About to Road Trip

Here's a shot from my friend place in Wombarra ( between Wollongong and Sydney), he lives right overlooking a beautiful beach.  Below is a shot of my friend Davo and George checking out the swell at Flat Rock in Ulladala (more pics below of Flat Rock).

So I am about to adventure on a road trip up the east coast of Australia from Sydney to Cairns; I have 3 and a half weeks to make it back, I leave for Bali on August 30th from Sydney.  Benny and Brogan asked me to go for 10 days and it was an opportunity of a lifetime to get up there.  Bali and the rest of Indonesian have the best waves in the world, as well as warmest weather and cheap accommodation.  All the aussies go there for there holidays, I am glad I am getting to go with some good guys; we have 2 more of there friends coming, I just met them yesterday for a surf and they seem like great people.

I haven't posted anything in a week and a half, It has been my 3rd week into mid 4th week in Australia since my last post.  I have been staying in Wollongong and really enjoying my time.  My friend John I have been staying with has had many others at his place, including his brother Davo, his roomate Hutton, and Hutton's friend Bosco who are all on break from uni.  2 other guys, George and Tim staying with us for a few days as well.  So basically John's place was like a hostil, I enjoyed meeting everyone.

  

I got a bunch of waves in with John and his brother Davo, we took some trips up and down the coast getting great reef waves.  Unfortunately I had some car troubles along the way, I had taken my car to the mechanic and had them take care of all the necessary items.  After I paid that big fee the clutch went on the car, so I decided not to put any more money into it.  I really wanted to go on this roadtrip so I decided I would either take a bus or find a rideshare.  John's father ended up basically giving me his car, I just paid him for the rego (registration/insurance) which was only $400.  It was really nice of him.  Here in Australia when you register your car you pay for insurance for the year; which usually costs around $500-$800.  They also inspect the car for safety features, seatbelts, lights and other items.  Here in Australia they are so safe on driving, if you don't wear your seatbelt you lose your license, and if somone in your car isn't wearing there seatbelt the driver still loses his license, epic!  I think it's a great law for sure.  Also they have speed cameras all up and down the major highways, I will talk more about the driving laws soon.  

I ended up taking a trip with Davo down the coast to his dad's house in Tuross Head to pick up the car and drop Davo off there; I also dropped George off at his fathers in Ulladala.  On the way George took us to a reef break in his home town, I was pretty scared to surf it as it was breaking right into the reef; the waves were small and fast.

Well I have to keep this blog short as I am road tripin in an hour, I am excited to finally hit the road to the warm tropical beaches!  I have been so busy so haven't had much time to put into this blog but it's something.

Week 2

So, the rest of my stay at Manly was great.  Brogan came back so I slept in the living room on the spare mattress.  Everyone seems to have a little mattress that's great for sleeping one; a bit more comfortable than a couch.  Brogan and I actually played a little lacrosse when I was here last time so that was cool to see him again, I didn't know he was living with Benny till I got here.  He also skates so we went skating around the beach one night.  Brogan works for a storm water engineering company, he said summer attire consists of board shorts and thongs (flip flops); I thought my company was lax with shorts Fridays.  One night we got together and made organic surf wax, which was pretty easy to make, just mix bees wax and coconut oil in the right proportion; it came out pretty good.  

I also made a chicken parmesan dinner with pasta/garlic bread for the house mates before I left to thank them for my stay; they seemed to enjoy it.  It's hard to find a good Chicken Parm over here, and the ones they make aren't like the ones in the states.

I opened a bank account one day during the week and they have 7% interest on savings; meanwhile my bank of america account gets less than 1%; probably a good idea to shift all

 your funds to an oversees bank.

