Month: December 2012

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Choices

Karumba, QLD, AUS

New Years is the closest thing we have to a completely worldwide recognized holiday.

Though some Asian cultures don’t celebrate the changing of the Gregorian calendar (no relation to Greg, but don’t tell him that ;-), the tradition of a time set aside for the passing of the year still exists…even if that year happens to be lunar…and that time happens somewhere in the spring. As humans, we all seem to agree that it’s important we take the time to look back on our past and forward to our future at least once each 12 months or so.

Our Australian New Year found us (probably unsurprisingly) a few hundred miles from, well, basically anywhere.

Continue reading “Choices”

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KGB ukulele Christmas 2012

It’s time again for another foray into our tiki-style Christmas carol extravaganza!

This time with a little help / good natured tomfoolery from our friends Rod & Elizabeth, who we just happened to stumble across during a visit back to California…

(hey, what!?  We all happened to both be back in CA at the same time?  As we already told you all, in the sailing world it was just a matter of time and proximity.)

They were even nice enough to teach us that cold war Christmas classic…

Continue reading “KGB ukulele Christmas 2012”

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Start ya Bastard

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

There are rules and responsibilities that exist in every band of travelers.  These range widely, even sometimes directly conflict, from group to group and can be as simple as “we switch off cooking dinner / doing the dishes every night” to “we only go out as a group so we can watch each other’s back” or even the hotly contested “we pay a little extra for creature comforts like AC” vs. “We live as cheaply as possible.”

Let’s go ahead and just table the “How is air conditioning OPTIONAL in the tropics?!” conversation until later.

Additionally many of these rules are unspoken, which can lead to confusion and occasionally unintentionally hurt feelings when one person violates another’s “unwritten rules.”

Unfortunately we ran afoul of such a situation with one of our traveling companions.  A member of our group was, well, not in 100% agreement on what their responsibilities were to the rest of us and without any form of notice, started just slacking off from time to time and not pulling their weight…

(…or our weight either for that matter…)

There have been some…disagreements…of late.

Continue reading “Start ya Bastard”

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Australia National Pride

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

It’s pretty much common knowledge that Australia freaking kills people right?

Tons of venomous creatures, the barren deserts, dingos that do in fact eat babies, great white sharks, etc, ad nauseum.

That’s part of the international community’s common knowledge right?

Well, we knew about it before we got here at least. And, you’d think, the Aussies would kinda downplay it right? Bad for tourism and whatnot.

The most common car hanger here fits under the theme “stuff that will kill you” and yes, Kangaroos count

Nope, quite the opposite in fact.

Continue reading “Australia National Pride”

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Australia lied to us

The Great Ocean Road, VIC, AU

Australia has a lot of coastline.  It ranges from swampy marshes, to beautiful beaches, to craggy cliffs and everything in between.  Victoria, in the southeastern part of the country, has miles of land that meets water.  One of the most celebrated of those regions is the Great Ocean Road.  We first heard about it in a travel magazine a few years ago, and Tiffany thought it looked gorgeous so we decided to check it out (via wine country of course!  We’ll post more about that soon.)

Little did we know that this was…a thing…that one does.  Drive the Great Ocean Road that is.  It’s a thing…that Australians ask…if you’ve done.  So consequently….

Life Achievement Unlocked:
Drive The Great Ocean Road.

(Hey, who are we to say it’s not epic?)

Continue reading “Australia lied to us”

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Dumb ‘Roos

Snowy Mountains, NSW, AU

In Australia, they don’t call it a “bull bar.”  They call it a “roo bar”

And it seems like every vehicle over here has one.

And we wonder where they got the idea for Mad Max…

The first thing we did on our great Australian overland excursion was to (inadvertently!!) find out why this is so:

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The Great Australian Road Trip Continues, guest starring Chris

Enroute Cairns, QLD, AU

So ends our snowbound Australian adventure

[fgallery id=16 w=450 h=385 t=0 title=”The Great Australian Road Trip Continues guest starring Chris”]

Now we’re off to the Tropical North and joining us for our Road Trip is Tiffany’s brother Chris.

Chris came out to work with us in Australia when we got him a job at Charlotte’s Pass Ski Resort.  He had a month left before he needed to head back to the US.

So after reclaiming The Beast from hibernation we asked…

Us:  “So, chris, now that we’re done snowboarding in New South Wales where ya wanna go?”

Continue reading “The Great Australian Road Trip Continues, guest starring Chris”

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Into the White

Kosciuszko National Park, NSW, AU

One can only get pulled up the side of a mountain by a boat anchor tied to a bungee chord so many times before they start considering the alternatives to the dilemma of Australian Alpine ascent.

Continue reading “Into the White”

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