It's All Over

So I know that the posting ended on a very anti-climactic note, but I've been kind of busy with stuff like school and watching Heroes--season 2 is awful, by the way. Breana and I went to Rottnest Island just off the coast with all of the other Notre Dame kids in early November, but apart from that there's not much to report on besides nice days at the beach.

Now I'm heading off to New Zealand for 8 days where Breana and I will be swimming with dolphins, hiking glaciers, skydiving, kayaking around some fiords and driving all over frantically to get to each new adventure. Then we'll be hanging out in Fiji for another 4 days before coming home on Dec. 5th. It'll be really nice to be home after all of that and I'll be ready for Christmas.

I guess this is it. Thanks to any of you who actually took the time to read this and maybe if you're lucky I'll teach you how to surf or jump out of airplanes one day... Enjoy the picture! Later dudes.

Happy Halloween from Down Under!

Actually my least favourite holiday of all... But other people like it I guess. So HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Beard Today, Gone Tomorrow

This is the progression of the deterioration of my beard over a 12 hour period... And don't tell me you've never shaved your face to see how you'd look. As it turns out I just look like a huge redneck, but it's cool...

The Beard

Friendly Mutton ChopsThe Fu ManchuAnd this one here is for Dad...

The MustacheFreedom!I also ended up with a bit of a beard tanline, but maybe it's not as obvious.

Sittin' On Top of the World

Caught a wave, and I sat on top of the world. I tell you what, there are only a few things as exciting as surfing in this world.This past weekend on our last trip we found ourselves down in Margaret River. We left early Friday morning for Margaret River. On the way down we stopped at a mine of sorts and learned about what they do. Apparently they mine or something... I don't actually remember what kind of mine it was, but it consisted of a lot of holes in the ground, crushing up of ore, and picking it up out of the other rock by a gigantic magnet. Then we continued on to Margaret River to meet the town planner who told us all about Margaret River. Just so you know how exciting this was, he talked to us about the parking problems they are having... It was actually minimally interesting and I came away with a feeling of what Margaret River people are like.

We started off Saturday with a canoe guide up Margaret River beginning at the river mouth. Chris was our guide and he was definitely your stereotypical Australian. He was grayt. Canoeing is always a good bit of fun and we learned some history, heard some stories and went crawling through a little crawl space in a small cave. The guide gave us some bushtucker-food native Aboriginals would eat for sustenance-to eat before going for a swim in the refreshing river water. At the end of the tour we had a little bit of a race between all the canoes for a bottle of wine. With the help of another canoe, we were able to paddle to victory for the 2007 Redgate Chardonnay. As you can see there was one group that paddled in the Tippecanoe...

Then we left the river to go see a sweet cave. It was big, beautiful, and the water was some of the purest in the world. It was delicious...
Saturday also marked presentation day. In order to get our 1 credit for these trips, we had to give a group presentation in regards to a given theme and how it related across the three destinations. An aside: I didn't actually make a post for the second one because I was busy doing the backpacking ones. It was back down to Denmark and Albany right where we were hiking, so there wasn't too much new anyway. Back to Saturday: We gave our talk on nature and then we went to bed.

Sunday was awesome. We had to get up at six, but it was totally worth it for the surfing. The guy taught us how to get up and surf, but when it actually came to the water I just forgot everything he said and hopped up my own way. It worked wonderfully and before I knew it I was riding some 4 m swells... Unfortunately the waves weren't actually that big, so I mainly stuck to the white wash waves because that's all there were for the most part. The real waves weren't very big and I could actually get up on those just fine as long as they weren't crashing right on top of me as I tried to get up... The falls feel pretty good. I highly recommend surfing to you all. Maybe we can all take on the mighty Atlantic together...
Then from surfing we went on to wine tasting at Vasse Felix. It all tasted really good as far as I'm concerned. We tried three whites and three reds. Unfortunately they do not give tours of the facility on Sundays so we were left with only the wine tasting and a light lunch before getting back on the bus and heading home. We stopped at an Aboriginal heritage center along the way and made it home by 9 30. And so ends the trip to Margaret River, by far the best of the three trips.

