Surfer's Paradise and the Gold Coast

After the zoo, we were back on the road and headed south towards Sydney!

Our wheels for the week. It was a Holden...whatever that means. 

The obligatory Cadbury Creme Egg at Easter. 

Champion of driving on the wrong side of the road. There was only the occasional drifting to the left, which his trusty navigator helpfully pointed out. 

2nd stop of the day- the beach at Surfer's Paradise at dusk. So very pretty!

The town near Surfer's may be a little cheesy (think a typical US spring break spot) but the beach was really lovely, and the water was warm! 

We wish we could have stayed longer, but we had more miles to get through for the day. And our next stop was Byron Bay....

Byron is a very cute little beach town. 

I don't know if we were hip (or hippie, as the case may  be) enough to hang there for long, but it was a good spot for a dinner break. 

Pretty beach with the famous Byron lighthouse in the background. We wish we had gotten there just a few minutes earlier, because while we got to see a pretty sunset, it would have been nice to see the beach and town in daylight as well. 

By the time we got to Byron, all the stores were closed up for the holiday weekend and the sun was setting, and we had struck out in our efforts to find a vacant hotel room, so we headed off to have dinner before getting back on the road in search of shelter for the night. 

The rest of our time in Byron may have been a bit of a bust- but dinner was spectacular! We have a deep appreciation for oysters, and these ones were pretty delicious- even better when washed down with an Aussie beer. 

And then it was time to go in search of a hotel room. Which, as we can talk about later, turned out to be no easy feat on the coast during a 5-day holiday weekend! Ugh. But our plan just to drive and find something on the way seemed like such a good idea! 

Koala Hugging and other fun with wildlife!

So the crocodiles were nice, but the REAL reason we came to the zoo, was to HUG a Koala. In our previous trip to Australia, I had hoped to get cuddly with a marsupial. but it turns out that it is not allowed in the state of Victoria! So this time, while we were in Queensland for the day, I had to cease my opportunity! Research told me that the Australia Zoo was an excellent place to snuggle with the eucalyptus lovers.

So, with out further ado, my Koala-hugging experience....

It was epic. 

We wish we looked a little bit nicer- wearing the same clothes we slept in on the plane is not ideal for beautiful pictures, but it was still pretty awesome. He was a cute little fellow, didn't smell bad, didn't pee on me, it went perfectly~! I just didn't want to give him back to the handler! 

With my big goal accomplished, we were free to wonder the zoo and check out some of the other animals. 

Dave hanging out with the 'roos. 

Me and the little roo, just hanging out. 

This was my favorite Koala. 

Check out those claws! 

Patting a koala, cannot have too much koala-love. 

D and the red roo. 

Don't have to tell me twice! 

This is a wombat. On a leash. 

The absolute funniest thing that happened at the zoo was related to the wombat walk.

This little Aussie girl runnnns up to the zoo keeper and says "Please sir, may I have a pat of the wombat"

But because she was Aussie, and quite little, it sounded a lot more like: "Puhlese sirh, mah I hav a pat of the whombat?" But to the bold go the spoils of war, because she did indeed get to pat the wombat, and I left the zoo with out any wombat contact. 

Seriously, if you ever get the chance to go to the Australia Zoo- its totally worth the one hour drive from Brisbane. Its a fun little place- nothing too fancy- but a really great place to get to experience Australia's amazing wildlife. 

The Australia Zoo- Home of the Crocodile Hunter

You know Dave is a good husband, because first stop after we arrived in Brisbane on a red-eye from Singapore, was to the famous Australia Zoo! 

As the sign says, the Zoo is the home of the Crocodile Hunter and was featured prominently on the show. Its a pretty neat place, lots of lots of great Aussie animals, and a unique approach that allows visitors to get up close and personal with many of the creatures. 

Crikey!

There were loads of sleeping koalas hanging out in the park, we didn't see them doing much else besides this, but they were just so darn cute I couldn't help but take like 1000 pictures of them. 

Pretty birds! 

And as a total surprise, the actual Irwin family was in attendance at the Crocodile Show for Good Friday. They were very cute, and after seeing them on TV over the years, it was pretty cool to see them in person! 

Just a little crocodile feeding in the morning. Eek! 

This guy got a little close with the Croc. He kept saying, "shit... I mean, crickey!"

I'd be saying more than shit if I were that close to a snapping crocodile. 

This is the Crocodile Hunter's daughter, Bindi, feeding the crocodile. Totally normal for a teenage girl on a day off from school. 

