Coming Soon....

We did so much on this trip that not everything could/or should have made it to the normal blog; but because there are still some great things to show you, we will soon be posting some bloopers and outtakes from our trip.

Things that didnt deserve a full post but are definitely worth seeing (and laughing at)

Cheers!

A Blonde Farewell to Sydney, last night out at the Ivy

Our last night in Sydney was a long one! Because our flight home would not be a red-eye like it was coming, we knew we couldn't sleep the night before to make sure we were able to sleep on the plane. What we didn't calculate is that it is good to be tired for your plane... not hungover and tired! Either way we hit the Ivy nightclub for a fun final night! This morning we were hurting at the airport but it was well worth it.

Should I get out of bed tomorrow?!

Jeri and I had a daily ritual in Australia. Everyday after taking the train we picked up our free copy of the MX which is a daily gossip newspaper and turn to our favorite article, "should I get out of bed tomorrow?" So of course it was fitting that we had to look at it the day before our flight home. We think that these are very telling....

Mine is Capricorn: I think it hit on my longing to stay in Australia very well.

Jeri's is Libra: No turning back aye? Perhaps on to our next trip?

WWF: More than Wrestling! Earth Hour 2009

Our trip to Australia wasn't just all about fun and games... we decided to make a contribution to Australian society (besides just being here) and volunteer! We spent a week volunteering at the WWF office which is not the World Wrestling Federation, it is the World Wildlife Fund (the one with the cute panda symbol).. We helped them prepare for Earth Hour which is something that was started in Australia to help raise awareness about environmental issues and work towards the restructuring the Kyoto protocol in order to prevent global warming.

All you have to do to support Earth Hour is go online and register to participate. It just means shutting your lights off for one hour! It is taking place on Saturday March 28 at 8:30PM!

This Year Vote Earth!
visit: http://www.earthhour.org/home/

"The Hunter": Hunter Valley Wine Country!

Wino! Jeri and I couldn't pass up visiting "The Hunter" Australia's equivalent to our Napa Valley. We spent the day drinking wine, eating cheese, and causing (a bit) of havoc at the wineries!

We started our day at McWilliam's award wining winery, where we spent...eh hum... 2 hours tasting wine and chatting with our new wine-making friends (As this was the start of the day, these are the only pictures we took.. the rest of the day was more of a blur!)

***As a side note, it is important for you to understand that "information center" in the Hunter Valley means an inlet on the shoulder of the road where there is a large map posted of the area--SUPER helpful*** So when we arrived at McWilliam's our wine tasting host Andy provided us with a proper map including his house which was artistically cut out and tapped to our map!

Matt was another amazing McWilliams host whom makes his own wine (keep your eyes out for him) He was kind enough to give us two bottles of his homemade (garage made) wine from his brand 14 Drops. Not knowing what they were getting themselves into...they let us run wild behind the bar and let us wear some amazing day-glow vests (these are worn out in the vineyards to keep track of people) which we rocked as indicators of awesomeness.

The GREAT Ocean Road (sorta)

We have realized how spoiled we are to live in California. The Great Ocean Road trip though was beautiful and scenic couldnt quite rival the coastal views of the California Coastline along CA1. Perhaps we are a bit biased... but there were a few things that definitely out-shadowed our ocean coast. A few of those being the rain forests that set slightly inland from the coast (with waterfall) as well as the 12 Apostles (formations that were formed from the crashing waves) which were stunning. And as with any scenic coastal drive there was the romantic Split lighthouse at Aireys Inlet where we sat on a wooden bench and slipped our warm coffee.

Penguin Parade: Phillip Island

"Ahh they are so cute"

"Jeri, quick, you distract the rangers, I will toss one in my purse!"

After waiting 2 hours on a beach in Phillip Island (2 hours away of Melbourne) Jeri and I witnessed the penguin parade! Every night at "dusk" which is really a way of saying, "whenever the penguins show up," the Fairy Penguins come out of the water and head into their burrows to rest for the night (and mate). 804 penguins came out for the penguin parade that night and they are so cute and tiny. Standing around 30cm tall, they are the smallest of the 17 types of penguins.

They were worth the wait! Since we could not use photography (it scares the little guys) here is a photo we borrowed from a website for your enjoyment!

Roughing it. Blondes on top and bottom....bunk!