Packbacking IV: A New Hope

As promised, here are a bunch of pictures for all of you to look at from the hiking trip. They are in chronological order and mostly pretty sweet. Enjoi.

Backpacking Pictures

Packbacking III

Setting out from Peaceful Bay, it was our shortest day so far. After about an hour of hiking we came to Conspicuous Cliff and Conspicuous Beach, neither of which were very hard to find... Sorry, I couldn't pass it up... Both of these were very nice and we took a multitude of pictures just so that you can see how nice it was.

After climbing some stairs away from the beach, we lost the trail markings and ended up having to choose which direction to go. The way to the left looked ok, but the road to the right had a kangaroo. So, as any half-way intelligent person would do, we followed the kangaroo. And it continued to just bounce ahead around the bend, so we continued to follow it. I mean, it was clearly trying to lead us to some place good. Just look at that innocent face... After awhile he hopped off the track and we lost him. So we kept walking until we came across a road sign that showed us we had clearly chosen the wrong direction and we had to go back about 1.5 km. Stupid, good-for-nothing kangaroos... Luckily we found the Bibbulmun signs again and continued on. We probably saw another snake or two, but yet again we all cheated death.

Actually, this snake in particular gets a paragraph to itself, mostly to demonstrate our collective stupidity... So the snakes, as you might imagine, love to come out onto the track because it's clear and the sun can beat down on them really well. This snake was situated to the left side of the track and wasn't going anywhere. It was also a rather narrow section. Additionally, the snake was not sleeping, but instead watching us rather intently. So, we thought it might be best to try and scare it away by throwing some branches near it to startle it away... I do not recommend this tactic because a) the snake did not move and b) as you probably know yourselves, snakes generally will not attack unless provoked. So, with stick in hand, Jeff and I passed by the snake without too much trouble. That is, until it began hissing at us, leaving Mary and Arthur on the other side of the snake. But being the brave and courageous people that they were not phased. They carefully walked around the snake and we continued on.

We ended up in a hut on top of a hill/mountain overlooking the ocean and forest. It was a nice view and a good night. Being in the middle of nowhere again, we decided to just shout everything we said over dinner. I highly recommend trying this out. It's way more fun than it actually sounds. Or maybe it's just the little things that amuse you when you've been hiking for three days...

Now, in the interest of time-and laziness-I will end the general narrative of the day-to-day occurrences because, at this point, it was all generally the same. We woke up at six, ate breakfast, hiked, took pictures, ate lunch, more pictures and hiking, arrive at hut, eat dinner, go to bed at 8. In fact, I might have even gotten some days switched around already... For instance, I'm actually pretty sure that Conspicuous Cliff occurred on the fourth day, but since it is written already, I'll leave it be.

There were some other cool things we did like the tree-top walk. I will just post a link to all the pictures in actual chronological order in a little bit once I get them all up. Also, my birthday was pretty solid. I had a snickers bar with 20 matches in it as my birthday cake, got free left-over pizza at a hostel, and got to sleep in a bed--it was our last day of hiking. Anyway, enjoy all of the pictures. It was a really fun time and absolutely beautiful. If you look close enough, you may even be able to spot Antarctica... I know I did. Enjoy!

GO IRISH! BEAT CARDINAL!

Packbacking II

Alrighty, I suppose that I shall continue where I left off with a little video to show you what we woke up to the next morning (Sunday). Keep in mind that this is no overdramatization...

Sweet.

