It's Hot in the Red Centre

That's how they spell 'center' of here ya'll --> centre.

Anywho, best friend Dougie Phresh Albright came and visited us. Unfortunately, he too had flight problems and got stranded in Sydney because Qantas is dumb. He finally arrived and the Frobii parents, me, Hyatt and Doug all traveled to Dookie for a tour of the farms and dinner. I have no pictures of that, sorry.

Hyatt's parents departed and Hyatt, Dougie Phresh and I flew to Alice Springs for the roadtrip of a lifetime - p.s. we almost missed our flight, barely got our bags checked with about 1 minute to spare.

Unfortunately, Doug's luggage didn't make it but Qantas (who suck) gave him this nice pack of pajamas.

Arrival at the Alice Springs airport - happy and not yet really hot.

We HAD to play golf on another continent - it was awesome. Doug helped me with my long game

Our caddy who finally learned how to NOT drive on the greens.

After a short time in Alice we headed towards King's Canyon - via this road. Five hours of no pavement with Hyatt driving. I'll hold my tongue.

Wild horses aka brumbys were everywhere

Some of the beautiful secenery at King's Canyon

The initial climb at King's Canyon - very steep. Doug and I wanted to die.

Looking out over the vast Red Centre

He tried to pick me up for this picture - both Doug and I yelled 'No! What are you doing?!'

A little entertainment and gambling - nothing like bidding with

tea and sugar packets (Doug won btw).

Gorgeous sunset

First night at Alice Spring resort - the chefs.

K-S-U alumni in front of Ayers Rock/Uluru

It's a big freakin' rock in the middle of nowhere, literally.

Very dark red rock during sunset with some loser guy in my shot.

After an amazing time at Uluru (we climbed it, yea!) we headed to Coober Pedy where there is an abundance of opal mines and underground hotels but there is a shortage of water.

The entrance to our hotel - underground.

Hallway in underground hotel

Our cozy little room - we stayed pretty cool but the air got kind of stale since there's no windows.

Left Coober Pedy and it's 40 degree heat (that's 110 F) and went to the Barossa Valley, where we did some damage at Penfold's Winery. I discovered I really, really like dessert wine.

So that was our trip in a nutshell - it was RIDICULOUSLY hot the entire trip although it did rain occasionally. I took a ton of pictures of Uluru and King's Canyon so if you want to see them, look me up on thefacebook. Also, we visited a farm the last few days but Hyatt is going to blog about that (get excited)!

Until Hyatt blogs,

~ Buzzard ~

Tasmanian Devils

Hyatt's parents came and visited us from October 25th(ish) to early November. After a slight hiccup with their flights (a delay in Chicago caused a missed flight which resulted in a day later arrival) we picked them up to explore Melbourne for a day before we left for Tasmania. I was super pumped, like always, to go traveling and couldn't wait to get there where it rains a lot and the weather is cooler.

During our time in Tassie, we went to a Tasmanian Devil wildlife reserve and saw some cool new feathered friends, too. We went on a boat tour of Bruny Island and saw some amazing rock formations, wildlife and sealife. We went on a tour of Cascade Brewery and visited Port Arthur which used to be a work camp/prison. Then we spent a ton of cash at Salamanca Markets in Hobart - that was fantastic (many of you will have Christmas presents that originated from Tasmania). Of course we did lots of random things too that I don't feel like explaining but I am sure by looking at these pictures and also at the albums on Facebook, you'll get a good grasp of how much fun we had.

First wildlife spotting - echidna. Dan investigated

Hyatt and I in our fluoro vests at the Cascade Brewery tour

Vicki really really liked the Tasmanian Devils

They're kind of ugly little devils but very funny

We could just walk up to these guys and pet or feed them

That cool looking lime green and yellow goose let me pet it and I wasn't expecting it to - the best picture Hyatt has ever taken!

It was Dan and Vicki's anniversary so we made them take a picture together to commemorate the trip

 We got up close and personal with a parrot

This bird is ALMOST as cool as the black breasted buzzard and the kookaburra (but not quite). It's the tawny frog mouth - mouth looks just like a frog and this bird can blend in with any tree!

The church at the Port Arthur prison - I took a lot of pictures

Dan prior to departure for our boat trip - it was raining and a little bit cold.

They call that the King on the Llama, I don't know about you but if I was a king I'd rather ride a horse than a llama. Llamas spit and are mean.

