No Pictures of Kangaroos Here

Km Driven: 732

Not that many more km added to the count but thats because we got caught up in Sydney, and more specifically, Bondi life. Originally we didn't plan to hang around the city here too much until we dropped off our van but now it seems that I may have fallen in love with this place. If I could wake up in the morning, go for a jog on the beach, head to work, then come back to surf and have dinner out on a patio overlooking the pacific, I don't know if I'd want to move

Basically, it's all because I've met some of the nicest people here. When I was teaching skiing at Sunshine Village and living in Banff, I made friends with two Aussies from Bondi who I've kept in touch with since then very meagerly. Almost nothing I guess, maybe a few emails. That was 4 years ago almost. But upon my arrival here, it's as if we'd just lost touch for one night. The Aussies decided to treat us like their new Canuckistani bretheren.

Because Nate and Lucas are both ex-travellers (lucas was in america/canada/south america for 2 years, Nate for 4!! he just got back last month) they know what is hardest for us and what we'd like to do. So since making it to Bondi, we've parked the old girl across from Nate's house, which is right on a huge golf course and 15 minutes from the beach, and have taken part in Aussie life.

First, we went to an Australia Day bbq on Coogie beach where there was a cookout and numerous friend's of Nates wondering who the two white guys were. This quickly developed into a house party at the apartment of the Australian Idol presenter and her boyfriend in a swank apartment overlooking the coast. Beautiful time.

We also met up with Louis' sister and her friends from Montreal. This is really funny because Louis and I ran with the bulls so many months ago and have kept in touch since he took off for his MBA in Montreal. While reading about the race to get to Australia, he reminded me to visit his sister, who is a down under quebecer now and was really cool about inviting a pair of Canadians to her Australia Day party

Since then I've gone out with some of Luke and Nate's buddies, gone surfing with them and made a nice night of the Tennis final which we watched on the biggest tv this side of the equator. Aside from that, Nate's been super helpful in showing the main sights (place the Matrix was filmed!!) teaching about the people and giving us a lift around town to some places. Our first day here we met up and he took us for a swim right away. Then, as if to initiate me to this country and to see if I remembered what we used to jump on skiis back in Banff, we climbed up to some beautiful cliffs overlooking Sydney Harbour. Really, there was a picture perfect view of the Opera House and Bridge which was to distract me from the heights. Luckily, there were locals there to urge me on and I hopped off a couple of times and had a blast . Don't think I've ever dived from that high before

Tomorrow we drive south, time to see what this van can do on the highway