Anyway, I guess I should have you know that today was also the longest of them all and actually included a brief canoeing section. It was tough getting through the first day, but it was much worse getting through the second. The winds were stronger, the rain was harder, the shoes were wet from the beginning, the entire body was sore, and there were 25 km to hike. We woke up with the sun, had an oatmeal breakfast, as we did every morning, and set off at about 8 00. Today was exceptionally difficult to walk straight as we were walking along the tops of ridges with wind swiping across our bodies. If it weren't for the pack, I'm pretty sure Mary would have had a little trouble staying grounded... seriously. For the brief moments that the wind was at our backs, it was actually awesome because it was like an extra little boost. There's not much to say, we walked for a long time, did a little more beach hiking and then ate lunch in the middle of the bush after about 18 km. Oh, and we saw some more snakes, bringing the number of times I have cheated death up to 4. There were some kangaroos too. And the cliff picture is actually from the previous day.
After lunch we hiked for about 2 or 3 km before coming across the Canoe crossing. Thankfully, our canoe shed was up wind from the other. Unfortunately, there were only two canoes, and proper etiquette is to leave at least one at each. So Jeff and I set out in one of the canoes with our packs for the other side. The wind was brutal and the waves were ginormous... in comparison to the canoe anyway. We made it across successfully, but then we had to turn right back around with each of us in one canoe. Not surprisingly, the other boat shed actually had 6 canoes. Anyway, this time we were down wind and had to fight back up. The wind won. With all the weight in the back of the canoe, the wind just turned us right around when we tried to paddle up stream. So the best I could do was paddle across as quickly as I could and see where I ended up. We both ended up about 200 m away from the shed. So I proceeded to get out of the canoe and I towed the two canoes and Jeff up to the shed in waist deep water. It was, and please excuse me for this, refreshing... Then we paddled back across to the other side without a hitch and continued on. As it turned out, we actually only left a single paddle and a single canoe to go with a single life jacket for the next people that come by. The other side, however, was just stocked with stuff. Also, the lowest picture in this coming series shows the inlet right at the beginning. We could have just walked across... kind of... if the track went there.
So we continued on and everything was going oh so well, until we came upon a bunch of bogs with only about 1 km to Peaceful Bay, our next stop. We tried to get around it or build a bridge for about 30 minutes before we surrendered our finally dry shoes to the bog.In Peaceful Bay, there wasn't a hut for backpackers, which was kind of lame. So we found our way to a backpacker's place where Tom hooked us up with a room for $55. It was marvelous. It had a heater, beds, stove, tv, and showers. That was a good night. In this room, though, I found a gigundous spider. Probably poisonous, because everything here is... and it just makes for a better story. I squashed it with a pan, as you can see in the picture below. I believe the cheating death count is up to 5, maybe even 6.We showered, ate dinner, watched a little of the boob tube and went to bed for a good night's sleep.

Also, I'm working on just putting up an album online with more pictures from the trip. Keep an eye out for that. I'll post a link or something. More scenery and other shenanigans will be there.

Packbacking I

Well, now that it's been over a week since I returned from my trek down south, I suppose it would be a good time to tell you all about it. I have a bit of catching up to do for the blog between Spring Break and this last weekend trip, but you will get to read all about it.
Our trip, as you have already read, was a 6 day hike from Denmark to Walpole. This post will contain bits about, and pictures from, our trip down on Friday through the first two days of hiking on Saturday and Sunday. The four of us intrepid youths-Jeff, Arthur, Mary and myself-set off Friday morning with our packs at about 7 00 am to catch a bus that would take us all the way to Denmark.
We arrived there at about 5 30 in the evening, wandered around the town, ate some pizza, and prepared for the next day before going to bed. We stayed in a hostel called The Blue Wren and it was run by Russel. Russel, being the good guy that he is, told us all about how the weather was shaping up to be, and it wasn't looking good. He proceeded to tell us about the gail force winds and the potential thunderstorms for the next two days. He had us all a bit on edge, but we couldn't afford to stay there another night and set out behind schedule, so we took on the weather anyway. Besides, we didn't sign up for an easy stroll around the park. Throughout the night we heard the gusting wind and the pelting rain and thinking twice about setting out the next morning.

