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.
It is literally a point of national pride to these people that at any given moment you are no more than 10 feet from poisoning, mauling, getting shot or, if all else fails, death from exposure / dehydration.
We found out how much of a cornerstone this was to the Australian psyche when we visited the family of our snow bush walking friend, Chris. Now, in the United States when someone visits from another country (3 someones even) and you give them beds to sleep in, exceptional food, great wines, take them around town in your car to show them the sights and even go rent some movies to have an “in house cultural training experience” (and help them fix their car, but we’ll get to that) then well, you’d probably be considered an excellent host and ambassador for your country.
Not so in Australia. Despite doing all this and more, it was made very clear to us that down here there is one more critical piece that must be completed in order for the hosts to be considered true masters of “hospitality down under”:
But then if we were from a country in which even the zombies need a police escort…
…then perhaps a bit of national pride would in fact be in order…
Whereas, the only thing that will kill you in New Zealand is a moderate hike….
Oh, or the lava.
Greg and Tiffany are traveling around the world on sailing yachts and keep a video blog of their (mis)adventures. If sailing to Tahiti on a 44 ft sailboat, 3-day delays for wine tastings, getting pooped on by seagulls, opening coconuts with dull machetes, sailing past tornadoes and ukulele Christmas carols are for you, then check them out at www.CoastGuardCouple.com!
Special shout out to Chris, Wendy and the rest of the Morecroft clan who were kind enough to educate us poor savages in the finest traditions of Australian hospitality!
Aw thanks Greg Norte. You were fine house guests and so interesting.