10 Days of roughing it in Brisbane, Cairns, and Melbourne. Conditions were harsh, we had no internet and had to share a bathroom with at least 3o other people. It was traumatic. Jeri cried once. I wept in my sleep a few times. But truth be told, we had a great time in the Aussie hostels even though most of you complained that we did not keep up the blog! (it wasn't our fault!) We got to meet lots of people, and share our adventures with other adventurers. Here is a nice view of our sleeping arrangement. It was a bit like being 6 again! Jeri won the top bunk! (which by the way is not as fun when you are 25, it is rough climbing up and jumping down in old age!-- it will require at least a month of chiropractic care). Not to mention that we were the oldest people in the hostels. We were surrounded by 18 year old girls who were amazed we were still alive at 25 (how could anyone be THAT old!?)

True Conversation:
Girl (Stephanie) to Sara: "Hey are you here on holiday?"
Sara, "Oh yes, just for 5 weeks."
Stephanie: "Oh cool, I am in Uni (University) here. How old are you?"
Sara: "I'm 25"
Stephanie: (Gasp) "Well, you look good."
Sara : "Um... thanks."

How to Crack a Coconut.... Blonde Style....

Jeri and I found the key to opening a coconut.... a man. After about an hour of trying to crack it ourselves, through both conventional and unconventional tools... we found the easiest way to crack a coconut was to get a man to do it for us! The following follows our path to coconut greatness... First Jeri tried sticks.... Then I tried to smash it, by err jumping on it in flip flops (very practical) Then we found... Tyson. Genius.

Oh Crikey!

Crocs mate! The Australia Rain forest (Daintree) was filled with frogs and CROCS (and perhaps some other stuff, but we mostly saw frogs and er crocs!)

Just about a month ago a Croc (13 foot long) ate a 5 year old boy along the shore of the river we floated down (we were in a boat)... they killed the croc and found the remains inside. Very sad.

Luckily we were far more fotunate and only saw smaller crocs (and we made sure to keep our hands and legs inside the boat).

Here are a few pics from our Rain forest aventure!

We Cairn do it... under water!

The Great Barrier Reef!!!

Jeri and I took a two-day trip to the reef, where we snorkled and dove to our hearts content! I don't know if you have heard of extreme snorkleing, but Jeri and I did it. In fact next to our names on the sign-in sheet the captain (Renaldo) wrote X-treme Snorkle. That is intense!

I don't want to brag but we were definitely fit the description of extreme. 4 snorkles and one dive a day for two days...amazing. We slept aboard the boat right on the reef, so we were ready for anything. Starting at 6am (the extreme part) we hit the water and saw sharks (white tipped reef sharks) stingrays, and even got to pet a turtle (which we named Esmerelda)

We may not be pro, but we were definitely X-TREME!

We Cairn do it!!

Friday the 13th Jeri and I decided to tempt fate, and go bungee jumping! It was by far the scariest thing we have ever done, and to quote Jeri, "it was 10-times scarier than walking down the aisle!" When we got there we walked up the spiral staircase to a platform 50 meters (164 feet) above an 8 foot lake. I felt like I wanted to throw up, and Jeri said I looked like I was completely pale!

My last words to the guy before I jumped were, "Oh my God, I dont think I can do this!"

Jeri said, "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!"

Because no words can really do this justice.. here are the videos!

Hopping on to Brisbane...

So, this sign may have been the highlight of our 14 hour drive to Brisbane. Yup folks, a kangaroo crossing sign, and trust me they mean business. We saw quite a few kangaroos that didn't make it across the road, perhaps they should have read the sign.

It rained all the way up to Brisbane (there is a huge Cyclone that is heading this way--crazy!), and at one point there was so much rain that it actually covered the entire windshield, and to quote myself, (although the quote has changed and become more dramatic every time the story has been told) "Oh my God we are going to die, I love you Jeri!" It may have been something more like, "Oh S#&T!!" but the first was far more exciting!

Our trusty driver Drew made sure that we made it there alive, and that we received adequate levels of chocolate to keep us calm.

I don't know that there will be any more Brisbane blogs as it is about as amazing as watching water boil... okay, maybe even less.... oh well. In a few days we will be flying to the Great Barrier Reef!

oh and p.s. we did win trivia night tonight at our hostel so that added about 2 points to our stay in Brisbane, bringing the total to: 2.

Adding to the Duo!

