This place is pretty coup

We just arrived in Fiji and it feels like a sumer in Florida, weather I rather enjoy actually. I'd like to wrap up Australia though with some of their terminology:
G'day Mate: Hello friend
How you going?: What's up?
Schoolies: high school kids going crazy on their first week of school break
Sunnies, Boardies: Sunglasses, Bathing Suit/ Board shorts
Righty-Oh: Ok
Bugger Off: Head out
Heaps: lots (of something)
Good on ya: Good for you, way to go
Reckon: I think
Akubra: Traditional australian felt hat
Breakky: Breakfast
Full on: intense, hardcore
Rubbish: trash
Bollocks: BS (lots of Brits use this too)
Skirmish: Paintball
Esky: Cooler or Refridgerator
For-deen: Fourteen
Cheers: Thanks
No Worries: Your Welcome

You can find other Aussie terms in books- but these things we heard the whole time we were there. It's legit.

We will spend the next 7 days island hopping on the Yasawa island chain (part of Fiji). Fiji is actually an archipelago (meaning many islands) and Yasawa refers to grouping of some of those islands.

There's rumors of a coup with the army and the government over here but appears to by hype from the media. I will advise if Andy needs to fly some Marine Corps helicoptersover from Djbouti to rescue us.

Avatar

Our sailboat through the WhitSundays- Avatar, A "Trimaran" 3 hulled performance vessel. Avatar means 'perfect form' as the shape God would take if he came to earth, the legend has it. Blond/Orange Hair....early in the morning.
Hills Inlet near WhiteHaven Beach. Sometimes you see a painting of a beach and it's beautiful because it looks so much like a real beach. This beach was beautiful because the real beach looks like a painting. The sand is 99% silica- very fine and soft. As the tide draws in and out it swirls the clear blue water with the wispy sand in such a way as a painter would swirl colors on a palatte. The beach looks abstract. When real life looks like brush strokes on canvas- you get the most beautiful beach in all my travels.

Exercise in no worries

Losing stuff is like breaking up with a girlfriend. I just lost my wallet (credit cards, driver's license, a little cash). Your wallet, like a girlfriend, has been with you through good times bad times is fortified with useful and not useful things - but everything you want. Then, when it's gone, everything is very upsetting- you have to now find a new one and work out everything you need. You almost don't want to deal with replacing it. I'm going to have to get over some trust issue with my new wallet- that's for sure.

So we had an air hockey tournament at a truck stop outside a town called Gympie. They had the air hockey pucks but no hitters. I took out my wallet to use as a hitter and to the best of my knowledge I left it there. I only made it to the final round of the air hockey tourney- not much to say since there only 3 contenders. I have to replace the credit cards and all - but the closet storm now seems to be that I have no legal form of identification (no passport OR driver's license) except that Forrest and Andy could promise I am who I say I am. With a domestic and international flights coming up in less than a week- things my get fun. Nonetheless we just booked an awesome sailing trip at WhitSundays.

All in all I've really had no worries about it all. Things happen, you lose stuff, you just work it out. There's always a solution. There's always a greater Hope in it all as well that superceeds all things- good and bad.

Brisbane (give or take)

Rewind a few days- U2 Concert in Sydney. Kanye West opened up and was entertaining but the crowd was not really there for him. Despite his attempts, U2 fans didn't really want to jump up and get low. U2 played an awesome show with many of their greatest hits. Between songs Bono preached propaganda for world peace.

Next stop...Byron Bay (Pictured above). One of my favorite stops though we were there only for a day. Beautiful long beaches with mountains in the background and a lighthouse out on the cliffheads. Easy going and out of the way enough to keep the bustling crowds away. On our way up the Gold Coast to Surfer's Paradise we stopped off at a waterfall for about 3 hrs to enjoy nature. During this time someone enjoyed some of our belongings after breaking into the car. It's done, the only thing worse than that would be if, a few days later I tried to bleach my hair and it turned out orange. If anyone knows a good remedy for orange hair, please advise.

Surfer's Paradise was nice but a little too similar to Daytona or Panama Beach for us. We headed to Brisbane where we've been for a couple days. We took a side trip out to Stradbroke Island and it was a great change of scenery. The Mountains run most of the way up Australia's coast so the past week we have been able to enjoy beaches one day alternating with moutains/rain forrest/waterfalls the next. Full on good fun.

The beach at Byron's Bay. Some tourists bought Australian Speedos and posed at the beach. Ridiculous if you ask me...
The break-in. Administratively we have some issue with getting passports and plane tickets back, but I'm sure they'll work out. We mainly lost items that had heaps of personal worth. It's interesting- what can be taken from you, and what can't.
Me and a Koala enjoying some fine Eucalyptus leaves. This is a set-up, they are not too friendly in the wild and humans can't eat Eucalyptus. In Australia they do have a drink however with Aloe Vera chunks floating around. It's really very good.

Going to another rugby game tonight and then head futher up the coast towards WhitSundays. Type "Whitsundays" into google pictures and check it out. We'll probably take a few days to sail around those islands and then to Cairns for a final showdown at the Great Barrier reef among other excursions.

Ouch

After getting back in the car, Forrest said, "Atleast we still have our Australian Speedos." I said, Atleast we all have girlfriends." Andy, poor lad, all he could say was, "I lost everything." Only my comment proved to be untrue.

Our car was broken into. Andy really did lose both bags he brought with everything in them. We lost an ipod, journals, cell phones, my passport, keys, bibles, all our pictures before Sydney, glasses, backpacks. Eeesh.

Atleast we're still alive, healthy, and having a good time! No worries...

