auckland

i arrived in auckland the other day, and my friend jonathan has come from america and arrived this morning. tomorrow morning we'll be leaving and heading south to te kuiti, exploring the north island a bit, then heading down to the south island to do more climbing and hiking!

goodbye, australia

well i'm leaving a bit earlier than i thought, because it occured to me that thursday night is actually friday morning, which is just hours away! i scrambled to get everything done with, and i'm about to leave australia for good, or at least for a long time.

it's been great visiting australia tho, and i'd like to thank all of the friends i've made here from all over the world for the great times we've had. thanks to everyone in wa who's helped me with directions and been so friendly to me. i thought that this would be a much longer post but because i still havn't figured out how to tell time i'm in a bit of a hurry and have to cut it short.

here are a handful of pics i took in australia i thought i'd share. the smiley face is an actual picture i took of the moon and two nearby stars the other night, it was amazing!

australian road trip

here's something i wrote earlier while in australia for class. it's pretty choppy because i had to cut out a LOT of it to meet the length requirement, but it's a somewhat interesting write-up of traveling in australia, here it is:

[during the first tuition free week] Some friends and I had decided to go to Monkey Mia to see the dolphins, and stop anywhere interesting along the way. Jake (also in this class), Daniel, Robin, and I, and found a good deal on a Toyota Corolla Hatchback and headed out. On our way out we stopped in the small town of Two Rocks. There is not much there apart from two large rocks, and a large hollow statue. Our first real stop was at Pinnacles, which was really cool. It was also our first encounter with the Australian wildlife. While wandering around the pinnacles, Daniel noticed a huge black snake in the bushes he was about to walk through. I quickly took a picture and then we left the area.
The first night we camped on some isolated beach far from the main road. It was a beautiful and very private place to camp, and my favorite from the whole trip. In the morning we explored the nearby coast and found some very cool rock formations and coral, as well as some very interesting looking crabs. We got back in our car and made it to a small town where we met up with some other exchange students and we stayed the night. It was nice randomly bumping into people that we knew in a place that was so far away, and we all went to the local pub for a while.
The next day we ate at a place called Billabong Roadhouse where we met some interesting people. We were just sitting on the porch eating when a man walked up and started talking to us, and asked where we were from. We told him that we were from America, England, and Germany. He kept talking to us and was very friendly, but when he started talking about a trip he took to England once we realized that he was incredibly racist. At the roadhouse there are signs everywhere advertising a book called “Cut the Bullshit, for Men Only” which I'm guessing was written by a local. Glancing through the book I skimmed through sections about things such as how getting rid of “poofdas” will get rid of AIDS, Aboriginals all look the same and should just be treated like animals, and some very interesting views on women's rights and roles in society. Even more surprising was how every part of this town seemed to use this book as a claim to fame and actually want to be associated with it.
Leaving this curiously racist, sexist, and homophobic stop we made our way to Monkey Mia. At Monkey Mia we saw some really cool birds and we had the good fortune of being there the first morning that a dolphin named Nikki had a baby. After that we went back to the hot tub by the pool and sat for a while, when a man came up to clean the hot tub. He was very friendly though, and rather than tell us to get out in a grumpy voice which is what I expected, he talked to us for about an hour and told us that we should keep going north towards Exmouth and go snorkeling in Ningaloo Reef. He mentioned some interesting places to stop and some nice things to see along the way.
We went on and stopped at Coral Bay, where went snorkeling and saw even more incredible coral and fish. Then on our way to Exmouth we saw Emus on the side of the road, I had never seen one before and was excited to be seeing them for the first time in the wild, not behind a fence or in a cage. After getting to a campground we drove to town to pick up some beer when we finally saw a kangaroo. It was standing in the middle of the road and just stared at us for a while before hopping off. We went back to the restaurant at the campsite with our beer and met some of the locals. We were still sitting there when it got near closing time and as we were getting ready to leave the waitress said we could stay there as long as we like if we turned out the lights when we left.
The next day we went on a nice hike down the coast from Exmouth. We saw more kangaroos and another snake (this time just a small green one) on the hike as well as a beautiful gorge. Now more than satisfied with our trip we headed back home.
All-in-all it was a great trip. We met tons of people, saw countless animals, many of which I'd never even seen before in pictures, and everyone was so incredibly friendly. I was so shocked that people would so regularly forget their job duties to sit down for a long time and just talk to us. They put off cleaning the hot tub, let us stay past closing even after they left trusting us to not make a mess and turn out the lights, and even have a few drinks with us which I've never seen in America. They repeatedly told us where the best and cheapest places to go were even though they knew it would cost them some business.