The blowhole - suction, pressure, water etc all resulted in this big water explosion. Very cool

Sea birds - I forget what they're called

Lots and lots of seals



More pictures on thefacebook!

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~

Thar She Blows!

I love the ocean. and ships. and water in general. Oh, and all things that live below the water and float on top. 

Especially whales.

So when we got the chance to go on a real live whale watching cruise, I jumped at the opportunity. I really don't care that it cost fifty buckaroos per person. I've got plenty of buckaroos to throw around - I make it rain (I hope you all got the reference; also sarcasm)

So we set out this morning to see some whales and take some awesome flicks like this:

While in Perth, we've had the chance to meet up with Duncan and Marina, some family friends who use to live in Ohio but have moved back to Australia to raise their two little girls who are adorbs.

Anywho, back to the whales. Here are some of the best shots - I cannot describe my excitement when we saw the first one. Undescribably thrilled.

Up close and personal

Can you see that spray? That's the whale clearing his air hole. I'm sure there is a technical word for it but I don't know what it is.

More breaching (I think that's the right word) 

We only saw one whale jump in the air and of course, we missed the midair shot. But this is the splash - use your imagination.

Aside from seeing the jump, I was pretty stoked about getting a shot of the whale's tail! Booyah!

Today was absolutely amazing and I have a ton more pictures to post about our day of visiting Little Creatures Brewery, Cottlesloe Beach (I stood in the Indian Ocean!) and then dinner at WA's iconic Kailis fish and chippery. I actually even managed to take some halfway decent pictures of the ocean and some ships so you've got that to look forward to later.

Until tomorrow,

~ Brandi ~

Not Impressed

Today we got to work with a new species at the Royal Melbourne Show.

Hyatt was impressed and rather enjoyed leading eight alpacas around in the rain.

Me, not so much. Unimpressed. They smell bad and spit.

Until tomorrow,
~ Brandi ~

A few of my favorite things

I've been getting a lot of questions from native Australians about my favorite (and least favorite) Aussie things. I want to share some of these answers with you:

Fave food - Chicken & chips -- not completely an Aussie thing but better than any I've found in the states

Least fave food - Vegemite. Sick

Fave street - Lygon in Carlton

Fave place we've visited - Seeing the Sydney Opera House was awesome. So was Cairns. Cairns wins because I held a koala there.

Fave drink - Cider- it's not your mama's apple cider.

Fave clothing store (that I can afford) - Cotton On

Fave clothing store (that I can't afford) - Review

Fave thing about Melbourne - the rain and the large variety of shops

Least fave thing about Melbourne - public transport

I"m going to work on getting Hyatt to fill out a fave questionnaire and if you have any questions you'd like answered, leave them in the comments section!

Cheers!
Brandi

Going On A Walkabout

A few days ago, while being bored between pig feeding and weighing, Hyatt wanted to go for a walk. I'm game for a walkabout in the Australian wilderness. My only concern was the potential presence of these:

brown snake = dead.ly.

Before we got out of the ute (remember what a ute is?) I asked Hyatt if he had his phone in case we encountered the aforeshown dead.ly. brown snake of Australia.

 

Answer. No. Cripes.

 

**I'm not scared of snakes - I'm scared of dying from a snakebite. Those are two completely different things. **

We proceeded to venture into the outback anyways because we were hoping to catch sight of some our favorite Australian animals - kangaroos, kookaburras and koalas. Like that?

 

We quietly walked through a forest/bush area (as quiet as we could be considering I was shooing invisible snakes away and hissing at Hyatt to slow down) when I spotted this:

See that? That's some sort of poop. Kangaroo poop, we hoped. Even though it's rather dry.

Continuing on we found this:

Clearly kangaroo track. Look at how they could be made from the jumping motion. **We have no idea if these are really tracks but they look kind of like them so we called it a win**

I found my favorite Australian bird hanging out in a tree nearby. I love his call.

While continuing to walk somewhat quietly through the bush - we saw more of this:

This looks waaaaaaay fresher and we must be getting close to something.

Next thing we know - jackpot.

If you look closely in the upper third of the picture, right in the center - that's a kangaroo bounding away.

And this guy is a wallaby - notice how he's darker and carries himself lower than kangaroos?

I found one more interesting specimen in the bush...

He hates it when I get camera happy.

All in all, the walkabout was successful. Sighted two of my fave Aussie animals. No snakes. No snakebites. Great day :)

See you tomorrow,

~ Buzzard ~