Blitz-Road-Trip

From 4 months in OZ, the main thing I have learned about myself is that I am a poor blog updater...

Last week, my cousin Megan showed up with a friend. We hung out in Sydney for two days and then jumped into a van that they rented and headed north. I had 2 ½ days off, and they were flying out of Brisbane in 3 days. There was a bunch of flooding on the coast highways in between Sydney and Brisbane. Most people use the Pacific Highway, and we started our whirlwind tour in similar fashion. After buying some supplies, we made lunch in a park in Newcastle and headed inland to avoid the closed freeways. We jumped over some mountains and drove for a ways in the dark after an unreal sunset. It was sad to miss the scenery, but when we stopped cooked an easy dinner the best stars I have ever seen were out. The Milky Way completely filled a huge section of the sky, it was unbelievable. We drove on and slept a little way off the highway in a wooded area.
The next morning we continue along inland and found a set of beautiful waterfalls. When we finally ran back into the coast, snacked on some cheese and crackers, went for a swim and enjoyed the sun on a nice little beach. We rolled into Nimbin that afternoon to check it out. It is hard to spend long in OZ without hearing of Nimbin. This is straight from Wikipedia…
“In New South Wales, the cultivation, selling and possession of cannabis is illegal. In Nimbin all three activities are part of every day hippie culture. Nimbin has a high tolerance for cannabis plant (marijuana), with the open buying, selling and consumption of locally grown cannabis on the streets and laneways.”
I avoided the drug dealers and spent 6 minutes in an internet café booking my flight for the next morning. We arrived in Byron Bay just after sundown because I was driving too slow, the left side of the road thing is still very weird. We had a nice little birthday dinner, drove up to a random forest above the gold coast and spent the night there. The next morning I packed while Megan drove us to the airport, and I made it early enough to work to take a quick shower. Great little trip. Thanks girls.

Anzac Day

OK so I have been mostly working and not wandering around as much as I want, but last Saturday was Anzac Day. From what I was told, it is Veterans Day in the states except it celebrates a day where Australia invaded a country and got slaughtered. Also unlike our veterans day, the main Anzac tradition is "Two-up". I had been told a lot about two-up before going out but I was still quite surprised.
So we go to this bar that is about a 10 minute drive away and is about the size of a small Vegas casino. We show up around 1 PM and it is already quite busy. When we walk out into the courtyard, there are about 400 people standing in a circle. Everyone has a beer and many are holding money up in the air and shouting. The the announcer yells gibberish and everyone cheers.
Two-up rules: A person from the crowd (similar to craps) goes into the middle of the circle and gets a wooden stick with three coins sitting on it. They throw it up in the air and which ever one has "2-up", or three up, Wins. Everyone else in the crowd holds $10 or more above there head (only girls are allowed to bet $5) and yells "10 on heads". Everyone else then walks around and gives 10 to a person with their money in the air, who is now betting tails. The announcer yells tails, where the handful of money is exchanged, or hehehehaawwlllllsssss in which case the whole crowd cheers, the person holding the money keeps it and the tosser gets to toss again.
I was down $10 to random Australians most of the day and finally break even on the last toss as the sun is going down. We go to a couple of other bars, and a party then I walk back home. I feel a little groggy at work the next day.