Tag: Australia

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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:

Continue reading “Dumb ‘Roos”

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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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Calling Home

Mt Kosciuszko, NSW, AU

Today we cover two interesting and mostly unrelated facts.

1) Though literally miles from anywhere even slightly resembling civilization, Mt Kosciuszko is probably the only member of the 7 summits that has mobile phone reception.

Yep, up there.  Best coverage in the area.

2) Greg’s self confidence most likely comes from his mother’s side of the family.

The last mountain we were on top of in the southern hemisphere had less cell phone coverage but more snarky commentary.

About the authors

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 atwww.CoastGuardCouple.com!

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The 7th Summit

Mt Kosciuszko, NSW, AU

(1/7 unlocked) Life Achievement:
Climb the 7 Summits.

Sure it’s not like it was freaking Everest or anything and yeah, it’s the smallest and kinda a part time member of the list but just for the record,

  1. People have died climbing this thing…
  2. It is without contention the highest point on one of Earth’s continents…
  3. We did make the ascent in full force hurricane winds… Continue reading “The 7th Summit”

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We feel like Pilgrims

Karumba, QLD, AU

For our Thanksgiving festivities in Australia Tiffany made pumpkin pie.

Which, is kinda not a big deal right?

…until you realize that Australians are not familiar with the concept of putting pumpkins in a pie one would eat for dessert.  That means no canned pumpkin to fill the pie.

Oh, and while we’re on the topic: They also don’t know what graham crackers are either so, consequently, no premade graham cracker crusts.

(how do you people LIVE!?!)

What this means is that in order to get to this:

a hallmark of American cuisine

 

Tiffany had to start with these:

an Australian pumpkin

And just kinda figure out the rest.

Continue reading “We feel like Pilgrims”

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Self-propelled ski lift

Jindabyne, NSW, AU

Having developed a bit of confidence learning the fine art of falling down hills with spikes attached to our feet and discovering how much we actually kinda liked trudging over frozen tundra…

who knew, right?

…we decided it would make a lot more sense just to drag our snowbaords to the top of a mountain and slide down that way.

Continue reading “Self-propelled ski lift”

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Snow bush walking

Jindabyne, NSW, AU

With a total of 4 ski lifts to entertain us for 3 months it’s probably little wonder how that got old.

Luckily, our ski resort was smack dab in the middle of a national freaking park and our friend Chris volunteered to show us how to successfully get lost bush walking without killing ourselves.

Why is it still called bush walking when all the bushes are buried in the snow?

Continue reading “Snow bush walking”

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