Little taste of NZ

Here's a teaser to hold you over until I get through the editing down of over 1,200 photos from the trip. :O These are some highlights of our bungy adventure in Queenstown, New Zealand. We're jumping off the Kawarau Bridge over the Kawarau River. A historical site...this was where commercial bungy began. The water was an amazing color...glacier water. Loved it so much we had to do it twice. Little chilly, but our adrenaline kept us warm ;)

Race of the Roach

Australia Day - January 26. Meat pies, bbq lamb chops and the Day of the Roach...well, at least in Brisbane at the Story Bridge Hotel. Unfortunately Dale Squirmhart and Shoe Be Gone did not cross the line, not even sure they made it across the line before a sole was their demise. This racing of the cockroaches is a tradition apparently started back in 1981.

"As the story goes the Story Bridge Hotel Cockroach Races were started when two old punters sat in the bar arguing over which suburb had the biggest and fastest roaches. They decided to race some roaches the next day and history was made. The races have now been held at the Story Bridge Hotel for 28 years."

There are ten races, one every half hour. About 40 "entries" in each race. You have to enter your roach under a name (which is a game in and of itself) and their number is drawn on its back. Your lucky if your steed even makes it through the race...once they let them all out there's a lot of screaming and stomping of feet as they scatter over the mat and into the crowd. At one point a roach was even thrown into my purse. Disgusting! Some of the Hall of Famers are: Sir Roachalot, Cocky Balboa, Cow Cocky and my personal favorite and 2003 winner - Lord of the Drains.

Here's a taste of the fun:


For the history of Australia Day: http://www.australiaday.com.au/studentresources/history.aspx

Hunter, Wine and Bob

Our first trip of '09. Hunter Valley, New South Wales. Wine region. B&B. The photos tell some of the tale. 

The unknown world of cricket

So much to catch up on...that's what I get for not keeping up with this, hey? (btw - "hey?" added onto the end of a sentence is a huge Australian thing...we've somewhat adopted it :) 

I'll start at the cricket. Now this is a game that neither of us could follow for awhile. So many rules, foreign rules. Different types of games played. Strategies. I guess I always just thought of it as a croquetish type game played by white vest-clad, white zinc-lipped gentlemen with large brimmed hats. Ahh, it is so much more than that, my friend. One of our good Australia friends, Brooke, had the patience to help these feeble minded Yanks understand the game and how important it is to this nation of Australia and many other countries. Let me start by saying it is a big deal. Like baseball to the U.S. We've had the chance to go to a couple of 20/20 games, these are the shortest version of the professional game...about 3 hours. They tend to be a little more exciting as well, more fast-paced than the traditional test match cricket which sometimes takes 5 days!!!! Yes, days.... about 7 hours per day!!!! ugh. That of course includes a break for tea. :) I feel like our sports are so barbarian - if only we would allot a tea time during a football game, automatically more refined. Anyway, we've come to appreciate the game to the point of playing it ourselves. We already taken part in cricket in the park as well as beach cricket. Maybe we'll bring a set back to share in the joy of this new found sport in our lives. 

Dog and Keys Show

New Year's weekend we spent a couple days down in Cooloogatta, on the Gold Coast, to see a Dr. Dog and The Black Keys show. Good show. Beautiful beach town.