However, morning came, we ate breakfast, and Russel drove us to where we were going to set out. But before he did that, he brought us to Greens Pool (the first picture) which I guess is pretty cool on a calm day because it's kind of like a still lagoon, but the weather was not going to show us any of that... So we proceeded to set out on our 20 km day at about 9 30. This day took us along the beach for about 10 km before we finally came off it at a campground. Hiking along a beach may sound like a lot of fun, but it is not. Walking through sinking sand with an extra 18 kg on your back gets real old real quick. Not to mention the strong winds and the wet shoes. At least we were met by a nice old couple who let us eat lunch in their warm cottage.
Starting up after lunch was a little bit difficult, but we got going and headed inland a little ways for most of the rest of the day before finishing at Boat Harbour around 5 00. This part of the hike was also where we came across our first kangaroos and snakes, pictured below. The snake is believed to be a Dugite and is in fact highly venomous, needless to say we had 10 separate encounters with that kind of snake throughout the hike. At the end of each day there was a hut with basically three walls a roof for us to sleep under at night, you'll see some pictures of them. We ate some Ramen noodles, did whatever else, and went to bet at about 8 00. The sun was basically down by 6 15.
Alright, I've actually changed my mind. This will be sufficient for the first post about the backpacking because I've run out of time. Oh, and I suppose it would help if you knew who was who. Jeff is generally seen in the bright orange jacket, Arthur is the tallest one, and Mary, well, if you can't figure that one out then I'm sorry... Also, the Bibbulmun Track, as it is known, was marked by signs like the one below so that we may not get lost out in the middle of nowhere. Until next time, enjoy.

20 and Still Alive

Well, I just got back from my Spring Break backpacking trip along the southern coast. At the moment I don't have any of the pictures or anything. But it was a lot of fun and I just thought I'd let everyone know that I didn't get attacked by any dingos or bitten by any snakes. I'll be sure to make some more in-depth and interesting posts about it in the near future.

Later Skaters.

Gone Packin'

With my second spring break of 2008 coming up, I've decided to go backpacking for the week with a few of my friends. We're heading out Friday morning to take a bus down south to where we'll stay in a hostel for a night before beginning the hike. Then we'll be on the trail for six days and finish up in Walpole on my birthday, if all goes as planned. We'll spend the night and take a bus back to Perth on Friday.

The hike itself included hiking along the beach, through the wilderness, canoeing across a river, cliffs, and a tree walk. We're hiking along the Bibbulmun Track. As you can see, it runs all the way from Albany, west to Wlapole, and north to Perth. We'll be hiking the part that stretches from about Denmark to Walpole. It's going to be really cool and I'm super excited about it. So hopefully I'll be coming back in one piece and I can tell you all about it. There should also be some pretty pictures...
Well, next time you hear from me I'll be bigger, badder, and twentier...

Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?

This is for all the wives and mothers out there looking for something wonderful to bake for their significant others and wonderful children... and others like myself who enjoy a good little bake every now and again, even if it is just for yourself. I bet they would make a nice little care package for those of us who are at school right now... at least those who are in the US and missing their mother for the first time in their life... and the fourth and final time for that matter (It also helps if you have their address, but I suppose that's my own fault). I have not had them with the orange zest and blossom water, so I would try them without it first. Also, I would recommend using honey. This recipe was just a little Ctrl+C followed by a swift Ctrl+V from some random place. Perhaps in the future I'll teach you about ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) and Anzac Day.

There are many other things you can do with the tasty Anzac dough. It's great as a cobbler topping, or even a tart base. Leftover cookies keep well in an air-tight container for a few days. Have fun experimenting with other zests or spice additions, anything that pairs nicely with oats and coconut will likely work here. For a more traditional Anzac cookie leave out the orange zest and orange blossom water.

1 cup flour (all-purpose or whole wheat pastry)
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup finely shredded non-sweetened coconut
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup butter, cut into little cubes
2 tablespoons golden syrup or honey
zest of one medium orange

1 tablespoon boiling water
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon orange blossom water

Preheat oven to 325F degrees. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl; flour, oats, sugars, and coconut. Mix well.

In a small saucepan over low heat combine the butter syrup (or honey), and orange zest. Stir until melted and remove from heat. In a small bowl whisk together the boiling water and baking soda. Stir it into the butter. Now pour the butter mixture over the big bowl of oats and stir. Add the orange blossom water and stir again. This is a dough I like to mix it with my hands to make sure the butter is evenly distributed and the dough is moist throughout. I baked this batch of cookies in a well-buttered, heart-shaped cast iron pan, but you can simply drop them by the tablespoonful onto parchment lined baking sheets. Make sure they aren't too flat or they will get crispy. Bake for about 12 minutes or until deeply golden.

