Australia

Leslie and I just returned from a two-week trip to Australia. We flew in and out of Sydey and spent all of our time in New South Wales. Unfortunately I am using such a crappy internet connection that I won't be able to upload any pictures today. Leslie has a bunch of photos posted on her facebook page.
Since Australia is a very expensive place to travel we decided to try something called "couchsurfing" so save money. Couchsurfing.org is a nonprofit organization that basically functions as a social networking site for people looking for a place to stay while traveling. You sign up, establish a profile, and then browse for people offering up their couches in the places you want to travel to. We used this website to find Chase and Natasha Johnson, a really nice couple in Sydney. We stayed at their place the first 3 nights of our vacation and then the last two nights of our vacation. Chase took us for a walk around the beaches of Sydney.
Being in the first world was quite a shock after being in Fiji for so long. The one thing we noticed was how different the fashion was. In Sydney there were literally hordes of beautiful people wearing the trendiest and most expensive clothing. Leslie and I felt like a couple of unsophisticated grungy backpackers (which is exactly what we are).
In Sydney, we did the walk from Cudgee beach to Bondi, took the ferry to Manley Beach, and took some pictures of the Opera House. Other than that, we didn't do too many touristy things in Sydney- just walked around and stared at things.
After a few days in Sydney we headed north to the Ku-ring Gai Chase national park. This park is just north of Sydney, but getting there using public transport takes half a day. We only spent one night here, at the Pittwater YHA. This was, by far, my favorite place on the trip. My only regret is not staying here longer. At the YHA we saw several wallabies and a few kookaburras. We borrowed the hostel's kayaks for an afternoon and ended up kayaking with dolphins! At one point we were within five feet of them.
After Ku-ring Gai Chase we headed north to Newcastle. Newcastle itself was not too impressive, but we intended to use it as a jumping off point to visit the Hunter Valley. We again couch surfed in Newcastle with Ellie Hammond and her roommates. We again had a great experience couchsurfing. Her roommates were a lot of fun and we enjoyed the bohemian vibe of the place.
Next we went to Cessnock where we did a tour of the Hunter Valley wineries. Not much to talk about here other than we got to taste a lot of good wine and developed a nice midday buzz.
After Cessnock we took the overnight train up to Byron Bay. The train ride, like all overnight train rides, sucked. We managed to get a bit of sleep but we still had to take a nap once we arrived in Byron Bay.
Byron Bay is a major tourist town. The weather happened to be great while we were there and we arrived on a Saturday so the town was absolutely packed. After taking our nap we went for a long walk on Belongil beach, avoiding the naked old people sprawled our like elephant seals on the beach. It was a beautiful place with a lot to do.
After going on a short day trip to Nimbin we headed to Murwillambah to climb Mt. Warning. Mt. Warning is a popular climb in northern New South Wales. Due to its height and proximity to the ocean, it is the first place in Australia to see the sunrise each day. Because of this, some people get up at 3am to climb it in time for the sunrise. There was no way in hell we were doing this. We climbed it a 10am like normal people. It was a pretty nice climb- not too extreme but very pretty. See Leslie's blog for pictures.
On our way back to Sydney we stopped in Bellingen, another picturesque town. We did another hike here in nearby Dorrigo National Park. Bellingen isn't famous for much, but the owner of the youth hostel told us that the movie "Danny Deckchair" was filmed here. Also, the musician that the movie "Shine" is based on lives here.
Not much else to report. We are back in Fiji now. Our village has started building the new pipeline, and Leslie's PCPP funding request has been approved and posted online. If anyone wants to help her (and the people of Ra) out you can visit https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=411-142 and make a donation.