I certainly wouldn't be trying to take food away from a croc! 

Down Under Adventures!

We are back from Australia- and had an AWESOME time! 6 days, almost 1000 kilometers, lots of fun. And of course, LOTS and LOTS of pictures!

It may take me a few days to get some blog posts put together, so here is a preview of the best of the best....

Crocodile Hunter Zoo!

Kangaroo feeding. 

Surfer's Paradise beach

7 Mile Beach in Booti Booti National Park

Opera House!

Sydney Harbour Bridge and Ferry!

It was an amazing trip, and as potentially our last big trip before we head home, very special. We loved the road trip, and really loved Sydney- so stay tuned for stories from the trip! 

More from the X-Men

After what seemed like a ridiculously long hiatus from baseball, the boys were back in action this weekend at what they promised would be the most important game ever. Why? Because if they won, they would be in first place in the league. <> Thats right folks, first place in the Singapore National Baseball league... =) 

Here are some pictures from the big game....

Of course the X-Men pulled out a stunning victory over their opponents. Actually, it was more of a good old fashioned butt kicking. I think they ended up winning 16 to 1... but despite the overwhelming win, there was some good baseball to be enjoyed. David made a particularly nice catch at first base. Way to go X-Men, way to go. 

Also, check out how cute this candy is! It says (in tiny tiny letters) Ganbare Nippon, which means roughly, Go Japan. My friend N. (from Osaka) brought them for the girls, which was super nice of her. Not only were they cute, but they were delicious too. (Arigato N.!)

Race Report- 2XU 12K Run

It has been a while since my running buddy K. and I laced up our trainers and hauled ourselves out of bed at an ungodly early hour to go run with a few thousand of our best friends so we were really looking forward to  this 12K. We even trained for it. OK, not really, we ran 5K once together. In the middle of the mid-day sun, and I nearly died. But I considering we had never previously done a training run together, it was a huge step forward. 

After a fun day of pool partying at the Icon the day before, we were not convinced this was going to be the best race we have ever run together. But, we were wrong. This was the BEST race to date. It was cloudy and cool out, there were plenty of people, the course was interesting, the medals were cool. And even though we didn't break any records, and missed our target time by 5 minutes, we had a really good time running. 

Who loves getting up at 6am to run? 

(The photographer by the way, gives 6am races a big thumbs down- but I really appreciate having such a great cheer leader and event photographer, best husband ever) 

Can you find me? 

The race started and ended in the F1 Pits, which was pretty cool. But to make it cooler, out of nowhere they materialized a Ferrari and a Lamborghini to take off from the starting line in front of us. I knew this would make Dave slightly happier to be awake at 7am on a Sunday. 

As we ran past the cars at the end of the pit, I gave the yellow lambo a little rub for good luck. I may never get to drive one, but now I have at least fondled one. 

And we're off....

An hour and thirty six minutes later, here we are getting ready to cross the finish line. 

1) My shoes are sooo cool. 2) These two sets of feet are awesome for carrying us happily over 12K. 

All tired out after the run. Happy to be walking. 

The champions. 

It was a really fun race from start to finish. Even though it got crowded in some spots, it seemed like there was generally less bottle necking and pushing-shoving action than a typical race in Singapore. The water stops were not terribly well organized or staffed, but that is just to be expected here, and we managed to get water every time we wanted some, so no complaints there either. The clouds provided an unusually nice cool day for running and the little sprinkle of rain was actually pretty refreshing. While I normally don't love courses that have a lot of up-and-back covering the same territory multiple times (booorinnnngg), but this time I found it to be pretty inspiring to see all the super fast racers finishing the whole 12K in 40 minutes as we ran past the finish line around 6 or 7K in. They were realllly moving! I cannot even imagine what it must feel like to run that fast. 

My only real complaint is that the route had 2 sets of stairs. 2! Seriously! The first set was pretty small and not too bad but the second set came at 9K in, and nearly killed my spirit. I watched K. sprint merrily up them like it was no big deal, but I took the weak way out and walked. Stairs do not belong in a road race people! Besides the stairs, and our battles at the water stations, we just kept running and running. And we both felt pretty great at the end. A much better performance than the 1/2 Marathon for sure. 

A big thanks to K. for being an excellent running buddy, as usual. And also thanks to Dave for being a wonderful photographer and supporter. 

Stay tuned for K & E's final race together at the JPM Corporate Challenge next week!