The SAIC-sponsored boat. SAIC is a company in La Jolla, which is where I went to school in San Diego.

The lovely city of Wellington from Victoria's Lookout.

Who is Wellington named after? I don't know, but...

I will have spent five nights in Wellington. That's a lot more than I had initially expected, but it was a good weekend, and I happened to find a cheap place to stay. I spent a couple days going to Te Papa, the big museum in town (it's free like most of the museums in New Zealand and Australia). It takes a couple days to see it all. I think Te Papa means "our place", but don't quote me on this. Anyways, it's a museum about New Zealand. It cost $317 million to make, so you can be sure that it's pretty nice and well worth the visit.
The rugby sevens were in town and the tickets were sold out. That's okay, because they don't black out games like they do in the States. I was able to catch a few of the 20 minute matches in the evening. The States were represented, but they didn't do too well. They lost all three matches, getting shut out by the Kiwis (43-zip). The Kiwi's or, All Blacks, as they are known, went on to win the tourney. They did a victory "haka" after they won. It's a pretty cool Maori tribal tradition. There is a lot of bare chest slapping and stomping. If you've seen Whale Rider, you kind of know what I'm talking about. The Kiwi's, by the way, are fanatical about their All Blacks rugby team. It's the national team that goes to compete in international competitions. They seem to cream the competition. The Sevens brings in millions of dollars for Wellington, and the bars were pretty packed. A lot of groups of people dress up in wierd matching costumes, some of which are pretty outragous. It's like a big costume party where they drink a lot.
The weather was pretty hot this weekend, contrary to the weatherman's predictions. I was able to watch the Global Challenge boats take off today from their docks, and then I hiked to the top of a peak to catch the race in the bay. These boats are 72-feet long and are all identical, so that it's skill and luck that makes the winner. They're crewed by 17 "volunteers" that compete for these prized spots four years prior to the race. Their skippers are the only required professional sailors on board. The crew pays about $70,000 each to be on board for the year. Most of them find sponsors to help pay their way. They're going around the world "the wrong way", that is, from east to west, which is supposed to be harder. They spend a good length of time in the Southern Sea with ice on their ship. Awwwesome.
There was also a Chinese festival celebrating the upcoming New Year on the lunar calendar. I went to the One Love festival today (Waitangi Day). I will be headed to National Park, the town just outside Tongariro National Park, tomorrow. The weatherman is calling for showers for a couple of days, but I am hoping that he is going to be wrong like he was about his "cloudy and cool" weekend in Wellington.
Oh and as you can see, I have updated some pictures. I have tried to put them in sequential order by backdating them. You can check the archives to see if you have missed any.

Bay of Many Coves. Yes, that is the name on the map.

Sunlight peeking through the clouds over the Charlotte Sound.

This valley leads to the Keneperu Sound, which is on the other side of the ridge. Yes, I am making up these names as I go along.

This is Punga Cove, the place I stayed the second night. The clouds came in and it drizzled on and off for the next couple of days, which was nice because it was hot and humid when it stopped drizzling.

Endeavour Bay at Queen Charlotte Sound. This is where I stayed the first night on the Track. The track follows the coast in some areas, but mostly stays up high crisscrossing the ridge.

Queen Charlotte Track

I spent the past three nights on the Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sound. It's a trail that has camping sites and lodges on it, that runs along the coast and ridge of a strip of land in the Marlborough Sound. It's about 71 km long. I took a ferry out to Endeavour Bay, which is about 4 hours from the start of the track (the ferry people said it was too late in the day for them to go to the very start). From there, it was about 57 km to the end. I got there about 2:30 pm and just hiked around the area, but the next day I only had 12 km to the next lodge so I ran the whole way. It was great to be running again; it's been about a month since I last went running. I think all the hiking I've been doing has gotten my legs in shape. I spent that day lazying around the jacuzzi. The next portion was about 24 km long to a place called Portage. It was pretty cloudy that day, but I made it in just over four hours. Shortly after I got to the lodge, it started drizzling, and it continued all day long well into the next day.
Today I only had 20 km to go to the end. This route is great because you can pay the ferry to take you out to the start and transport your pack to your lodge everyday. Yes, this is what a lazy man does. It was fantastic.
I took the interisland ferry from Picton to Wellington this evening. It was only 2 hours and a half hours to cross Cook's Strait. Now, I'm in the North Island. I'll be in Wellington (the capital) for the next few days. There are a few interesting things going on this weekend. First of all, there is a rugby tournament going on called "seven" which means they have seven people on each side instead of 15 (?). It's made finding accommodations kind of tricky. I will be changing hostels everyday for the next couple days. The tourney goes on Friday through Saturday. Saturday happens to be Chinese New Year, I just read. Sunday is Waitangi Day, which is sort of like their July 4th, except not really. The Treaty of Waitangi is an agreement between the Pakeha (the European settlers) and the Maori, but it's been hotly contested ever since its signing back in 1840. Anyways, I think there will be a bunch of festivities going on. Also, the third leg of the Global Challenge kicks off from Wellington on Sunday, so I will try to catch that as well. That's a big round-the-world yacht race. Anyways, those are my plans. Hopefully the weather will improve because it's been kind of drizzly the past couple of days.