Lauren and Lauren joined the blonde Duo for last night's Sydney Gay Mardi Gras!

Gay Mardi Gras!

Think SF Gay Pride Parade with an Australian accent... and lots and lots of glitter.

Last night the Mardi Gras parade started around 8pm near Hyde Park (fitting) and the party went until about 9am. We left the parade around 10pm and ventured out to the bars and got to enjoy a night of feather boas and shimmer glue. Although we didnt make it until 9am, we did have a lot of fun with some SF friends. Our friends Lauren and Lauren joined the blonde duo (to save people the trouble we just all introduced ourselves as Lauren).

We leave for Brisbane tomorrow, so we wont have many posts until we get back--so stay tuned! Gold Coast, Great Barrier Reef ... here we come!

From Bondi Beach... We just couldnt resist...

I don't even know if these images even need a caption. Lets just say we giggled a lot today at the beach. We spent our day at Bondi Beach people watching! We saw quite a few topless women, and well... these guys. We were also celebrities in our own right-- when the tour bus of Asians got off at Bondi, Jeri and I posed for many-a-picture with tourists. Perhaps because we were two blondes in bikinis, we were asked to pose with about 4 different people! Ha! Well, enjoy!

Life's a Beach!

We couldnt call this an Australia Blog without the token Beach Picture. Jeri and I spent a few hard hours "Sun Baking" out at the beach. This beach is called Balmoral, which is a long stretch of beach lined with cute cafes and sun tanned surfers.

Oh, the life.... heard it is raining back in SF, sorry to hear :)

Tastes like.... Lambeef!

For all of you who have long anticipated this next post, we felt it was only right to delay the tasting of the Kangaroo (Roo), as we just posted cute pictures of us feeding them. The mantra we tried to remember as we tasted it was, "kangaroos are very over populated and they can be mean." And as we had our champagne and our wine, it got easier to get used to the idea of eating the Kangaroo. Just in case you are wondering, and I am sure you are... it is a very lean dark meat (very high in iron and low in fat) with a taste somewhere in between beef and lamb (Lambeef!) So here is to Roo!

Strike a pose...Koala style

If you were a Koala, you too could sleep 18 hours a day!

Kangaroos, Koalas and Blondes, oh my!

Finally some wildlife, other than the Aussie Boys!

Today we went to Koala Park to feed some Kangaroos and pet the Koalas! I am pretty sure that the Kangaroos were pretty happy about seeing us, they didnt say so but I think it was pretty obvious. We walked around the park and got to see Fairy Penguins (lilttle warm weather penguins), Wombats, Cocatoos, and Emus and of course sheep!

Tonight we are going out to dinner to try Kangaroo. Its horrible I know, but to quote Jeri, "we feed them, they can feed us!"

Tragedy has struck... death of a good friend

Last night there was a great tragedy. We lost our good friend the Flat Iron to a freak power- conversion accident. If you dont know, Australia's outlets work at a much higher voltage so you have to use a converter to lower how much power goes into the devices. After about 5 minutes of use, the Flat Iron just quit. Jeri and I almost didnt leave the house that day. But decided to wear our very puffy hair out in public as a sign of loss to pay our respects.

We are happy to report that after a trip to town we have replaced our friend with an Australian flat iron (no conversion needed) so all is well in the world of hair once again.

May you rest in peace Flat Iron, you will be greatly missed. Please observe a moment of silence for a good friend.

Roses and Bats...

When walking through the Royal Botanical Gardens here you would expect to see flowers, the typical and flora and fauna. However, bats werent something we were expecting. In the Middle Garden (the Botanical Gardens are huge) there are trees filled with thousands of bats. And they all "hang out" there (haha) during the day, and at dusk leave the trees to find more shelter. It was insane to look up and see the bats everywhere! If you tell from the picture these are flying foxes because their faces look like little fox faces. Weird.

Sydney Harbour Bridge: A documentary! (or a short)

Across the Harbour Bridge!

I guess its not really appropriate to ask, "so do a lot of people jump off your bridge too?" But it only seemed logical to compare our bridge to the Harbour bridge. And as of last year about 602 people were jumping each year but they now they have a barrier up. After walking across the bridge, we got to climb a pylon to the top of the bridge. It had amazing views of the Opera House and of the Harbour. It took us only about 1/2 an hour to walk across and back, and definitely wasnt as windy as the Golden Gate.

