During my first trip Down Under, I got the
chance to meet their families and get a taste of their lives at home. I have
already written about the time spent in Sydney so consider this the missing
stories from that trip.
We landed in Australia first thing in the
morning and were picked up by Ryan (we were to stay at his house for our time
in town and during this time, I fell in love with his parents, Lindy and Peter.) Ryan was kind enough to give us an hour to
shower and unpack before we loaded up the car to go surfing. The beach was about an hour’s drive away in
one of the many national parks and the surf was apparently good.
All of the guys (Greg and Adam joined us as
well) suited up, handed me my board (the shortest thing I have ever seen) and
we made our way to the waves. To be
fair, this was not my first time surfing (I had been out a few times with my
dad in Santa Cruz and had played around in the waves in Hawaii) but I actually
wasn’t planning on really surfing, just paddling out and sitting on the board
so I could hang out with everyone. So I
did just that: I paddled out and hung out with the guys while they caught a few
waves. But I eventually got cold and
decided to head back in to lay on the beach.
As I paddled back to shore, one of the guys yelled “watch out Pep, there
is a serious shore break.” Yeah, yeah, I
thought, I got this. But no, I did not
have this. A few yards from the beach a
massive wave came up and pummeled me to the ground. By the time I stood up another wave took me
out. That shore break really was no
joke. I finally made it out of the water
with very little dignity still intact and covered in sand… I was still digging
sand out of my hair two days later. And
true to Aussie form, the guys still give me shit about it.
Thankfully that was our only day of
surfing. We spent two more days in
Sydney with the guys and then headed north to explore Airlie Beach and take a
two night sailing cruise to the Whitsunday Islands.
From there, we began making our way back to
Sydney with a detour to Newcastle which we used as a home base for wine tasting
in the Hunter Valley region. Wine
tasting in Australia was awesome. Every
winery we went to we were able to speak to the actual wine makers and hear
directly from them about their grapes and wines. And at each tasting, we somehow discussed how
I was going to start my job as an accountant shortly after the trip ended... to
which everyone seemed shocked. I clearly
didn’t fit the normal stereotype of an accountant… little did they know I would
become the world’s dorkiest accountant.
We wrapped up the trip of Australia with one
more night in Sydney with the guys and our new extended family. Thankfully my promises to return and keep in
touch were not empty. Now I just need to
get the kiddos over there!
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