Insert pirate joke here.

Boating in Australia and New Zealand is incredibly popular and often the best way to see the sights.  Surrounded by water, the good people of Oceania have figured out how to incorporate boats into tourism, entertainment, and daily transport.  I've always loved being on boats, and we've been super jazzed to be afloat exponentially more than usual since being down here.

Our last night in Sydney, we stayed with the Brightons in Cronulla.  Barb is the big sis of one of my besties from SU.  We went out for a sail and a dip; wine, cheese, and sunset included.  It was awesome! Only Dave had the stones to dive in from the mast. Made us want a sailboat.  And to know how to sail a sailboat.

From Auckland, we took a day trip to Waiheke island and hiked all over it, often through private property, which the locals graciously endorse.  Its beautiful and WASPy and nautically themed.  Apparently there are also white sand beaches there, but we hoofed it to the south shore where there were ruins of old boats, an equestrian club, and plenty of strangers' dogs to accost. 

After Auckland, we headed north to the Bay of Islands.  We stayed in an amazing cottage (Sunseeker Cottages in Paihia, if ever you're in the 'hood) overlooking a valley and tooled around the area for a few days.  We saw a ton of stuff and really dug it up there, so perhaps that bit merits a separate post.  One of the days, we went out on the boat pictured below for a day-long sail around the islands.  We anchored in a bay for a swim, a hike to a bluff vista, and a picnic lunch on deck. 

Once on the South Island of NZ our first itinerary item was a trip to Milford Sound.  About 4 hours from Queenstown on the windy-est roads since Pai, we took the early boat out because we'd read there would be less traffic on the water.  We basically had the joint to ourselves.  It was a quiet and nature-filled few hours as we traveled through the sound and were reunited with our old buddy, the Tasman Sea. 

We'll likely only be land lubbers for a few more days before we head to the Cook Islands, where we'll be in and on water for almost a month.  We'll be taking a break from cultural exploration and replacing visits to temples and climbing up shit with snorkeling and competitive seafood eating.  Expect scintillating tales of tan lines from the South Pacific...

Sydneysiders

People from Sydney call themselves Sydneysiders.  For a people who so lovingly shorten even the most benign of bi-syllabic words, its surprising that these slickers chose to add on when nicknaming themselves.  None the less, 'Siders is what they are, and we traveled amongst them.

Our time in Sydney was fast and furious.  Ed and I spent one day on our own, scaling the Cremorne/Mosman peninsula.  Sydney is so hilly its not uncommon to walk a straight-up staircase to get from one major roadway to another.  Our first day, we hiked around the water line for about 4.5 hours.  I literally had shin splints the next day.  And I'm literally using the word literally correctly.  For once.

The next morning my Mom arrived from NZ.  We crammed the lonely planet top 10 into 2 short days together.  From what we had heard about Sydney, we were expecting a business-y, buttoned up, not our scene city.  In actuality, Sydney is colorful, interesting and has a ton on offer.  When we return we're planning to stay for at least a week to take advantage of the top notch food, the groovy neighborhoods, and the excellent surf schools.  Hopefully I can talk Ed in to seeing an opera too.  I'll wear my fanciest Birkenstocks. 

The 48 hour Sydney circuit went something like this.  Day 1 we took the ferry from Mosman, where we stayed, to Circular Quay (pronounced "key" for reasons unknown).  We strolled the market at the Rocks, walked up and looked out from the harbor bridge, had brewskis at one of the country's oldest pubs, and obligatorily posed for this:

Day 2 we did a coastal hike from Bondi to Coogee Beaches.  Bondi is hip - hot girls, gorgeous graffiti and hard bodies abound.  We ate giant burgers and, smartly, stayed fully clothed in post. There's a nifty outdoor market in Bondi on the weekends where people hock more-interesting-than-usual crap so we trinketed and then set about walking off the beef.  The weather was relatively uncooperative but we were undeterred.  Fortunately, the storms only encouraged the surfers who were out in full force and full wetsuits for our entertainment. 

The railing for the walk is visible in the top left - the whole thing is about 4 miles long:

Non-sequitur...  Having now spent time on several sections of Australian coast, we've been surprised to note how many cemeteries are perched on peaks overlooking the sea.  We've guessed that this has to do with the incredible number of ship wrecks in Australia's history and its general sea-faringness.  In any case, dead folks get some prime real estate in this country.

And back to the plot...  We spent the our last night together at a truly fantastic Japanese joint in Mosman called Toshiya.  The food in Sydney, on balance, was consistently the best we've had here.  For all of Melbourne's braggery about being the food capital of Australia, we had some shit meals there.  We literally didn't have one misstep in Sydney, even when my Mom (bold call) ordered eggs Benedict at the ferry dock cafe in Mosman.

The gang at Toshiya.  I'm shocked that the sushi chef behind us didn't throw out a peace sign):

Thanks for coming to the other side of the world to see us, Mom.  It was the best.