oz mate

Hello ya'll,

Arrived at Andy's house.....what a palace. Amazing views of all the famous Gold Coast surf spots and a beautiful forest like setting, complete with sketchy wildlife! His family was waiting at the door to greet me with open arms, (Brooke was off in Noosa with Corey and Sarah, getting bronzed and meeting up with us in couple days). I was treated to a grand tour by the kids Kalani & Jarrah, then fed a fabulous feast by Carley, with bellies filled we slept well.

Next day Andy and I met up with some old Aussie mates that used to frequent the Encinitas area...we skated like we were 15 again...minus the beer, I swear it makes you skate better, try it!

In a Big Country

. . . dreams stay with you, like a lovers voice, on a mountain side . . . stay ah-live. Ok, ok, enough of the song lyrics, it's time to brag.

Yes, that is me feeding a kangaroo, yes that is me holding a koala, and yes, that is Micah getting killed by a snake. Don't be jealous. Micah and I made our way up to the Gold Coast where the souped up cars race through the streets like when we were in high school and where towns have names like Miami, Palm Beach, Mermaid Beach, etc. Sound like Florida to anyone? That's what I thought.

We arrived at our old buddy Sarah's house, where she lives with her Australain boyfriend Corey, or "Coco" as I like to call him. We went to dinner and went straight to bed afterwards because Micah and I knew we had a big day ahead of us. We woke up bright and early and headed to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. We took a stroll through the reptile exhibit where Micah was strangled by a giant plastic snake and was spitting reptile facts at me left and right. We got up close and personal with a couple of crocs and saw one chow down on a little critter, I think it was a big mouse.

We then rushed over to the koala exhibit. We paid a small fee to hold a koala, and let me tell you it was worth every penny. The koala we got to hold was named Elroy. He was quite soft. I think he really liked me, he reached his arms out, grabbed on to me tight and became quite comfortable when he layed his head on my, eh-hem, boob. Micah was a little jealous. That's right people, I got a new boyfriend and his name is Elroy.

We saw a snake show which was pretty cool, we learned that Australia has eight of the ten most deadliest snakes in the world and got to see a few of them. We meandered through the walkways and saw some cassowaries (world's dealiest bird), wombats (cutest thing ever), a twenty foot croc and then it was kangaroo time! We walked into a big open enclosure, a petting zoo if you will, where we were immediately surrounded by kangaroos. We fed them, pet them, and jumped aound a bit. Some females even had little joeys in their pouches! It sounds cute but honestly, it lookes like and alien or something. All you can see are these long feet and a couple of hands with long claws poking out of a stomach, very Total Recall-esque.

The next day we were off to the Australia Zoo. This was the zoo that belonged to Steve Irwin, which his wife now runs. It was really cool, a big focus on crocs. We saw some of the most beautiful tigers and the cutest tiger cubs! Oh yeah, and dingos too! I got to pet a wombat and a baby croc. Geez, I am the luckiest girl in the whole wide world, or the nerdiest. Either way, Micah and I had a blast!

xo
Brooke

Syd & Beyond.....

YO!! Whud up kid!

Hanging in Sydney Dawg!

Lame.....

We have been laggin on the blog, I know you guys say you don't care.....but I know you've checking it... right, right?

Well, we saw the sights of Sydney. Pretty great city. Had a bear of an allergy attack, worst thing ever. All day sneeze fest, from the Opera House, to the ferry around the harbar, even in the Aquarium! 10hours of sneezing, !!ACHTUNG!! & GAZOONTITE!!
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We cruised around the city for a couple days via buses and trains. Ran into a madman dancing on the beach in his chonies. People love to wear the most offensive beach gear in Bondi...hence the tan 'dicktogs'
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So the van you see in the photo is a thing of evil. This thing was put on the earth to test the stability of Brooke and I's love for each other. WORST THING EVER. I can't describe the awefulness of this van in words....I will not even attempt. We will leave it at that and never metion the name, "WickedCamper" again..

Thanks and Goodnight

Micah

Brooke Marshall-Occupation: xtreme sports lenswomen

Brooke's becoming quite the photographer. I was in need of a photographer for all my special moves, but did not have the budget to pay for a powerful lensman.

I'm just grateful she is able to document these special moves.