Just another beach at Abel Tasman.

Cleopatra Pools, where you can take a freezing swim to wash off the sweat. Or not.

Torrent Bay as it is filling up. I had hiked across from the right side to the left a couple hours prior to this photo.

Torrent Bay. When it empties out at low tide, you save about 70 minutes of hiking by cutting across the mudflats. The mudflats are littered with empty clam shells from the sandpipers. The low tide leaves the boats all high and dry.

Anchorage Bay at Abel Tasman, where we slept on a houseboat overnight. The biggest boat in the bay is the houseboat.

Seals sunning themselves on the rocks. I forgot to pack my bat. Just kidding...

Three seals saw us and slipped into the water to check us out. They proceeded to scratch their butts at us.

Kayaking in the Tonga Marine Reserve at Abel Tasman National Park. That's a seal doing the backstroke next to us in the water.

Abel Tasman National Park

I'm back in Nelson again, but I spent the past couple nights at Abel Tasman National Park. This is one of the most popular backpacking trails in New Zealand. It's a three to four day hike on the coast with some awesome views of jungle and beach. I signed up for a catered kayak trip to a marine reserve and got to swim around in the freezing water. We had some close encounters with seals that slipped into the water to check us out. It was pretty amazing to be a few feet from them. It was a pretty small group of us (four tandem kayaks). The conditions were perfect. It was really glassy in the morning, and in the afternoon the wind picked up, so we formed a flotilla and put up a sail and held on tightly and sailed into our cove. We had a couple races and our boat won. It didn't hurt that my navigator (steering with pedals) was actually a Canadian from Newfoundland with a season of sea-kayak guiding under her belt.
I got to stay on a houseboat with some guests. It was so different from the Whitsundays, in Australia. We had a nice BBQ and then settled in with warm drinks on the deck talking to Danes, Swiss Germans, Dutch, and a Canadian. It was nice and cool at night so we bundled up below decks under the comforters.
Today I hiked to a couple sights and then on my way out of the park.
Tomorrow I head to Picton and hopefully spend a few nights on the Queen Charlotte Track.

View from Mt. Beasley

Once again Mt. Rollerston in the background and Avalanche Peak to the right of Mt. Rollerston. The traverse continues down the left ridge from Avalanche Peak to Lyell Peak which is near the center of the photo, and then along the ridge all the way to the left of the photo, then zig-zagging along that knife blade ridge toward me. This has been the best hike I've done so far. The views and the exposure and route-finding made it incredibly exciting.

View of Mt. Rollerston from Avalanche Peak

This is supposed to be the best day hike in all of New Zealand according to the Lonely Planet. They have a race called the Avalanche Peak Challenge here every year. The winner usually makes it up in 55 minutes; it took me 90. Oh well. The hike is pretty good, but I ended up doing a traverse along the ridge over to Lyell Peak and Mt. Beasley. It was pretty exposed on this knife ridge, but fortunately there was hardly any wind. And of course, no one on this traverse.

Atop Mt. Aiken (1863 m)

I blazed up this peak from Arthur's Pass. Once again, there was no one else on this trail. From the top, I had a 360 view all around wiith no evidence of human encroachment except for a few buildings in the valley of Arthur's Pass.

Warm in Nelson

After three nights in Arthur's Pass (760 m elevation), I've taken the seven hour trip up to Nelson, which is at the northern coast of the South Island. Arthur's Pass was pretty cold the first night, but there was a toasty coal stove heating the lounge. It's a small village there with one store/gas station and a couple hotels and a couple hostels. I got to do a couple stiff day hikes there, visiting both sides of the valley. The first hike was to Mt. Aiken at 1863 m, then the next day I hit Avalanche Peak (1833 m), Lyell Peak (1828 m), and Mt. Beasley (1836 m). Now my Achille's tendons are paying the price. I was totally inspired by three guys I met the first night. It was cold and rainy, but they had just done a training trail run (25 km up to 1050 m) in preparation for the Coast to Coast challenge, a one-day 255 km race in a few weeks. It's one of those multisport races with trail running, river kayaking (class 2), and road-biking. These guys set off to kayak for five hours the next morning.
Now I'm in Nelson to head to the Abel Tasman National Park, but I still have to figure out what I plan on doing there.