I left in my car for Wollongong on Thursday afternoon and made it in about 2 hours.  I am staying at my Australian friend John's apartment who lives about 3 blocks from the beach near the downtown area of Wollongong.  I met John at my dorms 6 years ago and he was glad to have me.  He lives in a 2 bedroom apartment.  His apartment is pretty simple, with few material things, just a tv, couches, and a super nintendo.  His kitchen consists of the classic milo (camparible to our nes quick chocolate mix), bread, and devon.  He asked me if I liked devon and I had no idea what it was.  It is a processed meat mainly ham, but basically the meat from every part of pigs and other animals that they can't sell as regular meet.  It costs about 1/3 the price of other meats.  He says he lives on the stuff, especially when him and his mates go on roadtrips.  He's been trying to get me on it but I am going to pass unless I go broke.   John is a big body boarder but has been giving the stick a try lately.  It's great to hang out with him, we have many similarities as we both like punk music, waves, travels, and have similiar personalities.  John works at a psychology job so he has to work during the week, he was keen to go for surfs before though and to go out after work.  I felt bad for him since he has to work and on Monday his brother is getting into town, as well as his roomate and another friend, and they are all staying at his place and are on break from uni (university). 

On Thursday, before anyone else arrived at the apartment I drove north up the coast for a surf.  Last time I was here I didn't have a car so I wasn't able to explore as much I wanted.  It was neat to see all the suburban towns around where my dorms were, they were in Fairy Meadow just north of Wollongong.  I checkout out a few surf spots and finally I surfed at Bulli point, a nice point break.  It was solid reef, so it is a bit scary to see all the rock beneath you since the water is so clear.  You also have to jump off a big rock to get into the break.  Since it was crowded I just picked off some waves on the inside.  After the surf I drove up north to Royal National Park.

 It was a beautiful drive along cliffs and through dense eucalyptus forests.  There were several hiking trails as well, I walked along a beach called Garie Beach, which had massive cliffs along it.  

John had told me that the last Toss the Boss event was going to be Friday and I was excited to be there for it.  Toss the Boss is a happy hour event that a bar near our dorms had every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday between 5 and 6 pm where you would order your drinks and they would roll dice and you had 1/3 chance of getting free drinks, 1/3 chance for half price, and 1/3 chance of paying full price.  It was basically gambling for your drinks.  It was a great place to meet people and have a good time before dinner.  I went with John, my friend Steveo that still lives in the area as well, and John's friend Sadler.  Since the Australian government is trying to change Australia's stereotype as heavy drinkers they are enforcing new laws with drinking.  So this was the last night for gambling for drinks here at the North Gong Pub.  They also increased prices on mixed drinks at liqueur stores by over double.  John reckons more people will drink beer and goon (wine).    We had a fun night on Friday although I ended up paying full price a few times.  I was surprised how much they changed the bar, they used to have open grass lawns to hang out on; now they placed bricks down and added picnic tables everywhere outside.  They also added a night club upstairs and turned the restaurant next door into a side bar.  I guess things have to change over time.

Saturday morning we got up early for a surf.  We went to Bellambi point and paddled to a place called Virgins, it was a long paddle, almost a mile.  It must have been easy for John and Saddler (John's buddy) since they were body boarding and had fins.  We surfed a few waves but the winds shifted to onshore and conditions got worse.  I got one wave and the next wave thumped me deep under the water, the break was a fast steep wave that gets hollow, usually it is surfed by body boarders for this reason.  We paddled in and got some lunch.  We stopped for meat pies, which is a very popular food item in Australia.  They make pies with steak, chicken, veggies, potatoes, or cheese and add gravy to them.  Also sausage sticks are popular as well, basically a pie in a long, wide stick shape.  I got a cheese and potato pie and sausage stick, both pretty good.

John was taking me down to where he grew up this weekend so we headed down after lunch to his Dad's place in Tuross Head, about a 3-4 hour drive south of Wollongong.  We ended up stopping about 30 minutes south of Wollongong at Bomboo beach for a surf; as we saw great peaks and long rides at this beach as we drove by.  We had checked a few other points south but ended up coming back to this beach near Kiama (Bomboo Beach).
 

It was a beach break so a little safer compared to all the reef breaks we had been surfing.  The winds were offshore and the waves were hollow, John brought his stick out this time, and we both got some tubes.  No one was on our peak, so we had a lot of fun.  We surfed here for probably 2 hours.  

