Australia

After enjoying our day in Sydney, we looked forward to the several other cities that we would be visiting before arriving at The Great Barrier Reef. The following morning, we awoke in Newcastle, AU. Known as “Newie” to the locals, Newcastle is Australia’s second largest city, and is located two hours up the coast from Sydney.

Now we have to admit, based on everything we had read, we expected this place to be a big ole hick town. But it turns out that an Australian hick town is a tourist’s Mecca. At least for a couple of big ole hicks like myself and my (one-person, sometimes) fan club.

At any rate, after a quick 15-minute shuttle-bus ride, our destination left us in the quaint downtown University area. While the population is 300K, it truly looked like an old fashion US cowboy town. (Okay, we gave the city a couple of extra points for that.)

Hitting the Visitor Center first, the worker fella there was an awesome resource. This gentleman gave us the inside scoop. While there were a number of shops up and down Main Street (across from the university) it was Sunday, and most places were closed for the weekend. He recommended visiting Central Park in the center of the university, and jumping on the light-rail train that ran either direction along Main Street (earning this destination additional bonus points).

The park was solemn, but beautiful. Main Street was really like an old cowboy town that had strived to keep its old-town charm, with rows of newer, taller office and apartment buildings sprinkled here and there, mostly a couple of blocks off Main Street.

That was when it dawned on me that while the façade of Main Street gave the the feeling of a small town, it truly was a fairly large city. Nice touch! (Cin-cin! Racking up the bonus points here.)

Meandering onto the light rail was a learning experience. Located between the single lane of light traffic on either side, the platform was an un-raised median. The covered stretch of a benches, with an electronic kiosk on either side, did not resemble any train or subway station we had ever seen. Although this may be a bit of a stretch, the location left me with a feeling that a covered wagon would be pulling in at any moment.

As our Visitor Center friend had indicated, to enter the depot, one was simply required to scan their credit card each time that you entered and exited the platform. Each trip cost 60 cents, and while compliance was enforced through the honor system, signs indicated fines could be levied on cheater-cheaters. (Pretty slick system, which of course means… you guessed it, more bonus points!)

There were only 3 or 4 stops in either direction. We opted to go North, towards the beaches and lighthouse which we had seen while sailing into the bay. Jumping off at the last stop, we found ourselves walking through more parks, surrounded by 3-story historic brick buildings which had been converted to beachfront condominiums. (Okay, in the interest of becoming redundant, I’m going to skip ahead and just say, Newcastle gets all the bonus points…)

The beach so reminded me of a particular old impressionist beach landscape painting that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. And Lady Luck was on our side. As we settled into our shady beachfront table, we unpacked our thoughts while gazing upon the young local people enjoying an afternoon of surfing and sunbathing, while their younger siblings, engineered their sandcastle creations under colorful umbrellas. While the children’s laughter played upon our ears, the delightful smell of seafood delicacies wafted our way on the slightest breezes. The skyline was framed by the colorful sailboats, which dotted the watery horizon under the occasional silky cloud.

We had truly stumbled into a living work of art. Certain that I may awake at my moment, I rushed to order large frosty mugs of local lagers. We spent the entire day, lavishing in the little pub’s grand selection shellfish ambrosia.

(Sorry. My mind got stuck in poverty mode for a couple paragraphs there. I’m all better now.)

Anyway, after a leisurely return trip, we relaxed onboard the ship, pondering the dreamlike day. As we pulled out of port, we conceded that the beautiful city Newcastle had bestowed upon us the nicest day that we could recall in quite some time.

Now, on to the important nonsense. Did you ever wonder why the boarding doors on airplanes are always on the left side of the plane? It turns out that design was carried over from when ships were the primary type of transportation. These boats were all designed so the captain could pull into a dock at any port, and folks could get always get on and off at on the same side. This drove seaports to all be designed to accommodate this new design standard and optimized the loading & unloading of passengers and cargo alike.

Hence, the word “port” refers to the left side of a ship, and the word starboard (which is Old English for “steering side”) is the right side.

Simple tips to help one remember these nautical terms is:

1)   The words “port” and “left” are both four letters

2)   In European countries, the driver “steers” cars from the “right” side of vehicle

Hmmm… I told you it was nonsense.

An hour or so outside of Brisbane, we contemplated the dicey weather as we approached the park. But we were prepared for whatever Mother Nature wanted to throw our way.

At any rate, our third Australian port was Brisbane, home of the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Now I have to say that, since going on safari in Africa several years ago, we have avoided zoos. However, in this case, visiting the outback was not in the cards. So this was our only opportunity to see kangaroos and koalas. And it was a great trip.

Soon enough, we entered the park, and were provided a delightful taste of many of the continent’s exotic creatures. Now, as every well-travelled vagabond knows, nearly every Australian critter one might happen upon will eat you, if you don’t eat it first. Luckily, today’s adventure would only acquaint us with the cuddly ones. Whew!

The park’s exhibits were very well layed out, and we had a fabulous day learning and observing an array of the country’s wildlife. I especially enjoyed the wombats, platypuses and the flying foxes. On the other hand, Karen understandably fell in love with the adorable koalas. (What’s not to love?)

Dodging the weather all day turned out to be a minimal distraction, and after a brief tour of town, we returned to the ship and geared up for our final Australian destination.

And now, on to today’s “The Grass is Brown on the Other Side Too” story, which addresses a subject that many of you have asked about. “Does the water relay circle the opposite direction when it goes down the drain in Australia?” (i.e. on the other side of the equator.) So here is the scoop.

The “Coriolis Law of Physics” explains that if you’re looking down from above the North Pole, the earth appears to spin counterclockwise. But if you’re looking up from above the South Pole, the earth appears to be spinning in the opposite (clockwise) direction. Obviously, the earth is only turning in a single direction, but it appears to be turning one way or the other depending on the viewer’s prospective. This effect carries over to water going down drains too. (Think about it in terms if you had a glass bathtub, with room to climb underneath. “Same difference…”)

It’s kind of like if we were walking towards each other, and as we got close, you turned left and I turned right. Afterwards, we would both be walking (and/or staggering) in the same direction, but we turned opposite directions from our individual perspectives to get there.

So, as confusing as it can be, the answer is a definitive “kinda maybe not”.

I contemplated also telling you about Cole’s Law”, but as everyone already knows, that’s just thinly sliced cabbage mixed with mayo…”

Enough of that nonsense too.

The following day we arrived in Arlie Beach (pronounced euh-lee beach) our final stop in Australia. This was a pretty tiny town, with mile or so stretch of nice beaches, shopping and restaurant.

I really liked the way they routed the ocean into town, and built a grass park with picnic tables and such surrounding several swimming pools, all fed from the ocean. The whole town was out sunbathing and picnicking during our visit. Really nice setup.

We enjoyed snacking and cocktails before exploring the sites and stumbling on a Woolworths (grocery) store, where we stocked up on snacked and the like.

This was a short stopover, but the food and drinks were great, and we really liked this little town.

Next stop, Indonesia, but that my friend is, yup, you guest it, another story…

Thanks for visiting.

–  Mike

“IN THE BEGINNING, after he labored over the heavens and the earth, the light and the dark, the land and sea and all living things that dwell therein, after he created man and woman and before he rested, I believe God gave us one final gift. Lest we forget the divine source of all that beauty, he gave us stories.” – (Prologue to) “This Tender Land” by William Kent Krueger