Blue Mountains return and Esther

Dayna (left) and Sarah (right) from Ontario Canada hiked with me through the Blue Mountains for two days. They were awesome and really made the trip. The three of us also had an opportunity to name one of the waterfalls in the valley so we chose: Siknah Falls (combining our names). It's a small waterfall really, no more than 6 feet high, and though you may not see it on any maps.....well.....how many people can say they've named a waterfall, eh?
This is a view into the valley. The mountains are called blue because they look blue. Except in this picture. An oily mist rising from the Eucalyptus trees are what gives the mountains a blue haze. Admittedly, the mountains did look blue but I think most mountains look like that from a distance. This waterfall is called Bridal Veil. We were able to walk around the top of it and then trekked down to the bottom of it (seen in this picture).

Back in Sydney I decided to stay at the Wizard of Oz hostel near Coogee beach. This is the first uni-sex bathrooms I've been in where you can brush your teeth, do your laundry, take a shower, and go #1 and #2 within a space of ten feet. Add a few guys and girls- I've never before brushed my teeth amongst so many people and sounds and smells.

As I was eating a BOC (bowl of cereal- Dix family jargon) that night in my room I met a friendly couple from Israel. They said they had met a lot of people from Israel in Australia and seen a lot of "Judiasm food". My obvious lack of cultural knowedge came out when I asked, "Are you Jewish?" Their reply was, "Yes, we are all Jewish." Oddly, the conversation suddenly moved to Halloween. I told them our traditions are harmless but the day represents witches and goblins. They found that funny because Halloween translates to All Saints Day in their culture. Israelis- 2; Michael- 0.

They said the day they dress up is called Queen Astor Day. Back in the day there was this queen who protected her identity by dressing up or something. I thought that was silly until I realized that they were trying to say, "Queen Esther Day." And I was suddenly enlightened. I carry a book with me that has old maps of Israel in it and the Israeli couple pointed to where they grew up- I thought that was just awesome. The guy grew up in a Moshav (neighborhood) in the Jordan Valley. Yeah that's right near the Jordan river. Epic-
I then faulted them for not carrying around a map of where I grew up. Final score: Israelis- 3; Michael- 1

Then next day I visited a beach called Maroubra. I had heard that there was a spot to cliff jump into the ocean. I walked up to the edge of many cliffs contimplating the best spot to jump off when I came to a plaque set into the stone right at the edge of the cliff. Feeling a little better that this might be the spot - I bent down to read the plaque. Instead of reading: "Jump from here" it was someone's grave stone. Something about a guy that died and the stars will watch over his ocean grave. Awful. I decided this wasn't the best spot to jump and walking further I came to another grave marker! Utterly discouraged I did no cliff jumping. The rest of the beach was nice though and I watched the surfers take a few sweet rides before heading off to the University of Sydney for a look-see.

Andy arrives on Saturday and Forrest gets back on Sunday. We have U2 coming up on Monday and might try to squeeze in a Cricket game as well.

Blue Mountains, eh?

This picture is the famous Bondi Beach. Usually littered with surfers today there was a lone jet ski zooming around- usually a sign that a ferocious killing shark dragon found his way in a bit too close and the waters were evacuated to try and scare the shark back out to sea.

The next picture is the Tri-Nations rugby "match" (not game) where the Britain Lions upset the Auatralian Kangaroos. The game is similar to football: There are 5 opportunities to advance. When someone is tackled they get up, hike or push the ball back between their legs and someone else on the team picks it up to run it or pass it to another player (no forward passes though). On the 5th try they usually punt it down field. All this happens with no stoppage of time- continuous play unless someone scores or has a penalty. No pads are worn that we could tell- it was "full on" mate. Scoring is generally the same as well.

Forrest left for a week to go to New Zealand which should be a great side trip. I made plans to head to the Blue Mountains for a couple days and happened across two Canadian girls who wanted to do the same. I guess my Ford Falcon is cheaper than a tour bus (though they haven't seen it yet) and I'd enjoy the company so we're headed out of Sydney tomorrow to the mountains for a couple days.

Another Aussie term: Brekky (means Breakfast)

HAND WASH ONLY

Welcome to Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average. We are now staying on Bondi Beach (rhymes with bonzai not blondie) near Sydney which is best described as a celebrity beach. There are more people there running, working out, flexing, surfing, and looking good than there are people just hanging out. It's an experience. Some women actually forget to wear their bathing suit tops! How embarrassing that must be for them! Most of the beaches around here are very small and crescent inland from peninsular cliffs. I've done some of my best bodysurfing ever here. The water is cold but awesomely clear and even clean to the taste- if that relates. Dodge all of the poisonous things and Bondi is world class.

We have been able to volunteer some of our time working with Hillsongs church and their community outreach. We actually heard about the church from the staff at two of the hostels. They seem to have a positive presence in the city.

During a BBQ last night we met this guy from England who, after scoring some cash from harvesting sugar cane for 3 weeks, got a tattoo on the back of his leg which said: HAND WASH ONLY. It also has the random symbols with it that you can see on the washing instructions on the tags of certain clothing. It made my day. I hope it makes his life. Something else weird, I see the best ice cream flavors all around me. I'll be walking down a muddy sidewalk and see colors that look like Double Death Chocolate Fudge ice cream. Another one I see frequently in the sand is Cinnimon ce cream with Butterfinger bits. Next time you're out and about, try to see all the scrumptous ice cream around you.

I found a scary book in one of the Hostels about the world ending. Despite the scariness there was a good quote I thought I'd share: "A man has to have some kind of devotion in his life, some frame of reference, some surety outside himself. That instinct is born in us. Pervert that instinct, deny it, and Hell will step in to fill the emptiness that should have been filled with God."

Some upcoming events we will be going to: Tri-Nations Rugby (Aus vs. Eng), Australian International Motor Show, U2/Kanye West concert, and maybe a confusing Cricket match. Cheers, mates.