December 26: Goodbye Sydney! Hello Newcastle!

Waking up to our third and final day at our splendid hotel in fabulous Sydney, Australia was every bit as exciting as the first. We never stopped thinking about how thankful we were to be having such a wonderful experience together. Of course we were ever mindful of how lucky we were to be in Australia, on vacation, relishing in the spectacular summer climate. We found ourselves constantly remarking to one another how grateful we were to have such a large comfortable bed, a hot shower, thermostat controlled air conditioning, the luxury of wearing sandals and shorts, and so many other seemingly minuscule things! It’s not that life is so terrible in Japan in the winter, it’s just one of those things where it helps you to appreciate so much that one might otherwise take for granted.

We felt a little sad to be leaving our hotel, but that soon passed as we began thinking of the fact that our vacation…our adventure had only just begun. Before leaving Sydney we decided to make one last expedition just up the street to the Australian Museum. Lucky for us, it was only a stones throw away from our hotel. After so much walking the previous days, our feet were grateful.

The first exhibit in the museum really peaked my interest. It was an entire special exhibit on wildlife photos endorsed as a photography contest by National Geographic. I have always been interested in photography but had only recently allowed myself to spend the money on a nice camera (thanks to Sarah). Now, I want to make it a chief hobby and hope to get very good at it someday. Naturally, seeing this exhibit only increased those desires. The photographs were absolutely amazing. What was equally amazing was the fact that many of the photos had been taken by kids as young as twelve and thirteen years old. There were categories for the different age groups and all of them were extremely impressive. Sarah has since remarked that this exhibit “got Brandon so excited he wants to become a National Geographic photographer himself.” That is pretty accurate, though I know its one step at a time!

From there, we advanced to some of the Australian natural history exhibits. This was equally as interesting. Learning the history of the Aborigines and how they were all but obliterated by the English imperialists was very sad. The story was all too familiar to anyone who knows anything about the history of the Native Americans. It told of how missionaries separated the children from their parents in efforts to “get the black out of them”. The photographs of the adults in shackles and chains were especially heart-wrenching. I suppose you might say it’s the cynic in me, but I couldn’t help but notice the irony of an entire people and way of life being annihilated by self-righteous Englishmen “spreading the gospel”. While I am sure there were exceptions to this, the Aboriginal history is obvious proof that such exceptions were in the minority. It just makes one realize how backward things were back in those days (and still today in many ways) and how ashamed it makes you feel for how some of our own ancestors did things. It also made me very mindful of how much I don’t like to see the same sorts of lack of toleration for people with different ideas and in different countries today. One would do well to pay close attention to such historical truths. This exhibit seemed to do an especially good job of conveying that message.

Moving on to other exhibits, we found ourselves glaring at all sorts of prehistoric replicas of strange creatures from Australia’s distant past. From a giant sloth to an insane looking creature straight from the movie Jurassic Park, there was plenty of interesting things to see.

Eventually, we made our way to the exit. We hopped in the car and were off! We drove over the Harbor Bridge (which we regrettably never walked across), took in a few more views of the city in the rear view mirror, and pointed ourselves to Newcastle.

Only 20 minutes or so away from the city, we stopped in front of a McDonalds in a very small rural town. As we had hoped, we were able to get a wi-fi connection on our laptop computer. This way, we were able to make free Skype phone calls to our families to wish them a merry Christmas (since it was Christmas Day back in America). It was kind of an amusing scene. Here we are in our rental car parked outside of a McDonalds, air conditioner blasting to counter the summer heat, talking into our computer to our families about Christmas! I think they were all surprised to hear from us and were excited to hear about our adventures thus far. We were really happy to catch them on Christmas as well. After lots of “miss you’s” and “merry Christmas’s” we were on the road again.

The road to Newcastle was very scenic. Much of the way we passed gigantic rivers and lakes, curved through large forests, and could often see the ocean along our east side. After only a couple of hours we were at our destination. Newcastle was to be our first experience staying with “couchsurfers”. Sarah was feeling a little anxious about the whole thing, but I think she was staying optimistic as well. After driving around town for a short while and taking in a few little sights, we directed ourselves to our couchsurfing hosts’ home. Before arriving, we stopped at a bottle shop and bought a bottle of wine just as a goodwill gesture to our hosts for having us over. When we arrived, Brad and his wife Sarah were quick to greet us (We didn’t really think about the similarity between their names and our own until later). Their one year old daughter and their friends Kyle and Iodetta were there as well. Everyone was just hanging out in the backyard enjoying the summer weather. Everyone was our age (minus the baby of course) so it didn’t take long for all of us to warm up to one another. Before long, they were just some more friends of ours.

Soon, Brad fired up the BBQ grill and had dinner going. They insisted on us eating with them, so we all had a very appetizing barbecue chicken dinner in the backyard. At one point, one of them began talking about “the Mozzies” showing up. Sarah and I wondered who they might be. Then, our new friends continued to talk about “the Mozzies” and how they had wished they wouldn’t have shown up. At this point we were thinking,”Who the heck are the Mozzies?” After a little laugh at our expense, they explained to us that “mozzies” meant mosquitoes. That would be the first of a few new words we would learn from them.

After dinner, we all went inside and had a few drinks and chatted with each other. Brad and Kyle had us laughing the whole time. Iodetta was quite the character too. Time seemed to fly by and it was time for bed. Our sleeping arrangement was a spare mattress with sheets and blankets in the living room. It wasn’t the Sydney Marriott, but it certainly did the trick for us. In no time at all we were sound asleep in the house of our new friends who had been total strangers to us only hours earlier. Another day in Australia. Another success!

-Brandon Carney