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It's freaking freezing here. And it gets dark suuuper early. What the heck. It's December, it's supposed to be sunny and warm!

Arrived in Seattle yesterday afternoon after a surprisingly easy flight from Sydney via San Francisco (exit rows on both flights, I even sweet-talked my way into one on the way from SFO free of the usual $40 charge). After only a short delay I collected my big suitcase from Morgan (big props for carrying that home for me) and headed home to a house I had not seen in five months. After so long away from home, it feels extremely odd to be back. Almost everything is entirely familiar, yet it seems weirdly out of context - I am constantly finding myself asking, "Wait, what am I doing here? I'm not supposed to be here...what's my next destination?" Ah, but it's the holidays, and nothing beats being home for the holidays. I had a lovely time today wrapping all the gifts I brought back from my travels, decorating the Christmas tree, and going downtown for a night out on the town - all those little things you don't really think too much about but which are wonderful, warm reminders that you have a loving home and awesome parents that supported you through a truly amazing trip.

My last few days in Sydney were incredible. I don't have too much time to talk about them just now, but there were some great highlights - the amazing botanic gardens, the opera house (possibly the most iconic building in the world?), Taronga Zoo (incredible exhibits, amazing animals), and, on my last night there, climbing the Harbour Bridge, which was a truly phenomenal experience and provided some of the best views I've ever seen.

Over the next few days I will do my best to try and post some highlight pictures of my trip since Brisbane, but no promises on the timetable. For now, it's good to be back home, thanks for all those who managed to stick through reading this thing with what I'm sure was some really convoluted and grammatically horrible writing over the past few months, and I really had the most spectacular trip ever. Merry Christmas, and it's sure good to be back in the world's greatest city!

A Journey Into Middle Earth...Then a Visit to Seattle

That's right, have a sword. Be jealous.

And not just any sword - actually, a sword wielded by Aragorn (aka Viggo Mortensen)in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Our Lord of the Rings tour on Sunday was fantastic on so many different levels. Amazing scenery, good group of people (all young people, and no extreme know-it-all nerds), and a very knowledgable guide (the guy had worked on the movies as the lead on-location sound guy, had won two Oscars and been nominated four times, and he doesn't even mention this until he was driving us back). If the location looks familiar at all, it was the site of Edoras, the capital of Rohan that first shows up in the second movie. Absolutely stunning spot, and I'm sure I'll never be able to watch the movies again without getting super excited whenever Edoras comes onto the screen.

The tour was an awesome way to end our time in New Zealand, but we are on to one last final adventure in Sydney. The flight fortunately went quite smoothly and we re-entered Australia with no problems at all.

I'm able to post and load pictures because I finally have reliable, free, non-time restricted internet couresy of an awesome arrangement we have courtesy of Morgan. We are staying two nights (this is the second) with family friends of hers that have a house in Wollongong, a lovely city about an hour and a half south of Sydney. They were kind enough to pick us up at the airport and treat us to some lovely sightseeing on the way down to Wollongong yesterday. Today we spent happily warm and relaxed on the beach that's only bout a 15 minute walk from their house:


That's right. Check out where I was today. Now look out your window. Mom, dad, I might just decide I'm going to accidentally miss the flight home.

The couple we're staying with - Shady and Scott - also have a lovely 13-month-old aptly named Seattle whose antics we've been thoroughly enjoying (apart from his almost-incessant crying on the ride from the airport; the kid does not like being confined). So yes, after a sense, I have been able to visit Seattle a week early.

This may be my last blog post from Australia itself, I will be back in Seattle, no puns attached, in less than a week. Here's to making the most of the next few days!

Queenstown

Hello from Queenstown!

We arrived here a couple days ago after a bus trip through some of the most gorgeous mountain scenery you will see anywhere on the planet. Rugged peaks, astonishingly blue lakes, amazing mountain wildflowers, it’s really stunning.

Queenstown is awesome, it’s situated on the edge of a mountain lake with mountains all around. It’s a major tourist town but also full of young people; there’s a couple big hostels here and there is a very active nightlife. Morgan and I got a really good room, with a guy from Montana and another from Scotland, and we all went out last night.

This is also the adventure sports capital of New Zealand, and we’ve been getting a good full dose of that as well. Wednesday we had a combo tour that was a mix of jetboating through river canyons (amazing, and exhilarating), a helicopter flight (awesome), luge rides (which they have a track for and sounds kind of stupid but is amazing fun, it’s basically Mario Kart), and a ride down the mountain gondola. Yesterday it was the Shotover Canyon Swing, which was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done but also a ton of fun – it’s a 70m freefall that’s followed by getting swung across a canyon. You have to jump off a platform, which is terrifying enough in itself without the guys who strap you in doing everything in their power to freak you out, bump you, etc. In keeping with a scene, the natural setting is amazingly beautiful.

