once I had a new tube, my rear derailer seemed to be unhappy. I couldn't get into the big cogs (i.e., the easier gears). This is not so great for the hilly ride along the coast. And I was having trouble clipping into my pedals. And Ralph assured us it was only 96K to lunch, and it was really 106. I know it's only a 10% difference, but another 10K can piss you off when you thought you were done.

We had lunch at the 12 Apostles, which are immense pillars of rock just off the coast. There were 12 of them, now only 7 remain. They were incredible.

After lunch it was another 100K to Apollo Bay and two very very big hills. I decided I didn't need to do that. And enjoyed the scenery from the van.

Great Ocean Road, Day 8: Apollo Bay to Anglesea (and Melbourne)
Last day of riding. And by and far the best scenery so far. I fixed my rear derailer (turns out the wheel was just not quite in straight). It was fantastic. Winding road along the ocean, small surf towns. We even saw koalas in a eucalyptus grove. Really, quite perfect. Only 70K. I would do it again in a heartbeat

Revised plan

OK. Thanks for the input.

Here's the tentative plan:
Monday 14th fly to Brisbane to look for new apartment.
Tuesday 29th fly to Sydney
Wednesday 30th hop on the train to Perth! (http://www.gsr.com.au/our-trains/indian-pacific/the-journey.php)
Saturday 3rd (of May) arrive in Perth
Wednesday 7th begin biking trip to Uluru (http://www.cycletours.com.au/ride.php?code=RT1)
Monday 12th arrive at Uluru
Tuesday 13th fly to Sydney
Sunday 18th fly to Cairns (I just can't get enough of that town)
Thursday 22nd fly to Brissie
Monday 2nd (of June) start work

May still be able to fit some surfing in while I'm apartment hunting in Brissie. Great surf beaches are only an hour away (and accessible by train!)

Wheeeee!

Adventure needed

Just between you and me, I'm going to take this job in Brisbane at the University of Queensland. It's with an organization called UniQuest that manages the intellectual property developed at the university. My position will be working with the electrical engineering department (which includes CS).

I likely won't start the position until June. Which means I have four weeks to putz around between now and then, and I'm trying to decide how to best use that time. If I'm not careful I worry I may just sleep it off. So I need some goals. Here are a few ideas:

Drive from Melbourne to Brisbane. Stopping off in Canberra, Sydney and coastal towns. Trying to get in as many roadside attractions as possible. However, this could be a little lonely doing it by yourself.

Take up a hobby. I could go ahead to brissie, then head down to the gold coast for a week of surf lessons, or north to hamilton island to get my dive certification.

Do a big trip. Take the railroad all the way out to Perth (west coast).

Go international. My visa came through today (still can't believe it only took a few weeks when they were promising months), so I can leave Australia and return again.

What do you think? What would you do if you had a month in Australia?

Book ends

I went back out to the reef this weekend. My first weekend in Cairns I went to the reef and now my last. This time my trip was a present (Thanks, JZ!). Kimberley and Hamish joined me and a zippy boat that went out to the "outer reef" about an hour from Cairns. We stopped at 3 different locations on reef. Several tour companies have giant pontoons permanently stationed at the reef, this one didn't. It just attached to an anchor and we all dove off the back of the boat.

At the first location, I did an intro dive. This meant that I went out with an instructor and three others. They gave us a 30 minute briefing on how to clear our masks of water, how to take your regulator out and put it back in, and the hand signs. I've always been a bit weary of diving, but once we got under the water, I felt at ease. It was like flying. And being able to experience the coral in three dimensions was pretty amazing. The downside of being with a group of 5 people was that you didn't get to really explore, you had to follow the group. And, one of the girls in our group was freaking out a bit, so we all had to wait on her. I'd love to do it again, but I think it's probably worthwhile to get the certification so you can have a bit more freedom.

In that way the second and third stops were nice cause I just snorkeled there and could float around wherever I pleased. And I did spot several Nemo's. But these sites didn't have many really big fish. We saw some pretty substantial parrot fish, but no groupers and no sharks. We did see a ray though. Really though, the coral was the stand out. So many different types and colors, and so huge.