Then we got back on the road and headed to John's hometown.  The town of Tuross Head only had 2,000 people in it; it borders the ocean and it has a lake on each side and seemed like a great place to live.  I enjoyed seeing another part of the Aussie life, outside the major cities.  His Dad's place was simple, he almost had less than John's apartment.  It really shows you that you don't need many material things to make you happy.  His dad is a big surfer and showed me his bamboo board, it was made in the Philippines.  He works at the big telephone company of Australia: Telstra.  Other than that he surfs and is building a camper for the back of his truck.  He made us a great dinner which consisted of beans, rice, and tomatoes on a crispy flour shell.  It was nice to have a home cooked meal.  That night we watched a surf video called hammerheads, which was a video of surfing a big wave surf spot just north of Tuross Head; and you can guess where the name came from.  The next day (Sunday), John, his father and I checked a bunch of surf spots before we went out at this one spot.  I saw two kangaroos on the open land as we were driving, the first roos I have seen since I have been back.  We checked a few surf spots out and found a pretty decent right.  Just before we went out one of the locals caught a 4 foot+ shark; his dad was telling us this is one of the more sharky areas, jeeze!  But he did say that there hasn't been any shark attacks in a long time in the area.  As long as you don't think about the sharks you are fine, it's when you keep seeing shadows is when you start to freak.  I know shark attacks are rare so usually I can keep it out my head.  After the cold surf (yeah it was a fair bit colder down there than in Wollongong) we had lunch at a fish and chips place right on a lake in Tuross Head.  
The pelicans were huge on the lake, probably at least twice as big as San Diego pelicans.  

John and I headed back up to Wollongong that afternoon.  It was great just hanging with John in his car on his way back to the Gong and talking about Aussie culture and living.  Australians work a 37.5 hour work week with 4 weeks paid leave a year and all major holiday days off.  Australians love to travel, so it is not unusual for them to take 3 months off or even a year off from there jobs.  His company gives yearly leave.  He hasn't worked more than 6 months at a company.  My friend Benny just got back from a month or two month holiday in France and is already talking about taking his next vacation probably in a month.  I guess it was kinda of what I did except I worked for 4 years and then took an extended holiday.  But most Americans don't take extended leaves, it could be because we buy more things than we need.  I learned a good lesson that material things really aren't that important, you only live once.  I think it is real important to take breaks from work, or else you go crazy.  Also, it is a lot easier to travel when your younger, without kids and a marriage, so I am glad I made it.  On our way back we saw two dead kangaroos on the highway, one we ran over after it had already been hit.   Unfortunately the kangaroos are like deer, always running in roads and getting hit.  We got a good nights sleep that night back in the Gong on Sunday night, getting me ready for the next week.  John's brother gets in Tuesday, and John's roomate and another friend get in Tuesday as well.  

First Days in Australia

Well I made it to Australia safe and sound on Tuesday June 11th of 2008.  And it is just so great here, I have done so much in the past few days.  Today is Saturday and I have a little free time to get blogging.  Actually, now it is Tuesday; I had some difficulty posting pics.

I have so much to say, I don't know where to start.  I am staying my first week with my friend Benny, he lives in a 4 bedroom house in Manly Beach, about 6 homes/apartments away from the beach.  Manly Beach is on the northern portion of Sydney, which is in the state of New South Wales (NSW).  Benny shares his room with his girlfriend Sol.  Sol is from Argentina and Ben is from Australia.  Here's a pic of Benny and I. He has been awesome, he has his last 2 tests for his masters and work the week I have been here, but he still gets on the piss (drinks) with me. The other roomates are Diogo from Brazil, Tess from Holland, and Brogan from Australia.  Brogan is away so they are letting me crash in his bedroom till Sunday.  All the roomates are great, everyone has something to contribute.  Sol has been so nice showing me around all week while Benny worked.  