blogging

so i'm thinking i might actually start to use this thing. if you've been here before, you may notice that there is now actually more than one post, and that there are links and even the followers app installed now!

this is because i've actually started to read a lot of people's blogs, and my bookmarks menu was getting full. this way i can actually keep track of everything easily, and the "followers" widget is actually really cool. really i'm just making this post to test it all out.

i've got some catching up to do

so a while back i decided to leave america and come to perth, australia for a semester. no real reason, i just wanted to get as far away from home as possible and mix it up a bit. having been interested in mountain biking for over a decade, and just about any kind of biking for nearly two, i assumed that when i got here i would continue mountain biking as i had back in the states. since i'd recently wrecked my commuter before i left, i figured i'd rebuild what was left into a cyclocross/29er/commuter singlespeed mix, the unibomber as some fellow rider back in rva called it.

when i got here i immediately met some of the most friendly people i've ever met in my life. the best part was that is wasn't just one person, or one group of people, it was 99.9% of this entire country. after posting a few questions on a local forum, i met pete who immediately offered to take me out mountain biking. he warned that my cross bike might not cut it, but that if i didn't mind loosing some skin i could come along for some local xc riding. i'd heared this from people back home and never had an issue keeping up, but these trails where a whole new animal. well behind the back of the pack for the whole ride, i was amazed when pete called me next week offering to take me out riding again, this time on his full carbon giant. i nervously took him up on it, but again was at the back of the pack. despite the fact that i wasn't used to the trails, the weird pea-gravel here, or the geometry of the bike, there were no excuses this time. not only had this very trusting man handed me the lightest xc bike i'd ever ridden, he'd let me put my pedals on it, adjust everything from the seatpost to the fork's rebound, to the american-handed brake levers. and after all that he *still* called me the next week to go riding.

this time i had to decline his offer as i already had plans to go surfing, but i was still amazed that he'd even consider it again.

that was the last time i've been mountain biking in perth, and it was great, but unfortunately i can hardly find the time. since then i've swapped out my trail tyres for some skinnies, sped up my gearing, and raised the seatpost turning my cross-check into a true urban commuter.

with this new setup i've found a nice group of local fixies that rides on sundays, and i regret that it's taken me this long. last week was my first week out with them, we met in a parking garage, they did some usual fixie tricks, and then we headed out for a ride through the city. the ride started out as i'd expect, but we turned into a headwind and a few of the guys shredded the city streets like i've only seen a few people do back home. and unlike home, these guys aren't just a bunch of trendy yuppies trying to look cool, they actually enjoy the ride. but sprinting into the wind they had more than just the speed, nearly melting tyres on the downhills, and maintaining wheelies uphill across several blocks, these guys showed me one of th best night's i'd seen in this country. after it was all over, prawi even helped me find my way home from the bar.

tonight was no different. i got to the car park, and there were the usual fixie tricks, but then i noticed something new. there was this guy on a rattle-can green surly pulling out the smoothest wheelie-spin things (what are they called?) i'd ever seen, again and again and again like it was nothing. he'd flick the bike back, then forewards up onto the rear wheel, twirl, and smoothly come out of it and just ride off. this week we headed out on a shorter ride, at least it seemed shorter, but maybe it was just the lack of wind. either way, perth is finally starting to feel like home just in time for me to leave.