Fern trees in the rainforests next to the glaciers. The silver fern, by the way, is the national symbol for New Zealand. I'm not sure if I've encountered an silver fern during my hikes. I did encounter trees like these in Australia in the Daintree National Park. They tell the tourists that these mighty trees grow about one to three centimeters a year. I don't know if this is true or not, but you can tell the age of the tree by its height. There were signposts showing where the glaciers had receded from 1950 and even 1750. You could tell that the trees in those areas were clearly of limited height, so maybe it's not a bunch of crap they tell the tourists.

Franz Josef Glacier

I hiked up to Robert's Point above Franz Josef. This glacier is actually creeping forward about 1 meter a day. This is right next to a rainforest. There are a million helicopters buzzing around above taking tourist up for a view of the mountains and taking them on jaunts along the glacier.

More sheep we encountered on the bus. Sometimes traffic comes to a complete halt because of grazing animals crossing the roads. I did not encounter a single multi-laned highway in the South Island.

Mt. Aeolus

This was just a 15 minute stop on my bus ride from Queenstown to Fox Glacier, but it was so pretty I had to take a picture.

A rainy day in the Milford Sound. It's supposed to be pretty impressive with the big waterfall. It's a fiord. Whatever.

View from Ben Lomond Peak

This is a peak right behind Queenstown. This view overlooks the town of Queenstown below and the Frankton Arm which is that thin slice of Lake Wakatipu that extends to the right. This lake is huge, by the way. It was hailing and very windy up here. I was wearing shorts. The trail I took comes along the ridge that you see above Queentown, which is the town on the bottom part of the lake. This ridge goes to the bottom left side of the photo. It was really windy and exposed but easily navigable.

Queenstown and the Remarkables

This is the view from my hostel. This place was so nice that I ended up staying four nights. Amazingly this town is now well known for its high-adventure pursuits rather than it's beauty. They filmed a lot of the Two Towers in the surrounding area. The Remarkables are the peaks lit up by the setting sun. This is Lake Wakatipu, a huge lake in the South Island.

Up at Sealy Tarn

This is on the hike to the Mueller Hut. For trampers (backpackers) in NZ, you don't necessarily need a tent as they have limited spaces available in alpine huts. A tarn is a mountain lake. That's Mt. Sefton behind me and Mt. Cook to the right. Sefton appears to loom much higher, but Mt. Cook is still several miles away.

Mt. Cook from afar

This is a glacial valley that was carved out by the Tasman glacier. It dumps into Lake Pukaki which is a brilliant powder blue because of the "glacial flour"; as a glacier grinds rock into powder, the fine silt goes into the water. I hiked a couple hours to through grazing sheep to get up here. No tourists anywhere.

Pancake rocks at Punikaiki. My school report on the rocks at Punikaiki is as follows:
The Punikaiki Pancake Rocks were formed hundreds of thousands of years ago. Scientists today are still puzzled on exactly how they were formed.

Mt. Cook or Aoraki "Cloud-Piercer" at sunset

Lake Pukaki and the evaporation zone. I just coined that term, by the way. The place I stayed at was about 25 km from Mt. Cook, and was located in the shadows by the lake.

I encountered some sheep while hiking to this ridge. I was sneezing the whole way up because, apparently, I am allergic to them.

Mt. Cook and Lake Pukaki. Lakes Pukaki and Tekapo have a brilliant color, but are not clear because of glacial flour. It's kind of nasty, if you think about it.

Lake Tekapo and the Church of the Good Shepherd. Sort of looks like something out of Middle Earth.