So, after I arrived in Sydney Airport on Wednesday via Quantas, I took the train to Circular Quay to take a ferry out of the Wharf to Manly Beach.  You can also drive, but the ferry is more direct and you get great views of Sydney Harbor and the Harbor Bridge.  It cost about $20 for the train/ferry ticket.  When I arrived in Manly my friends house is about a 15 minute walk, I tried doing it but my surfboards made my shoulders hurt bad after a while so I hopped in a cab.  I brought 2 surfboards and skimboard in a surf bag, a big bag on wheels for my clothes, and a backpack.  It was about 60-65 F when I got to Manly on Tuesday at about 11am.  The surf was pretty good, about 2-3 foot and clean.  I didn't have time to get in the water on Tuesday.  After I dropped my things off I went for a skate to the beach and along the lagoon
, and found a skatepark just around the block.  It was a concrete park with 2 steel half pipes.  I then went back to the house to meet up with Sol, she showed me around town.  Basically the downtown is a Corso, which consists of a wide walkway with retail shops, restaurants, bars, and banks on both sides.  You can get anything in the Corso.


Then there are shops and restaurants along the beach road as well.  In Manly, there is a walkway along the beach and a separate bikeway along the beach.  The bikeway wraps around the south end into a cove where there is great snorkling, the beach is called Shelly Beach.  Just around Shelly Beach there is a great reef point that is a great surf spot, Fairy Bower.   Then if you continue south along the reef point you will hit the North portion of the Sydney Harbor, called North Head.

I was amazed at the prices of things here.  Last time I was here, which was 6 years ago the U.S. dollar was a lot stronger, back then $1 (U.S.) got you $1.50(Australian); now they are basically equal, the US dollar is a little stronger.  So with that dollar getting weaker and inflation rising here things are extremely more expensive than the states, I would say between 100-300% more.  Some things are more expensive than others, like beverages.  A drink at a bar is between $10-$20, a 2-liter bottle of coca cola is about $3-$4, a small bottle of water is $3, hostils are over $30/night, a six pack of beer is about $15, a case of 24 bottles of beer is between $40-$50.  The Sydney area is probably the most expensive in all of Australia though.  So my money is gonna go quick.  I saved and brought a little over $10,000 for my trip (most of the money came from selling my truck) but I still pay some bills for things in the U.S.  They pay a lot better here as well, I would say close to 100% more.  For example, waitresses, waiters, dishwashers make about $16-$18/hr and retail store workers make about $20/hr.  This is just from conversations with 2 or 3 people around town and in the house I'm staying in.  I don't really like asking people how much they make.

Well on my second day, Thursday I went for a surf in the morning just in front of the house.  The beaches are just amazing.  
The sand is orange, the water is so clear you can see fish, kelp, rocks, and sand on the bottom surface.  It is very crowded at this beach in the water.  I went exploring in the town and did some searching for a car.  I ended up finding an 88 Toyota Corolla for $1,200.  It seems to go well.  The guy I bought it from was bugging out when I took it for a test drive, I kept driving on the right side of the road.  It's a big change driving on the left, your blinkers on the opposite side and the driving stick shift adds another obstacle.

The third day, Friday I went for a bike ride to the cliffs to the north of Sydney Harbor, North Head.  The views were great, sometimes you can see whales passing.  The harbor is really massive, often whales and sharks come venture in, I believe the harbor is very deep.  I looked on Google Earth and there is a feature you can look at how many shark attacks there have been, not very appealing.  I believe they have put up nets though, and all the shark attacks were in the late 1800's and early 1900's; I didn't see any past 1950.  Along this area is quarentine station, where past immigrants with infectious diseases would be held.  They also used it as an evacuation site in the past.  They had 400 bed barracks, a disinfection plant, and laboratories.  Now it is a tourist attraction, they even run ghost tours now, I have to check that out.  We had a party Friday night as it was one of the roommates birthday (Tess).  We picked up a bunch of food and beers and bbq'd.  I met some cool people.  A lot of people that live in Manly Beach are from Brazil and Argentina.  It is a big backpacker town.  It is easy to get a job in retail or the restaurant business.  Sydney is also in need of engineers, so I shouldn't have a problem getting a job when my money goes; and if not I wouldn't have a problem getting a job at a surf shop or something.  Most foreigners living in Manly work 2-4 jobs.  My roomate Diego works 5 jobs, one is making candles.  I have been helping him out a bit, it's really interesting.  I never realized how easy it is.  We are going to try and make organic surf wax.

