Austraaaaalia

Just got back from a splendid two week vacation ("holiday") in Australia. To start, I had several misconceptions about Australia before heading over

(1) Australia is hot. This is not false, but certainly not uniformly true. Upon arriving in Melbourne, I was less than impressed by the 4° C weather and the wind chill. I was, however, quite impressed by the lovely animals at the Melbourne Zoo, and very thankful to have great friends who picked me up from the airport in the morning :)

(2) Koalas have a lot of character. False, although they are nothing short of precious, they tend to be quite boring to watch. I reckon it's all the eucalyptus.

(3) Kangaroos are zoo animals. FALSE. They are all over the place! Even the ones in the zoos and wildlife parks seem to diverge from usual "wild animal behavior". Also, I'm still surprised by the diversity of the marsupials over there, really quite different from other mammals.

(4) I guess it's all the Mercator projections from school, but I hadn't realized how massive Australia is.

ANYHOW, after arriving in Melbourne and checking out the zoo, my friend Carmen and I also toured around the city (missing many a free tourist shuttle bus), ending up at the Victoria Market, Docklands, Crown Casino, and above all, the rejuvenating Yarra River. While in Melbourne, I stayed the Elephant International Backpacker and enjoyed meeting (mostly just curiously observing) the various people staying there. Watched several strange movies and learned my fair share about AFL (quite the big deal over in Oz). The people I met there were interesting, and I especially enjoyed the fact that another backpacker was wearing a panda hat/beanie! (Although mine is MUCH cooler). Also wandered over to the War Memorial/shrine. I find it curious that ANZAC soldiers receive so much more respect, recognition, and devotion from their nations than Americans, espeically considering how massive the US keeps its armed forces.

A few days of weather less than 10° during vacation proved more than enough, so Carmen and I booked a flight up north to the warmth (the southern hemisphere still confuses me in that regard) of the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast = magical! We stayed in Surfers Paradise, I kid you not, SURFERS PARADISE, Australia!! We enjoyed not being tourists and hassling the party tour sales people who would without fail ask any young paserby "hey, you ladies partying tonight?" "you boys want to check out the clubs?". The Beer Garden had $3 Happy Hour, which is virtually unheard of in New Zealand. As a side note, while in Australia I also went to Phillip's Island and saw the world's smallest (33-35 cm tall) penguins scurry across the shore-- very cute, but very cold. Anyhow, we went to the Australia (Steve Irwin) Zoo and were absolutely appalled by the live show. The crocodile, though impressive, didn't seen keen on acting the relentlessy irritating Bindi Irwin. Her singing/dancing routine was horrific, and the shameless promotion of her books/movies/what not was extremely disappointing. Growing up Steve Irwin was definitely a hero of mine, and it was distressing to see how his child seemed to be a cash machine. Much to Carmen's delight we saw wombats being walked on a leash through the zoo! Besides the two keepers managing the wombat, there was a wagon for it to hop into when it got too tired to walk back to it's enclosure--that's the life. Although characterized by extreme laziness, many native Australian creatures become quite threaning when intimidated or provoked.
The town Surfers Paradise reminded me of IV, although much more commercial, certainly cleaner, and with some occupants outside the 17-24 age group. That's all for now, I'm quite worn out from travels and meeting my awesome new flatmates!