New Years Day

It's New Years Day and I'm savagely hungover. There's glass on the floor next to me, it's probably about 35 degrees in this room and it's 9am. My nose is stuffed up, possibly from the remnants of Queenstown cold, possibly because I fell off my chair drunk as shit last night at the pub and landed on my face. Ryan is spoon feeding me passion fruit from his mom's garden. I am in Australia.

I was very very very excited about coming here, and I must say, I completely underestimated how fucking awesome this place is. Perhaps the best way to break this down is by going through some of the perceptions I had about Australia before my visit.

1) Australian Beaches Are Beautiful - true.
In fact, I would call them fucking phenomenal. I got to a point in New Zealand where I became almost jaded with beautiful scenery, but I have now been rocket-launched into open-mouthed awe every time I go to a new beach here (which is about 3 times a day at the current rate). Ryan has shown me maybe mmmmm 15 beaches since I've been here, most of them are 30 minutes or less from his parents house.

2) Australian Seafood is Yummy - true.
First meal in Australia was at the Coogey Beach Hotel restaurant and I had oysters Kilpatrick (cooked with bacon on top) and pizza with prawns on it. FUCKING AMAZING NOM NOM NOM. Ryan's Dad is like way way into fishing and since I've been at the house here I've had snapper (a different kind of whitefish than the snapper at home), mussells, prawns and more prawns. A friend of the family caught something like 30 kilos of prawns in the saltwater lake right by the house here and Ryan and I spent a few hours yesterday drinking and shucking them, occaisionally feeding some to his kitty.

3) Australian Wine is Yummy - true.
In addition to being way way into fishing, Ryan's dad is also way way into wine. And he likes to drink it with me. A lot. :-) Interesting fact: wine in boxes here is actually really really good. And cheap.

4) Australian Water is Shit - false.
I was raised to believe that Canada had the best water for drinking and washing in the world - it`s Canada for fuck`s sake. Let me tell you - Australian water gives Canadian water a run for it`s money. Just a touch on the hard side, but very fresh and tasty and way less chlorinated, nice on the skin. Which is a good thing because every single place to swim here, including most swimming pools, are salt water. Which brings me to my next point....

5) Australian Sun Makes You Look like a Saddle Bag - true, but not entirely.
Yes the lack of ozone here makes the sun burn like a bastard. But I think the real damage is being done, at least to me, by the saltwater-sun combo. My hair is so so so so blonde it`s mental. And I`m brown like a coconut. I think I look rather Australian and I`ve only been here 4 days. However, I`ve noticed in every single bathroom I`ve been in, all the girls use shampoo and conditioner for extra dry hair. I see words on bottles like ``intense repair`` and ``for severe damage`` - my hair is so fucking crispy it`s gross. Sorry Chantelle. :-(

6) Australians are Boozehounds - correct!
In the book I`m reading, Fatal Shore (as recommended to me by Micheal at the bookstore, thanks!!!), the first night the colonists (convicts) landed in Australia is documented as being one of the most vile drunken orgies evar. This spirit is still very much alive in the Australian people from what I can tell. I am no stranger to getting on the piss, but something very strange happens to me here. Between the heat, the Bundaberg rum and Coopers beer with chunks of sediment in it, I find I am capable of getting very very drunk here, while at the same time I am completely incapable of controlling my hammeredness in any way. It`s rad. Me and Ryan are having fun. :-)

Side note, Ryan is probably the best tour guide ever. He takes me to yummy restaurants, stops for beers and photo ops constantly on our drives, takes me to the best historical spots ever (as he also is a fan of Captain Cook history) and is generally awesome all the time. He loves waltzing into a drive in bottle shop or a pub, barefoot and shirtless, and introducing me around to everyone. Also, his parents are so so so awesome, I adore them. They remind me a lot of things I like about my own parents (knitting, reading, wine, fishing, cooking, love of animals) and they give us tons of privacy to just do whatever we want.

It`s true - I love Australians, and I really really love Australia.