Joking aside the b.s.t.s. is pretty cool...seriously folks, right?

micah.

Air-Raid Sirens and Glo-Worms

Who ever hasn't woken up to air-raid sirens should really try it, especially when sleeping in a campervan at 5am in a different country, it really adds to the experience. Yes, Micah and I woke up to what we thought were air-raid sirens our last morning in Raglan, turns out it was just the fire department calling it's local volunteers. Scary none the less.

We headed down to Waitomo Caves where we had a jump on the trampoline and a quick sleep before waking up to go "black water rafting." No, that doesn't mean rafting down sewer water, it's waaaaay better than that. We went caving, in the pitch dark, freezing caves of Waitomo. We had to dress in really sexy, not smelly at all wetsuits (actually, it smelled like, well, when you pee in you wetsuit), and helmets equipped with spelunking lights, which Micah and I wear at home on a regular basis, so we fit right in. We hiked down into an underground cave with stalagtites hanging from the ceiling. We had inner-tubes with us so when we got to the deeper water parts of the cave, we hopped in them, by being forced to jump off waterfalls, backwards, into who knows where, and looked up at the pitch black ceiling. But wait, what are those stars doing in the cave? Oh, those are glo-worms? WHOA! It looked as if we were staring up at the Milky Way as we floated through the cave waters. We couldn't feel our hands or feet and our lips were purple but we didn't care, it was so incerdible to see these glo-worms shining.

After we were treated for hypothermia (I joke, I joke), we headed off to Rotorua, first stop, thermal pools. It felt so nice to thaw our icicle bodies in these naturally hot pools. The only bad thing was that the whole city smelled like rotten eggs due to all of the thermal activity.

The next day we were all warmed up and ready to go . . . . street louging, yeah that's right. We rode a gondola way up atop a mountain and then louged down it. First run went well, second run, uhhhh, not so much. I (meaning, me, as in Brooke) was feeling a little too comfortable and sped past two kids, Micah, and then the turn got the best of me. Yes, I munched it, ran into the railing, stopping myslef from flying over the edge down a realy steep hill by using my ankle as a brake . . . not a great idea. I threw myslef back on the louge like any louge champ would do and proceeded to the finish line, only to have Micah laugh at me as he sped by me, not knowing I nearly lost my life just moments before. Once we got to the finish line he saw my tears and felt bad for speeding by me and taking the win. I have fully recovered and I am ready for more.

Oh yeah, and we went to a wildlife preserve where we pet lion cubs, fed wallabies, llamas and emus (the emu tried to bite Micah's hand off but was luckily unsuccessful).

Cheers!

Lady and the Tramp

So I guess New Zealand has a thing for trampolines. Every single campsite we went to had at least one, they call them "supatramps". Micah and I became quite good at our trampoline skills along the way, here's a few photos for your amusement and envy.

Where Do I Begin?

Sheesh, I feel like we have been to a million places since our last post, well, make that four to be exact. Our first stop was to a place called Whatuiwhiwhi ("wh" is pronounced "f"). It is in Doubtless Bay on the west coast of the north island. We hung out on a beautiful beach there, jumped on another trampoline, rolled down a couple grass hills and met some really cool people. Oh yeah . . . how can I forget . . . we were asked to babysit a strangers 18 month old while they ran to get some dinner. Yeah, I know. We did and thought it was quite odd, but everybody is so friendly here I suppose that was not out of the ordinary.

Now Micah takes over . . .

Next stop was Ahipara, suppose to be an amazing wave.....no such luck. Fun campground though, complete with ping pong, wild dogs and real live Germans! I completely destroyed Brooke at Scrabble and she continued to kill me @ ping pong.

Piha was our Vdubs next parking lot. "Piha!" the birth place of NZ surfing. Once again skunked, blown out and messy. Had a hellish drive to get to the beach too......think Big Sur on the wrong side of the road.

We got the hell out of Piha and headed over to Raglan....billed as Leucadia in the 70's by visitors that have been to both, and I could see why. Pretty clean, a little messy, filled with pround people that kinda don't want you there but are too friendly to tell you that.

We stayed for 2 days. There was a skatepark right next to the campground, the wave was about 3 mins away and town was a 2 minute walk. Highly recomend visiting Raglan. Oh yeah Brooke killed me @ ping pong again....