On my fourth day here, Saturday I woke up and the waves were big, 4-5 foot.  The day before was completly flat too.  I took my new car with Benny to Fairy Bower, on the south side of Manly Beach to a reef point break.  The beach breaks along the main beach were packed, this spot only had a few guys on it.  The winds were blowing hard offshore, ideal for great surf; I hadn't surfed a good offshore since I went to Costa Rica 6 months ago.  They were blowing so hard you would be riding a wave and get pushed off the wave.  We got some real fun waves.  I even saw a Penguin, Australia has the species - Little Penguin.  That was so neat.  Saturday night we went to watch a rugby game at the pubs, that game is brutal. 

Sunday we drove up the coast to the north to check out the surf, it was even bigger.  It was a bit too big and too much rip tides.  There are so many beautiful beaches to the north, we checked out Curl Curl and several others.   All the beaches have pools on the edges for people to swim laps and kids to swim.  These pools were just getting worked with the big swell.

We saved up our energy to go the following day in the arvo (afternoon).  So on Monday we went to Fairy Bower again and got some great waves.  It was a bit crowded but Ben and I seemed to get some fun waves.  I also saw heeps (lots) of penquins.  This point break is easy to ride once your on it and has a big face to carve it up and down.  Often when it gets real big the wave curves all the way from the south around the point to north of the point where we surf.  I saw a guy get a 10 foot + wave when one came through, it cleaned nearly everyone I was with out.  It was a thrill, that must have been one his best waves.

Here's a pic of a huntsman spider on the back of a broken surfboard hanging up in the backyard. They bite, but are not poisonous, I used to see them in my dorms when I went to school here.

Well, I have lots more too write but too little time to stay held up at this internet cafe.  Hope everyone is doing great!

Nor Cal Road Trip

Last weekend my great girlfriend Abby and I took a road trip up the coast of California.  It was a chance to spend some quality time together before I depart on my adventure down under.  It was a fantastic trip together.  We rented a Jeep Patriot on Friday, drove up the coast for the weekend and flew back from San Jose on Monday.  I was a bit hesitant on using Fox Rentals but it ended up being fine, $20 a day for a jeep rental was pretty hard to pass up.

On Friday we cruised up to Pismo Beach which took us about 7 hours from San Diego.  This beach is one of the few in California where you can drive on the beach and camp on the sand.  When we arrived at 1230 AM I was surprised to see a crowd of RV's, dune buggy's, atv's, trucks, and every other type of recreation vehicle gearing up to charge the beach.  Everyone was taking out air of there tires, so since there was no one checking in people to the beach we assumed we should do the same and follow the fires and the $100,000 RV's once we got on the beach.  We cruised down the beach and it was a party the whole way down, fires and people drinking all over.  We got a reservation to camp ($17) but apparently you don't need one if you go at night.  There was no campground, just an open beach to through a tent down wherever you find a spot.  A few people got stuck in the sand, but the jeep worked out fine.  I recommend you have a jeep or 4-wheel drive vehicle.

We sent up our tent and passed out to the sound of the surf, which was only a stones throw away.  The next day we woke up to the sound of engines roaring on the quads, it just so happened we setup right next to the atv rental place (because we couldn't see the sign the night before).  We adventured to the sand dunes down the beach a little bit, which is the main attraction for the off roading.  We didn't go off roading on the dunes but we took the skimboard for a ride.  Abby jumped right in, both standing and sitting as she skimmed down the dune sand.  It was a little hectic as dirt bikes and quads were jumped around right near us.

We then got back on the road and went to San Luis Obispo  just north of Pismo Beach, about an hour away.  The town was really nice and the college looked like a cool one.  Then we went to San Simeon and went to the Hearst Castle visitor center.  All the tours were booked to the castle so we watched the imax movie about the history.  Unfortunately, they do not let you just drive by the actual castle.  

