where's wolmut?: aussie roadtrip

surf camp noosa

visiting my friend. mindy in brisbane

sand crabs on fraser island

contemplating something

emil says:

australia has a lot going for it, maybe everything going for it. great live/work balance (paid sabbaticals are commonplace), low unemployment, tremendous healthcare (2 prong system – all get basic coverage and one can elect to pay for supplemental care), surf camp for kids instead of little league baseball, brilliant beaches and mature urban centers with great business connectivity to asia, and just a straightforward warmth from folks. if i could choose anywhere to raise our children and cat it would be here. nice to finally spend time in a country whose economy is still rather booming too. some things we ran into confirming this: remember what “help wanted” signs look like? well they are on display everywhere in australia, including highway billboards; minimum wage here is $16/hr and perhaps that’s why the people that work in these jobs are competent, capable, and kind; riding around in a car with laurel’s exchange family there were 6 people with positive work stories regarding recent pay raises and promotions (when is the last time 6 people in a car in america all have positive stories to share?). sadly if you can mine it, or drill it, or frak it, its being done here in voracious style and loaded onto a container ship heading to china. that said, if we had these natural resources back home i figure we would be doing the exact same thing. the beauty of the mining biz though is forget occupy wall street garbage and taking down the 1% for the sake of wealth redistribution, here the mining industry just picked up the 99% by the bootstraps and just created an explosion of wealth for the average truck driver, excavator, and dishwasher (someone’s gotta do the dishes at a mining site). laurel and i treated ourselves to a night at a she-she foo-foo resort and you gotta love seeing all the neuveau-riche miner-types enjoying the fine life as well (picture the plaza hotel in nyc overrun by the cast from west coast choppers). rich/poor disparity in australia almost seems to have been single handedly abolished by the metals and mining industry. australia is a tremendous place. we surfed, met up with friends, sailed, snorkeled and scubad the reef, drove a rental car up the eastern seaboard, and pigged-out on cheap sushi and fish and chips, and all the while met many cheerful, fun-loving, good-natured folks along the way. it’s the first time i have been jealous of how other people live and it’s the first time on this adventure that i am sad to leave a country.

heron island at low tide

reef wall

our fave snorkeling grounds

whitehaven beach, whitsundays

the sand is pure white silica

laurel says:

i am lucky enough to call this trip to australia my 4^th visit to this spectacular country. and every time i have to leave, i end up in tears. this visit in particular was a real gem. to have the luxury of time allowed us 3 weeks of open-ended exploration. it was also fun to see emil fall in love with a country that means so much to me. the bulk of our time was spent on a fabulous roadtrip that took us all the way from sydney to cairns, logging 3k kilometers on our little hatchback. along the way we stopped at countless stunning beaches and quaint little seaside towns. noosa, a beach town just north of brisbane, was one of our favorite ports of call. here we enrolled in a surf school run by a world pro-am champion that told me i had what it takes to become a hard core surfer (note, he did not say this to emil). another highlight was heron island where the great barrier reef begins right outside your doorstep. in low tide, you can actually walk right onto the reef 200 yards from shore and along the way spot sea stars, rays and multiple species of sharks. and the grand finale of the trip, a 3 night sailing adventure thru the scenic whitsunday islands was the perfect way to end the trip. snorkeling here was like being in a giant tropical technicolor fish tank. i even overcame my fear of scuba diving and took 2 incredible dives on the reef. i am excited for asia, but heartbroken to leave oz.