Going to Arthur's Pass

I can't get enough of the mountains. Ha ha! Last week I headed to Mt Cook, or Aoraki "Cloud-Piercer" from Christchurch (or ChCh, apparently). It is the highest mountain in Australasia at 3755 meters. I'm not sure what defines "Australasia", but whatever. I went on a couple of day hikes to see the magnificent glacier valley and views of the ice-laden peaks. On the first day there wasn't anyone else on the four-hour hike except loads of sheep. From Mt Cook, I went to Queentown, which has been dubbed the "adrenaline capital of New Zealand" because I think the first commercial bungee-jump started there. They also offer skydiving, jetboating, rock climbing, mountain biking, kayaking, parasailing, and whitewater rafting. I took a daytrip (13 hours) to Milford Sound, a fiord that has been dubbed the "eighth wonder of the world" like hundreds of other places. It was drizzling and raining, but the waterfalls were quite impressive. But I couldn't join the hordes of tourists leaping from one side of the boat to the other side, to take pictures of the same looking waterfalls. Oh, what a spoil-sport. Anyways, it was then that I decided I wasn't going to do all the "must-do" tourist trips (traps). Back in Queenstown, I went on a couple of long day hikes. The second day I hiked to the top of Ben Lomond Peak, which is right over Queenstown. It was windy and hailing on top, but the 360 degree view was worth it. From Lake Wakatipu, it was about 4700 vertical feet to the top. I hiked along the ridge all alone. I thought I might get blown off in my billowing jacket. The past few days I've been at Fox Glacier for a couple nights and Franz Josef Glacier (last night). These places are on the west coast, where they get all the rain. Interestingly, this place has a rainforest that comes right up to the glacier. Who would have thought that could happen? I learned that these glaciers are actually growing, because of increased precipitation due to global warming. Yeah, pretty wierd. Right now I am in Greymouth, waiting for a bus to go to Arthur's Pass. It's on the cross-island highway between Greymouth and ChCh on the South Island. There are supposed to be some great hikes and vistas there. I think I'll be there for a few days.
So New Zealand has been pretty amazing so far. It has incredible views (if you've see the Lord of the Ring movies, then you know what I mean). It's really clean around here. There is hardly any litter to speak of on the road side. People are much more environmentally-friendly here than they are in Australia. In the South Island, there aren't really a lot of people here. There isn't a lot of traffic, aside from the tourists. My first impression is that the Maori culture does not suffer discrimination nearly as much as the Aboriginal culture in Australia. It's really an interesting relationship here. I was watch tv and there was a news program on that was entirely in Maori. Anyways, this is quite an interesting country. The weather is much colder and wetter than Australia, but the sights are well worth the visit.

A stuffed moa. This is the huge bird that was hunted to extinction by the Maori before the European settlers arrived. Scientist think these things didn't have many predators and just walked up to people, curious about them. The Maori came to New Zealand only about 500 years ago and found it to be plentiful of food. It wasn't until their abundant food source ran out that they had to compete with other tribes, and started a war-culture.

Christchurch's Cathedral Square. This is the largest city in the South Island at 330,000. There are stalls selling tourist junk and food in the mornings.

It's cold in New Zealand!

After three nights here in Christchurch, I'm headed to the mountains. Christchurch is a very "English"-looking city. It has that sort of reputation. There is a tram and a pretty stream (they call it a river) and stone buildings. Some of the telephone booths are red. There is a large botanical garden next to the city center, and the city center is Cathedral Square. There are a lot of "buskers" there during the day. "Buskers" is a term I've learned in Australia for street performers and the like that do things for money. They actually carry a license to busk.
The temperature here is colder than in Australia, but the latitudes are in the 40's which is sort of like Canada. The first day I got here was the coldest I've been since leaving San Diego, but today warmed up. I checked out the Canterbury Museum (Canterbury is the name of this province of which Christchurch is the capital) and the Christchurch Art Gallery. You know, there was a flightless bird here called the moa, which was like a really tall emu. It was killed to extinction about 500 years ago by the Maori. Interestingly, they have found no evidence of warfare here in New Zealand until the moas were extinct, suggesting communities lived in
relative peace until overpopulation lead to the extinction of a main food source, and people had to compete for limited resources. It also dispells the myth that "primative" cultures lived in "harmony with nature". What a load of crap. Given enough time, every culture would overpopulate and cause environmental catastrophes.
The Art Gallery had a lot of normal paintings as well as more modern art pieces. There were some really dark pieces that looked like they came out of a head shop or tatoo parlor.
In Christchurch, I could have purchased some beater cars for less than $2000. I saw one 1988 Toyota Corona (Corolla in the States) for $850, presumably running. Some of these are wagons that come with camping and cooking gear.