Makes 18 - 24 medium cookies.

Editor's Girlfriend's Note-Written by the Editor: Breana does not approve of my stereotyping of women as bakers. And neither do I. In fact, I think all stereotyping is bad. Especially that of earring wearing persons... I bet they are really good bakers.

Foot-E

Breana, once again being the great girlfriend that she is, scored us tickets to the last footy game of the season. This game pitted the Dockers of Fremantle against the Magpies of Collingwood. Naturally we rooted for Fremantle as they are our neighbors to the south. Furthermore, the magpies hail from Queensland and we just can't have those east coasters coming in here thinking they own this place... Needless to say, Fremantle was able to pull off the upset against one of the best teams in the league. The game was played at the Subiaco Oval where the attendance was about 35,000. Now you might be thinking to yourselves, "What is footy?" Well, fortunately for you, I have the answer to that question.

It is, by American conventions, known as Aussie Rules Football. Basically, there are two teams of 18 players playing in a giant oval-the diagram below provides the visual for your understanding. The game begins when the ref bounces the ball in the middle of the smallest circle, very similar to a tip-off in basketball. From there one of the teams gains possession and proceeds toward their goal posts. The ultimate goal is to kick the football-an oblate speroid-through the two big posts for 6 points. If, by chance you miss and the ball goes between a big and a small post, then your team will recieve 1 point. The ball is advanced by running with it, hitting or throwing it to somebody else, or punting it to another player. If you should choose to run, you must bounce the ball on the ground every 15m. You can run, throw, or kick the ball in any direction. Generally, players will kick the ball as the most productive means of advancing it up the field. This is for two reasons. First, it is a giant field, up to 185m long and 155m wide, and the ball goes much farther being kicked than anything else. Secondly, if the ball is kicked over 15m and caught before hitting the ground, it results in a free kick. Otherwise it's just like a giant game of Manball as far as fighting for loose balls goes. There are fouls for high tackles and maybe some other things, but play continues uninterrupted, for the most part. Also, when a ball goes out of bounds, a ref stands with his back to the field and tosses it straight back into play. Now you're all a little bit more cultured. We can add some footy to the Baby Jesus Bowl next time. Oh, and two more things, I don't really know what the boxes on the field are, but the 50m line is simply a reference point, nothing special.
Unfortunately, both Breana and I forgot our cameras so I don't have any pictures of the game. But you can see an artists rendering of me scoring a goal...

By the way, Wall-E was amazing.

Rabbit! Rabbit!

Go Ahead, Whistle the Next Part

Editor's Note: This is the third post in a three part series that chronicles my adventures to the great city of Kalgoorlie in the Goldfields of Western Australia.

With the gold mines and the salt lakes behind us, the last thing to learn about was the local agriculture. We began by taking a walk around Boulder, the neighboring city to Kalgoorlie, to see the markets and just wander around. There's nothing really spectacular about this place, but it was a nice day and they had a statue of a mining dude that I liked. Also below is a picture of St. Barbara, the patron saint of miners. St. Barbara was actually found in Kal.After Boulder, we went on to a pastoral property to learn about sheep and goat farming. I think it's a lot like raising any other livestock. The sheep shearing shed was pretty cool, but the best part was definitely the kebab barbecue that we had for lunch. We got to eat goat, kangaroo, and beef. The kangaroo was really good, though I couldn't really tell a difference between it and beef. The goat was really chewy.We finished off with a desert of brownies and pavlovas. As we came to learn, a pavlova was actually created by an Australian chef to honor the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova on one of her tours through Australia and New Zealand. Wikipedia claims that there is actually some controversy surrounding the dessert and may have actually come from New Zealand. Anyway, the pavlova is a cake that has a marshmallowy center with a merengue topping sauce and strawberries. It's very light and fluffy and delicious.