And because we thought we should....The Harbour Bridge!

We realized that perhaps you might not actually believe we were in Sydney from the blogs we have posted so far. I mean you can buy Vegemite at Cost Plus, and we could have just made up what was on that Buger with the lot...and Chinatown--we could just be in San Francisco.

So just to clear the air and make sure you know we aren't just pulling a fast one on you for 5 weeks, here is a picture of us with the Harbour Bridge! We got to see this on our first day in Sydney, but we plan on walking across it tomorrow, so we will have even more pictures for you then! Til then, hopefully this will help prove we truly are in Sydney!

Yes, there is a Chinatown in Sydney (I know what you are thinking)

Welp! Leave it to us to find Chinatown in Sydney!

Have you ever just had an urge for noodles? Or chinese? I know I have.

If you didnt know, there is a huge Chinese population in Australia; almost as many Chinese Australians as there are are the typical white Australians. And when there is a huge Chinese immigrant population, there is always a Chinatown. And we found it!

I am realizing that most of our blogs involve food, but really, we've got to eat! We had the dumpling noodle soups today. Jeri had the hot and sour dumpling soup and to quote Jeri, "it was the spiciest thing I have ever had, but totally worth it!. 5 hours later and I can still feel the hotness in my stomach." I had the dumpling soup with veggies and hand-rolled noodles. Best noodles I have EVER had. We took the leftovers because if you can tell from the picture the bowls were huge!

(The menu's were in Chinese so we ordered by picture from the window behind us!)

The Challenge: Burger with the lot

Today Jeri and I ventured to Manly beach which is about 1/2 hour ferry ride out of the Sydney Harbour. We went in search of hot beaches, and the burger with the lot! The beach at Manly was absolutely stunning and not to make you too jealous but it was about 82 degrees today! After about two hours on the beach we ventured to Burger Me to get the Challenge. Burger with the lot is a staple of Australia, and unlike Vegemite, this one is actually worth trying...

Burger with the lot includes: Beef patty, sweet pineapple, melted Aussie Cheddar, fried egg, bacon, tomato relish, beet root (pickled beet) mayo, lettuce, onion, and tomato. Oh and of course a sesame seed bun.

This burger was bigger than my hand spread out wide! Jeri and I each ate half for lunch and couldnt even try to eat dinner. Definitely a staple worth trying!

Our Australian Initiation!

What is Vegemite you may ask? Besides being one of Australia's food icons, it is a yeasty, salty spread commonly put on toast and cracker biscuits. It has the texture similar to peanut butter. Upon our arrival in Sydney, Jeri's friend Rebekah, whom we are staying with our first few nights, welcomed us and explained that it is customary in Australia to have Vegemite upon your arrival. (This we found out is not true) It tastes just as great as it sounds, so we decided to film it so that you could understand the feeling we had when we tried it.

Australian Hazing: Vegemite

How this Saga Began....

Before we can begin documenting our Australian Adventure, you must understand the origin of this great journey...

Some great ideas come from months of research, with men doning white coats sitting around discussing hypothesis and theory. As it is the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth, it is only fitting that our GREAT idea came about this very year; yet ours came about in a very organic way. Our great idea started with Vegas, 8 days of Vegas.

While working, I had planned a Vegas weekend with friends for my quarter-life crisis, but upon being laid-off, and Jeri being unemployed due to her relocation back to the bay, suddenly staying in Vegas for the whole week seemed like a good plan, and Jeri agreed. That's when all of the crazy ideas began (it could have also been the wine and vodka--guess we will never know!)

When you aren't working, anything seems possible, so maybe just as a joke, we threw around the idea of traveling to Australia, and it stuck. Soon friends (you know who you are) asked, "are you guys really going to go, or are you just saying that to mess with Garrett and Jason?" Perhaps at first it was a little bit of both!?

The rest of the time Jeri and I were in Vegas, we met some amazing people, we were definitely spoiled, danced with Akon, took a picture with Evander Holyfield (I was on the earless side, see above) and karaoked with some southern boys. We had a blast, but besides realizing that we can never do 8 days in Vegas again, we decided to actually follow through with our travel ambitions and see Australia. So although 8 days of Vegas was way too much for us to handle again, we are ready to embark on 5 weeks in the Land Down Under!

Our flight takes off Friday Feb. 20th at 10:30pm, so stay tuned!