About 5-10 miles north of San Simeon there was a lookout spot for the elephant seals.  The beach was lined with these seals, it was amazing.   We kept heading north after these stops and headed towards Big Sur.  The beach road turned into steep cliffs with switchbacks for miles and miles.  It was a beautiful ride.  Now we needed to find a place to bunker down for the night, and we didn't have a reservation so it wasn't easy.  The first few campgrounds were full so were hoping for anything.  We ended up finding a great campground off highway 1, deep in the redwood trees, it was called Fernwood Campground.  They had one tent cabin available right on a small river.  We really lucked out getting this place.

We hung out by the fire and went to the bar at the top of the campground, the bar had a restaurant and a general store attached.  We got a good nights sleep and the following day went for a hike at Andrew Molero State Park.  We had to hike across a small stream to get to the beach area.  But we encountered a seal protecting the beach, he was blocking the path.  I had never seen anything like it.  2 people were too afraid to get by, but we just high tailed it by him.  Check out the videos!

Once we got to the beach there were these rad building structures made from drift wood.  It was neat to check out, but they didn't look too sturdy.

So after our hike we headed toward our final destination, somewhere I wanted to go since a kid: Santa Cruz, a mecca for skateboarding and surfing.  Before we got there we checked out a few campgrounds to reserve a spot early, luckily our second spot we checked had a tent spot open.  It was called New Brighton State Park, it was on a bluff overlooking the ocean, an awesome camping ground with over 100 camps.  Once we checked in we headed about 5 miles north to Santa Cruz's main beach.  We got there during the day so it was still warm enough to go to the beach.  There wasn't any waves the whole trip, but there was an ankle size wave breaking at the north end of the main beach, unfortunately there was about 100 people on it.  So I just skimmed a little bit, the ocean was about 55F, about 10 degrees colder than San Diego.  After we beached it for a while Abby and I hit the arcade and rides on the boardwalk.  The roller coaster was fun and the arcade was one of the best I have ever seen, every old game was there.  We then got a great dinner on the pier.  That was nice as we ate cereal and pb and j sandwiches up until then.

We camped out at our campground that night, hung out with some college kids next to us, drank some beers and hung by the fire.  The next day we hung at the beach at the edge of the campground.  An old ship was parked at the edge of the pier to the south, pretty neat.  This was our final day, so we had to drive an hour to San Jose and fly back to San Diego.  The flight worked out fine, $70 one way on southwest.  Camping was so fun.  Abby and I had a wonderful time together, she's just great!  I'll miss her a ton on my trip.

The Endless Winter - 2 weeks to Australia

Ok, I am getting excited for my adventure.  People have been asking me why now, summers around the corner?  And it's going to be winter in Australia.  Well, it pretty much worked out with the Visa, once your excepted you only have 3 months to go, my deadline is June 12.  I don't mind going at this time.  In San Diego the worst months are May and June ("May gray" and "June gloom"), short non-nontechnical explanation being the hot air coming from inland making contact with the cold air off the ocean causing overcast sky's around the beach areas, there are few sunny days during these months.  January and February are the raining months (in SD) by the way, if your planning a trip here, come in July, August, or September.  But the kicker with the summer is the traffic is terrible and beaches are packed.  Also I work outside (for my company) about 25 percent of the time most and the new development is happening east of San Diego, Orange County, and LA, in San Bernardino or Riverside County so it gets very hot (up to 120 F).  I don't see how people could live out there, it's just windy and hot; all the residential tracks are filled with "cookie cutter" homes.  We also work in Nevada and Arizona, those jobs always seem to be popping up in July and August, go figure.  Del Mar Fairgrounds have a big fair-carnival in the summer, then horse racing, so traffic is bad all the time after work, makes my commute almost an hour and a half, as opposed to half an hour.  Another reason I don't mind is the surf is better in the fall-winter, more swell in the waters.  It gets a lot more windy in the spring here at the beach causing the surf to get all choppy and waves are really small in the summer.

