My Australian Experience: No Kangaroos!

By Tom
Christchurch, New Zealand

I'll just go ahead and say it: Julia and I went to Australia and we neither saw, nor ate, kangaroos.  That's a little like visiting Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower or visiting Nairobi and not getting robbed -you don't really get the full experience.  I'm pretty sure that Australia gives you your money back in this case, but so far I've been unable to figure where we get our refund on the government website.

The photo that I didn't take of a kangaroo

There are only two things that are able to appease my slight disappointment about not seeing any 'roos:
1. We now have to come back to Australia again sometime in our lives and
2. We got a taste of many other quintessentially Aussie experiences such as excessive friendliness and socialized medicine.  

The trip was a nice cross-section of southern Australia; small-town and big city, the beach and the bush.  We visited Nathan's parents in the house he grew up in in Victoria.  After being on the road for so many months, it was nice to spend the night in a home that could have been my mother's and to have dinner with Nathan's parents whose good food was surpassed only by their boundless good cheer.  We then got to tool around wine country for the day visiting some of the wineries and art galleries.  Nathan also took us to the coast where we stayed with some of his family friends in their beach house.

Families picnic in wine country, Yarra Valley

A symbol of Australia, the laughing kookaburra bird

 Hanging out with Nathan is a little like spending a weekend with Russell Brand -he seems to know everyone in Australia and stops to say hello to all of them, and you're never really sure what he's going to show up wearing next.  

Nathan

We stopped in a few pubs during the week where I was able to appreciate being back in a place that has good beer.  Used to SE Asia prices, one of the things that took me by surprise was how expensive Australia is.  A beer at a pub is $9, movie theater tickets are $18 and a paperback book is $35.  Things are still priced as though an Aussie dollar is worth $0.47 USD but an Aussie dollar is now worth $1.03 USD.  Thanks for making my beer expensive, global financial crisis!  

Julia and I with Nathan and Sadha

The view of Julia and I from under the water while swimming in the Tasman Sea

So despite the lack of kangaroos, we somehow managed to have a good time.  Although the place we're heading tomorrow has something that just might make up for missing out on the 'roos.  I'll give you a hint; they look something like this: