More than half way

My apologies for not being as regular with my postings from Oz. Surprisingly it's been a bit harder to access internet here than in SE Asia. By harder I mean more expensive. Also, I find myself with less of a need to feel "connected" while I'm here because things are much more familiar in Australia as you might imagine. So there's less of a need to take a break from it all.

With that said, Christa and I are having a wonderful time. The last time I wrote to you was around 3 in the morning after the inauguration. Since then we had an awesome day trip (apparently "awesome" is a super American word because any time someone imitates an American accent, they always say something like, "That's so awesome, dude!"). We got up around 7 AM to get picked up for a day trip to Cape Tribulation, where the rainforest meets the reef. It got its name because this was where Captain James Cook's "tribulations" began on his trip to Australia in the 18th century. We had a stop at a gorge for a dip, a nature walk through mangroves, and we were also treated to a boat ride in a crocodile river, where we saw one crocodile named Scarface, that is about 6 meters long. He was sunning on the banks of the river, so we got to see him in all his glory.

We ended up doing it Cairns style that night and stayed up quite late again. We repeated our routine by rising early the next morning to go on another tour--this time to the Great Barrier Reef. Fortunately it was a very relaxing day, because we were rather tired. Throughout the day we went from near comatose to so much energy that Christa was leading the charge on a backflip contest. A bit overcast at first, but when the sun came out, the waters were stunning and crystal clear. We were surprised at the colorings of the reef. I expected bright corals, but the palette was more like that of a Japanese garden. So were the shapes, for that matter. Christa and I had asked just about everyone we met if we needed to be concerned about the jelly-fish. We were ultimately convinced that it was just fine to go in the water. We donned some stylin' lycra stinger suits at first but eventually shed those along with our fears, and enjoyed the waters. Check out facebook for some pictures.

The next morning--very early--we caught a flight to Brisbane, from where I write to you now. We met up with Christa's college friend, Winslow, who recently moved here to play semi-pro soccer for the Logan United Football Club. He showed us around town and got us set up at the hostel he's been staying at. The Yellow Submarine. It was here that Christa and I realized that maybe at our core, we were not true backpackers. We opted for a double room rather than a dorm, and have managed to get through the last two wildly humid nights with the help of none other than some trusty Benedryls. It wouldn't have been so hard to sleep with just the fan except there was always a bit of a raging party happening just outside our window. We checked out this morning and will spend the night at my college friend, Laura Davidoff's, apartment before heading south to Byron Bay tomorrow. We would have seen Laura earlier, but she'd been out of town. Yesterday we got to see Winslow play in his frist pre-season game (0-0) and I headed over to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary solo earlier in the day to cuddle with koalas and check out the kangaroos and emus.

Our plan was to head to Byron today, but it seems that the entire town is booked for Australia Day. January 26, 1788 is the day that the first ship of prisoners came to Australia...and this is what they celebrate. When we arrive there, we plan to meet up with a friend of a friend of a friend. No joke. This is the kind of networking that happens when you're backpacking.

Hopefully I will have some time to write to you from Byron Bay before I head to New Zealand on Saturday. The best part of my time here in Australia has been that Christa and I have not had much of a plan at all, and it's turning out to be a really great trip all in all. Though if I were to write a Gilbert-esque account of my trip, instead of Eat Pray Love, it'd probably be something more along the lines of Thinking and Drinking to distinguish the two separate parts of my journey. Australia is definitely less challenging than some of the other spots I've visited, but still a valuable leg of my journey back home.