Tomorrow we head back to Christchurch and have a Lord of the Rings Tour (we’ve been re-watching the movies as preparation) before heading to Sydney and the last leg of the trip before heading home. Back in Seattle in under two weeks!

New Zealand!

Hey everybody -

Been a while since I posted anything. Had a great time driving from Adelaide to Melbourne - saw the Grampians (an awesome "mountain" range in rural Victoria), the Great Ocean Road, and had a great time in Melbourne. My friend Matt was an excellent tour guide and I also greatly enjoyed seeing a Costco, which was a little taste of home.

Got into New Zealand two days ago and it's been awesome so far (once Morgan got past the check-in at Melbourne Airport, which almost didn't happen). Friendly people, nice weather, cool attractions (the International Antarctic Centre is a must-see if you're ever in Christchurch), and mountains - like, real mountains - which I haven't seen in ages.

Tomorrow we're off on something called Naked Bus, which I'm only about 90% sure isn't a nudist thing, for Queenstown where we have jetboating, helicoptering, canyon swinging, and kayaking all on the docket - should be an awesome few days. After that, we're back in Christchurch for a day and take a Lord of the Rings Tour before heading back to Australia and Sydney. Only about two weeks before I head home...feels weird.

And finally, I am very happy the Huskies are in a bowl game but really, why on earth do we have to face Nebraska again?

Real Quick Update

Hey everybody. I only have a brief time on the internet but thought I would keep you all posted - sorry again for the lack of photos.

Last day in Cairns was spectacular - I really enjoyed seeing a real rainforest and both the sky gondola to and train back from the little village of Kuranda were amazing. Kuranda itself was pretty cool as well - little shops, walking paths, a butterfly sanctuary.

THis morning Morgan and I got up very early (4 AM) for our 6:30 flight to Adelaide. Got in about 10:30, picked up our rental car, met her friend Aran (who I had met in Brisbane), dropped stuff off at our hostel, and promptly headed over to Adelaide Zoo, which was phenomenal - the only giant pandas in Australia, plus TWO species of tapir (when I had been tapir-less for more than four months), and a lot of other great anmal life on the side. Adelaide is a very nice, quaint little city that has a very rural, friendly feel to it.

Off tomorrow to Melbourne, hoping to arrive on December 1st. Stops along the way include the Grampians National Park and the Great Ocean Road. Look em up - they promise to be spectacular.

And in other news - Huskies 16, Bears 13. GO DAWGS!!!!

I'm On a Boat!

…or at least I was for the past few days. Morgan and I got into Cairns late two days ago, then had to be up early the next morning for our two-day tour onto the Great Barrier Reef which we just returned from. Unfortunately no pictures available yet, but I can tell you that it was incredibly incredible and absolutely worth the money. We got to snorkel at multiple reef sites, saw more incredible fish than I can describe (plus sharks and sea turtles, and giant clams that I could probably have fit inside), got treated like celebrities, got to sleep on a boat (soooo relaxing), and maybe best of all got to take two scuba dive lessons that were pricey but very, very cool – I can easily see how people get hooked on diving. And perhaps best of all, last night we got to watch Finding Nemo – on the Great Barrier Reef!


Now we’re back in Cairns and are going on a trip to the skyrail and Kuranda scenic railway – seeing the rainforest – before heading off to Adelaide. Very much looking forward to that. It is hot and humid here but also pouring down rain, which hopefully will let up a bit. Fruit bats everywhere.

That’s all for now. Take care back home.

Saying Goodbye to Brisbane

Had a fun day yesterday, Morgan and I went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary with a few of her friends. This was just a small wildlife park, but there were some very cool animals there. I especially liked the dingo puppies, wombats, black cockatoos, and the sheep herding/shearing show, but the highlight was definitely the platypus. When you get to be as big of a zoo/animal nerd as I am, there aren't a whole lot of animals you haven't seen in person, but I had never seen a platypus before and it was awesome. Everyone knows platypi are weird, but you don't really appreciate just how bizarre they are until you see them in person. We probably spent a good half hour just sitting on the couch in the platypus room watching it swim back and forth.


Puppy!!!


Platypus - it was really hard to get a good shot, this was my best effort.

After the wildlife park, we went and saw the University of Queensland campus where Morgan had been studying. They had a very nice pizza place where we all got pizza because we were hungry, then went to their Great Court and relaxed for a while. The campus was very nice, although not quite as big as UWA and with more of a compact, crowded feel.


Great Court

They had possums on their campus!

Coming home last night, Morgan and I got to do some final trip planning as well as have a nice long Skype chat with our friends Randi and Aimee back home. Heard all about the snow in Seattle - sorry bout that folks, it's sunny and warm here. Plus, we leave for Cairns in a few hours, which will will be even better weather (at least in theory, there is potential for serious rain). Just doing some final packing and straightening up, then it'll be off to the airport in a little bit. Wish us luck. I will try to post as often as I can the rest of the trip but can't make any promises as to the reliability of my internet access.

Sunset over Brisbane