So, a little about Australia.  Gas is averaging about $5.80 a gallon over there.  England is actually around $8.00 a gallon.  And everyone complains here, it's actually cheap compared to other countries.  Thats kind of a bummer for me, but they have a good train system, so I will try that out for sure.  I would like to get to the famous Ayers Rock in the north central part of Australia, and I believe the train cuts near that area.  It's going to be the beginning of winter when I get there.  In Australia winter is June through August and summer is December through February.  However, the temperature in Sydney rarely goes below 50F, winter averages between 50-60F, then goes up to close to 80F in the summer.  So it stays a little warmer than San Diego.  San Diego gets in the high 30's in the winter.  The ocean temperature in Sydney is about 74 right now, but drops to about 65F.  In San Diego the water is between 63-66F right now, ranges from 57 (in winter) to 70 (in summer).  So, you need to wear a wetsuit from October thru May-June in San Diego, you can trunk it between July to September.  You can get by without a wetsuit longer in Sydney.  Also, as you travel north of Sydney the temperature increases.  Summer in Australia is the rainy season too.

I had to put in my notice to work last week, they were pretty shocked when I said I was moving to Australia, but I am working till I go.  So I still have lots to do.  I was able to sublet my room easily, thanks to craigslist.org, that website is amazing in San Diego.  The first person responding worked out perfect, and I had a ton of people respond to the ad.  Now, I just have to sell my truck and put my stuff in storage and I am set.  My neighbor is adopting my half pipe, so that should make my landlords happy.  Next weekend I am taking a roadtrip to Nor Cal with my girlfriend, Abby.  So, I am cramming in as much as I can before I go.  We are heading to Pismo Beach, Big Sur, Hearst Castle, and eventually make it to Santa Cruz.  Stay tuned for that adventure.

3 weeks to Australia

Hey, so this is my first post.  I would like to show my appreciation of a trip I am about to embark on in the wonderful country Australia.  I have recently got a work-holiday visa for Australia and leave June 9th from Los Angeles, California.  I currently live in San Diego, California.  I moved to Oceanside (North San Diego County) 4 years ago, lived there for a year and then moved to Pacific Beach (City of San Diego, but north of the downtown area) where I still live.  I work in Carlsbad (North San Diego County) as a civil engineer at an environmental and geotechnical consulting company, EEI.  

I have been having second thoughts on moving to Australia in the last few weeks but decided I need to go there.  It has been a tough decision, having to leave my girlfriend, quite my job, leave my apartment, move further from my family, move away from my set of buddy's, sell my car, put my stuff in storage, and then do it all over again when I get back.  I have made a good place for myself in San Diego, California and it isn't easy to leave.

I have wanted to go back to Australia since I left there from my study abroad program in Wollongong, Australia back in 2001.  What makes me miss it so much?  Well there are several reasons but to sum up the Aussie lifestyle in one description is you don't have to wear shoes! That's right, people in my class would be barefoot; in supermarkets you see parents walking around shoeless, so it is very laid back.  It fits my personality, casual clothing, not overpopulated, friendly people, living on the coastline, pubs all over, basically a San Diego with 90 percent less people, cleaner ocean, and less populated surf breaks.  Basically a dream.  When I was there I said to myself, "If people knew about this place better everyone would try to move here".  But Australia does something the United States does not, they restrict the people that emigrate there.  I mean the U.S. does that too but come on, look at the illegal Mexicans that hop that border every day.  But I found my way to get back in.

So I will talk more about things but let's get a quick synopsis of my plan once I get there.  I have a friend Benny from uni (short for the university I went to) that lives in Sydney (Manly Beach) and a friend John that lives in Wollongong (still goes to uni).  I am going to crash with Benny for a week, feel out Sydney, get a vehicle, surf a bunch, look at jobs in the area, basically get oriented with the move.  Then I am going to drive to Wollongong (about an hour or more south of Sydney) and stay with John for a few days.  I applied to WWOOF (willing workers on organic farms), which allows you to work on a farm for a few hours a day and they give you a place to live and feed you, some even pay.  I am waiting on my book that gives a list of farms to work on. Hopefully I can find one in Tasmania near the beach, if so I will drive south after my stay in Wollongong, stop in the famous Bells Beach, and then take the ferry to Tasmania.  This is the plan for now.