I should sort of come up with closing running commentary on Australia. What a cool country. I spent most of my time (four weeks) in Queensland which I found had awesome and diverse environments. It is sort of redneck, as my friend Paul (from Melbourne) described, but it's friendly like country-folk are. Sydney was pretty and fun for the New Year. Melbourne had a totally different feel. It did not seem as big and dark. Sydney was very culturally diverse (no Aboriginies, though), but Melbourne was far more diverse and integrated. I couldn't believe all the different foods you could buy in the food courts. In the States, I tend to see the major food franchises: McDonald's, Subways, Taco Bell (they don't have Taco Bell in Oz!), Burger King(Hungry Jack here), Wendy's, a pizza joint, and Chinese takeaway. Here, I've mostly noticed a million different Asian food places including Indian food, Malaysian, Thai, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. It's that specific. And who's eating there? Not Asians, although there some. Mostly, it's Caucasians there. A lot of people just eat a sushi handroll for lunch. Well, that's what I noticed about Melbourne.
A lot of folks love their "footie" which is Aussie-rules Football. Paul showed me a tape of a game from back in '96. These guys play on a field that is elliptical with a length of over 150 yards. They don't wear any padding. They play with a ball that is larger than a football. They can run with the ball, but every 10 yards they have to bounce it off the ground. They can kick the ball or "hit it" (like an underhand serve in volleyball), but they can't pass it like in American Football. They play four quarters, each of which are 30 minutes long. It's a fast, fast game like soccer. Folks have loyalty to home teams, which are not as commercialzed as they are in the States. The big meal at a footie game is a pint of beer with a meat pie. This is like the meat pot pies in the States, except you can actually hold it and the stuff doesn't necessarily go running down your arm like a pot of hot oil.
Oh back on to food, what do people eat late at night returning from a bar? Oh, Sigdaddy's crew in Biloxi will probably pipe up with Taco Bell, right? No Taco Bell out here. Instead they have a lot of non-franchised "pizza & kebab" places. Great food. Kebabs in the states are meat on sticks. Here, as well as in Europa, they're Gyros. They have chicken, beef, and lamb. The difference between Australia and Europa is that they'll add cheese on top and the bread is thinner, not like the thick bread in the States. And another thing, I've always referred to the pita bread wrap as "falafel". Here they call falafel something that looks like a dark brown hush puppy. It's a mixture of chick peas, parsley, and garlic. I've had loads of meals of kebabs, fish & chips, and Asian food in Australia, so that's what I've ended up talking about: food. Okay, more about food. Vegemite is a dark brown (chocolate colored) salty spread that you have to use spariingly. It's a good source of vitamin B, so people say you should spread it thinly on some toast the morning after a night out. It's salty but good. My last thought for the night: Bundaberg & Cola on tap. What a lovely concoction of mollasses and caramel. I could drink it as a soft drink, except I would be persistently drunk.

There are fabulous reefs along the Great Ocean Road except the waves would wash you against the rocks.

Sunsetting in the bush of Australia. "Bush" refers to anywhere in the countryside.

Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road. These things used to be arches that got hollowed out by the waves and then finally, the arches collapsed leaving these towers.

I met Paul and Ceri with Kev while travelling from the Greek Islands to Istanbul a couple years ago. They were on their 6-month RTW trip at the time. I spent my last days in Oz with this great couple.

Melbourne at night from the Prince Bridge. The Yarra River divides this city. It is a fun city to spend time in and has many wonderful places to visit. It is very clean and diverse and is home to Paul and Ceri!

Paul and I cooking up an Australian Barbie. Bundy in hand.

Leaving for New Zealand.

Last week I went down to Cronulla, which is a small suburb 25mi south of Sydney. This is where Fineberg had spent his 10 month fellowship in Australia two years ago. It's a cool beach community that has a strong surfing heritage. I got to meet up with Fineberg again and actually had a conversation I could follow. His friend Mattie, invited me to stay with him and his girlfriend Allie. These guys were great people.
From Cronulla, I took the overnight bus to Melbourne. This one was only 12-hours long. Well, during my 18-hour bus ride from Brisbane to Sydney, I was freezing on the bus. This time, the air-conditioning was broken. Awwwwwesome. It was a sauna. Outside, it was freezing. I was soaked and ten pounds lighter when I arrived in Melbourne.
Melbourne is Australia's second largest city, but it has an eclectic atmosphere with good architecture, food, and culture. I spent a lot of time wandering the streets. The Deaflympics was going on so there were a lot of people signing. That was pretty cool.
In Melbourne, I stayed with Paul and Ceri, a couple Kev and I met when an overnight ferry failed to show up on one of the Greek Islands. We travelled together to Istanbul and spent a lot of time together. These guys were fantastic. They put me up in their home and fed me and took me out on the town, visiting some of the sights in the area.
We went to Williamstown and took a ferry to St. Kilda, both bayside communities around Melbourne. At St. Kilda, we watched a Deaflympics women's volleyball match between the Australians and the Americans. The Australians did well, but not well enough. Um...I think the teams were mismatched, in skill and in the weight class... Paul and Ceri also took me on the Great Ocean Road, one of the great drives in the world. It hugs along the southern coastline where the ocean has been eating away at the Victorian coast. This leaves beautiful arches and towers in the surf.
I'm headed New Zealand in a few hours. It has been awesome being in Oz.
Thanks to everyone I've met here. See ya in New Zealand!

