Off to See the Wizard - Oz
As usual, a bit late on this, but better late that never. So, 3 weeks in glorious
Australia, before the fires and the floods. How weird is it that one end of the country was engulfed in flames while the other was under water. Weird!
Anyway, the 3 weeks were great. I’ve put together video of the first 2 weeks (the Gold Coast and Melbourne) but have yet to muster up the energy to tackle Sydney.
So, where to start. I guess at the beginning. The Gold Coast, it was awesome. Moody’s parents had just moved into their house, the weekend before I got there and let me tell you. It was fricken awesome. Moody picked me up from the Gold Coast airport at 7am and we went to their place. It was awesome. The Moody’s live right on a canal that links up with the ocean and a bunch of other channels and bays. So, we pretty much immediately were straight out on the boat. His parents were awesome. Moody was worried that I would be too much for them or that they would be too conservative for me, but he was totally full of shit. He was busting stuff out that I would never ever say with parental units around. Anyway, they took me out in the boat immediately and we did a little tour of the area. I obviously declined sunscreen cuz I’m stupid like that and became very very very burnt very very quickly. It took the next 2 weeks for my body to recover and my skin to stop peeling off. Bec (Moody’s girlfriend) was also there for the first few days, so it wasn’t a full on Moody jamboree right away.
The whole Gold Coast experience was pretty chilled out. We went out on the jet ski on the 2nd day.
Moody is a mad man, so that was a bit nutty. My hands were killing me by the end after trying to hold on to him while we went out through “The Spit.” The Spit is an opening to the ocean but it’s lined on either side with rocks so it makes for crazy huge waves, my ass was a bit sore by the end as well.
We did a bit of driving around as well, went to a few beaches around the area that were absolutely amazing.
It was like, Canada goes tropical or something. Everyone was nice and the whole country totally had the western feel to it, but there were amazing beaches everywhere. Christmas was spent with a few of Moody’s parent’s friends and was really chilled out as well. BBQ!! Bec had left by Christmas day and I was then totally immersed in Moody-paloosa. It felt weird to live with a family again. Especially the Moody’s who were everything I expected them to be, after knowing Moody for so long. Everyone up at 8am out doing stuff, no sleeping in or anything. Very healthy eating. So, clearly you can see why it was weird for me.
We went to a beach side bar at one point and what do we see just hoping around…BAM, a Wallaby! Crazy eh.
Boxing day, we drove north up the coast to Noosa with um, I can’t remember her name but she was SOOO ANNOYING and perhaps the stupidest human being I have ever met in my entire LIFE!! Wow did she suck. Moody, her and myself driving for 2 hours, OMG, both of us died a little on the inside after having to listen to her for that long.
So, pretty much after that, we went out once in the Gold Coast and then we headed off to Melbourne.
Here are the Gold Coast pictures.
And here is the Gold Coast video. Clearly I shot the whole thing with a Wizard of Oz theme.
Melbourne was definitely my favourite city of the trip. The whole city had a sweet bohemian feel to it and there was graffiti everywhere! But not like, little ugly things on walls, BIG HUGE art instalments. It was awesome. So, we did a bunch of stuff in Melbourne, I’m just going to run through them quick and you can check out the link to the album and I’ll upload the video to youtube tonight hopefully.
Things we did. First day, cricket, the most boring sport on the face of the earth. We also drove out to the 12 Apostles. They’re some huge rock sticking out of the ocean. Here’s a pic.
Katie and I had been told by our local friends (to the left above) that this drive would only be 2 and a half hours….um, 4 and a half hours later. Here we are.
Here are a few other cool pics from Melbourne, we did a lot of wandering there as well as New Year’s Eve, which I only took about 3 pictures of, but I got alot of video.
So there are a few pics. I’ll throw up the Melbourne vid later on tonight and here is a link to ALL of the Melbourne pics. That way I don’t have to write anything else. Please note the sweet cowboy hat that I bought though.
And here’s a link to the Melbourne Graffiti. Please note the “Drew Funk” picture.
Melbourne Videos
Part 1
Part 2
As for Sydney, we went everywhere. We stayed in Bondi (said Bondai) which is one of the most popular beaches in Australia. The sand was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. We walked a 5 km trail from Bondi through 4 other beaches, we hit the zoo, the opera house, king’s cross, darlinghurst, darling harbour, glebe, newtown, etc etc etc. We did everything and went everywhere. Katie and I, after Bryn went back to Melbourne walked from one side of the city to the other. Then got really really drunk. You’ll see on the video.
Here’s the Sydney Album. And two pics from Sydney just cuz.
Gotta love the jump shots! Check out the initials for this beer store:
Not only are my initials Bull Shit, they are also Beer Wine Spirits, good work parental units! Just kidding.
Sydney Vids:
Part 1:
Part 2:
I’ll edit in the videos after I’ve uploaded them. Since I’ve been back, all I’ve been doing is snowboarding, but I haven’t uploaded any pictures or made any videos of it yet cuz i’m just gonna wait till the end of the season. I did however go to Mt. Shinobu in the middle of Fukushima this past weekend cuz the weather for boarding was so bad. And it was beautiful outside, like 10 degrees in the middle of February. Here’s the link to the album and check out this wicked Kung Fu pic. Mo and I took a bunch of noobies that hadn’t been there before. I’ll add the videos in as soon as their up…and if they’re all there, then just disregard this sentence. KUNG FU PICS!
And here’s the obligatory couple shot from the top of the mountain that I can’t help but screw up everytime. It’s just funnier that way.
k, I hope that was enough of an update, seeing as it has been a few months. I have another vid in the works and I’ll have snowboard pictures up as soon as they actually go on the internet. That’s pretty much what I do EVERY weekend, so, until the snow goes, not much the report. Hope everyone is good.
B
Added bonus: Bonenkai Video. This is the end of the year party where everyone goes a bit nuts.
