8.17.04 Coming home

August 17, 2004

Airplane. UA flight from Sydney to SFO. We’re at 31000 feet, nearest the Fiji islands. We just passed the Coral Sea to the northwest. I’m on my way home after three weeks in Australia. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a real vacation like this and it has been wonderful. Three weeks is a luxury we rarely give ourselves, but it can be transformational. I’ve rested, relaxed and played; I’ve gotten to see and experience a lot of Australia; I’ve gotten to know two important people in my life much better; and I’ve also gotten a lot of time to think about the things and people that matter to my life, outside of its daily context and responsibilities. I feel rebuilt and stabilized, though those exact words seem rather mechanical and impersonal.

We left Cairns on the sixth of August and flew down to Brisbane. After an evening in the city dining on good Thai food with our BYO wine and a night in a hostel room occupied by UK and Australia men who have lived there for several months, we traveled by train, bus, and boat to North Stradbroke Island. “Straddie” as the locals call it, is a sand island that –at least by our impression- is primarily a vacation destination for local Australians. After three days in Cairns, we appreciated the absence of (other) tourists and the businesses that cater to them. After arriving at our hostel, we walked to Point Lookout, where we spent the next few hours completely mesmerized by the whales and dolphins playing in the ocean beneath us. At one point, we watched a single whale slap the ocean surface with his tail for over fifteen minutes; though he was probably 1 km away, we could hear the sound echo over the water. On our way home that night, we decided to fully immerse in the local culture and stopped by the local fishing competition/beer festival for a pitcher of Victoria Biter on a patio overlooking the ocean setting sun. Robyn won a VB Stubbie Cooler and we felt so invigorated by our small town experience that we made the mistake of dining at the local bowling club’s all-you-can-eat buffet, which still makes my stomach turn when I think about it. The next two days were spent lazing around on Straddie’s beautiful beaches and trying to convince –in our best efforts at whale ESP- the migrating whales to breach.

We returned to Sydney anxious to develop our underwater pictures and begin our road trips to the nearby parks. Our first was to Ku’Ring Gai Chase National Park, about an hour north of Sydney. It is a beautiful wooded park stretching hundreds of acres to the ocean, We loved the park so much that we returned a few days later to hike some of the trails and spend a hilarious hour attempting to row a boat up one of the estuarine streams.

Our next day was spent sampling the wines of Hunter Valley, another beautiful area just two hours north of Sydney. We visited three wineries. The first two had such delicious wines and such friendly and generous staff that I could barely taste the wines offered at the third. Robyn and I both took advantage of the exchange rate (or at least justified our indulges that way) and purchased some delicious wines at the Audrey Wilkensen and Pepper Tree wineries.

We spent our last few days in the Blue Mountains and they were beautiful. Hopefully, if I ever get this blog up, I’ll post some of the pictures…