Mattie and Allie. Before coming to Cronulla, I didn't know them, but these awesome people let me stay at their place and fed me. Matt is starting a line of Aussie underwear called "Mojo Down Under". Expect them out in a year.

Hey everybody, it's Fineberg buying tabouli in Cronulla!

Bondi Beach is packed with people. The waves were pretty big and the current strong. The Surf Life-Saving Club were kept busy corralling the swimmings into a narrow strip for the sharks to eat.

Manly beach is a ferry ride from Sydney Harbour. It is upscale and crowded, but I was able to find some Bundy and Cola on tap. Mmmm...

Sydney Harbour, the city, and the Opera House. View from the Harbour Bridge.

Sydney Harbour from Macquarie's Point. We waited there for about 13 hours to watch the fireworks at midnight for New Year's Eve. So did everybody else.

Happy New Year from Sydney!

This place is awesome. To be honest, a lot of backpackers I have met on the road didn't really like Sydney and didn't have a problem telling me to only spend a couple days here. Well, I planned on four nights, and it's the fifth night already, and I'm still here. Yes, it's that cool. I'm staying in the central area, which is next to Chinatown and the skyscrapers of the business district. I'm about a twenty minute walk from the Opera House. This town is pretty; the city is clean (I don't know where they hide the homeless people for the holidays); and the city parks are safe.
I spent New Year's Eve in the Botanical Gardens, at Macquarie's Point, picnicking with the Swedish girls from Fraser Island. You had to get there early to save a spot to watch the fireworks and bridge display at midnight. We were there for 13 hours. It was really fun, actually. The weather was perfect: not too hot or sunny. There were tons of boats in the harbor, anchored for the day to watch the fireworks. As the day progressed, it got more and more crowded. It was sort of like a hippy concert. Some folks were playing guitar and singing. Some folks started doing "the wave". Some Irish guys behind us were drunk and sang their sad Irish ballads. I was going to go to Cronulla to party hardy with Fineberg, but never made it. It was worth it, though, to see the fireworks and stuff over the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The next day I met up with Fineberg at Luna Park, which is a Coney Island nightmare amusement park on the north side of the harbor, next to the bridge. There was a 12-hour dance party (rave?) going on there and he was getting down with his old mates from his nine-month fellowship here a couple years ago. Tickets were kind of steep, but it was worth it. Once you entered, you weren't allowed to exit and re-enter so there were a lot of people (passed out?) on the floors against the walls when I got there. I watched the first sunset of the new year turn the city skyline into a bright orange. It was as if the city was on fire and the regalers danced on oblivious to the awesome sight. There were lots of glowsticks being sold, and the main dance floor was a huge dark room with laser lights. It reminded me of that Frankie Goes to Hollywood video for "Relax". Anyone remember that one? I almost expected blood to come out of the sprinkler system (like in Blade). Anyways, it was good fun, and Fineberg is doing well.
Actually, the past few days, since he's arrived, he has been trying to get us tickets to go to Phuket, Thailand, to help with the disaster there. But, alas, it is not meant to be. The soonest we can go is the 6th, and he has to return to Hawaii the 10th. Plus, he was told by some of the folks that they really weren't interested in acute care providers; mostly they wanted infectious disease and public health specialists, and, oh yeah, I'm sure lots of money. It's tough finding places that want volunteer doctors. It astounds me.
The past couple of days I have met up with the Fraser Island friends at Manly and Bondi beaches. Both are pretty famous places here in Sydney (that I had not heard of prior to coming). The water, unlike the protected waters inside the Great Barrier Reef, is cold like San Diego (68 F today). Well, I guess that's considered average to warm in San Diego. Anyways, the waves were nice, and the views of sun-bathers even, um, nicer?
I'm headed to Melbourne on a 12-hour night bus in a couple days.
Did I mention there are humongous bats that fly through the skies at night?
It's totally wild.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Sydney Opera House.

Sydney skyline at night.