Leaving, the sheep farm, we headed back to Kal to meet with some Aboriginal women. However, unbeknownst to us, they decided that we would go out to their place and meet them. So, we got back on the bus for 45 minutes until we got to a road that the bus was not to going to be able to go down and their camp was still at least 5k away. So, the indigenous affairs people that we met in Kal to arrange this drove ahead in their ute (Australian for truck) to get the couple Aboriginal ladies while we walked down the road some ways. We ended of sitting down in the middle of the road to talk to them. They told stories of the past and kind of gave us a sense of their history, but because we had a flight leaving at 6, we had to get going pretty quickly. It was unfortunate how this was set up, because it could have been a lot better and more informative. Oh well, I suppose.Then we hopped back on the bus, jumped on the plane, and headed back to Tommie More and UWA for another exciting week of school.

Warning! No Socks.

Because they're just gonna get rocked off! Or something to that extent... Breana, being the wonderful girlfriend that she is, scored us two free tickets to a show on Wednesday night. The band was Panic at the Disco and they were pretty cool. I personally had never really heard of them, so I asked around and got mixed results. They were described to me as emo pop, which didn't get me too excited. However, that was their first CD. Their second one, Pretty. Odd., had recently come out and when I got to listening to that, I liked it a lot better, much less emoness. I didn't give them a listen until the morning of the concert, but I liked it and we had a really good time. Anyway, go ahead and give them a listen. The first band that opened for them was Cobra Starship and the second opening band was The Academy Is, both pretty good. Actually, Cobra Starship was awesome. If you've seen Snakes on a Plane-great movie might I add-their big song is the theme song to that movie. Oh, and I forgot to mention their sweet chick keytarist.

It's Off to Work We Go

Editor's Note: This is the second post in a three part series that chronicles my adventures to the great city of Kalgoorlie in the Goldfields of Western Australia.

If only I had actually gone off to work at finding a gold nugget, then maybe I'd be laying on the beach right now without a care in the world... But as it stands, I did not put much work into that at all and I'm still a student trying to get money the old-fashioned way--or at least trying to get to the point where I can. Anyway, I don't mean to keep any of you waiting because if you thought Day 1 was just awesome-and I know you did-then you are just going to love Day 2! The day started off, as Mom would say, at the crack of dawn with a warm shower and a nice breakfast. (I'm not sure where to put this little side-note, but here looks good. Anyway if it weren't for Dad always saying, "We'll have to get going, as your Mom would say, 'at the crack of dawn,'" then I would never know that she says that. The end.) We left the school for a place called Menzies, a tiny town of about 100 people in the middle of even more nowhere. Here we met with a town planner who told us about stuff and then looked at some Aboriginal art. The art was pretty cool, and it looked something like this:

Figure 1 Aboriginal Painting. The first image that appears when you Google image search "Aboriginal Painting."





Figure 2 Menzies. A look down the main road through Menzies.







From Menzies we continued on about 55km to our next stop, Lake Ballard. Now, Lake Ballard isn't your run-of-the-mill-let's-go-out-and-waterski lake, it's a salt lake. But that's not all. It is also a dried up salt lake. So really it's not a lake at all... just a vast empty space. But a cool vast empty space. The ground was covered in salt that actually tasted like pretty good salt. It looked like snow at some points and felt like walking in squishy clay with a little crunch on the top. We walked around barefoot and it felt like a marvelous foot massage, at least what I imagine a marvelous foot massage to feel like... Anywho, Lake Ballard isn't your run-of-the-mill-dried-up-salt lake either, it's home to an exhibition titled "Inside Australia." This exhibition features 51 statues made by the world-renowned artist Anthony Gormly-maybe you've heard of him. These 51 statues were made using laser scans of the people from Menzies. I don't know about you, but I have no idea how they got the statue below came out of a laser scan of a real person, but I guess it did. All of the statues pretty much looked like this, unless they were dudes. And no, I am not wearing capris... just trying to keep the jeans clean.The dried up salt lake was actually a lot of fun, believe it or not. The only bad part was cleaning off our feet at the end, though it was totally worth it. Once we were finished here, we went on to some random place to go on a little bit of a nature walk through the bush. This is what the outback looks like for the most part; red dirt and bushes.
We returned home after about a 2.5km walk and went out for dinner about an hour later. Dinner was wonderful and Day 2 came to an end.