Easter Weekend: Crescent Head Camping

Camping at Crescent Head: tents, the ocean, singing by the camp fire, Smores and oh yeah, fire twirling - of course.

Every year a group of friends (about 25 people) head out to Crescent Head for Easter weekend camping. It's about 5 hours outside of Sydney and sits inland only enough to barely hear the waves of the ocean crashing late at night.

Our site was set up right along the river that feeds into the ocean, so we had the calm all around us. The weekend was lazy (as any good camping weekend should be.) During the day we would hang around BBQing and drinking wine/beer, then head down to the ocean for a nice swim.

At night we would gather at the beach for a rousing game of Cricket, my first attempt!

There were a few firsts that I was happy to see: My first Kangaroo spotting while camping (they were drinking from the river right by our camp), my first game of beach Cricket, and oh yes... my personal favorite: my first leech. Thats right, I got bitten (or sucked) by a leech!! Right in between the toes! I wasnt the only one either a few of us, some got it worse than others from wearing sandles near the edge of the river - where apparently they like to hang out.

At night we would sit around the camp fire, chatting, singing to the guitar, watching a friend twirl some fire (see video) and finally, Smores! Though this may not seem all that exciting to Americans, Smores are something that have never been experienced in Australia. For one, there are no Graham Crackers and no Hersheys and two, marshmallows are not the same. So I took the remaining Smore rations I had brought back from home in Dec, and introduced the Australians to a good old fashion Smore!

Not shockingly, they were a big hit!

Spencer Tunick: The Base

Have you ever woken up at 3am and thought, "hmm.... I should take all my clothes off in front of 5,199 other people and stand here for the next 2 hours bare naked?" Yeah, I never had before either, but I guess there is a first time for everything....

March is Gay Pride Month in Sydney. They hold their annual Gay Mardi Gras Parade and the city becomes alive with energy. Because Mardi Gras is such a huge tourist attraction and revenue generator to the city, the Mardi Gras board was able to commission Spencer Tunick, famed photographer, to do one of his famous mass nude works. The piece would be called "The Base", and would take place in front of the Sydney Opera House. His works include, New York's Grand Central Station, Miami, Barcelona, yet, there have been very few times has he been able to get more than 4,000 people to get nude for his photos.

My flatmate asked me if I would do this with her, and I thought about it for a second, and decided yes, why not? So we woke up at 3am on a Monday morning, rode into the city by 4am, and got in line to enter the Opera House waiting area with about 5,000 other people.

At 6:30am, the sun was finally high enough to take the photos, we were told to take our clothes off and leave them in the bags provided. There was something crazy about this mass strip, we were surrounded by men, women, mothers & daughters, friends, partners - of all shapes and sizes baring it all for art. As were were part of the first group to strip we walked past all of the still clothed groups waiting their turn to take it all off. Surprisingly, as we climbed the Opera House steps, I wasn't embarrassed or self conscious (COLD as all heck - it was about 45 degrees out) but not worried. The other group clapped as we made our way up to the stairs, everyone was so supportive of everyone else- what an amazing feeling, and what energy!

After 2 hours of posing nude, we finally were given the word to get dressed. So I got dressed and went to work... no one the wiser!

What an amazing experience, I cant wait to see his final shot. As a thank you for participating, each of us will get a print of the work, a souvenir I will never forget.

Get your Bali On!

Indonesia. Temples, beaches, spices and Bintang.

Bali is a place not to be missed - I however, almost did just that.

A hot day in Bondi means one thing. People. And when there are a lot of people in Bondi there are no buses/cabs/donkeys/or carrier pigeons out of there. So after waiting 45 minutes for a bus out of Bondi and another hour on a bus to the airport, I arrived 10 minutes past the 1 hour check-in for my international flight. Long story short. They didn't let me on the flight (begging did not work with the woman at the counter- though believe me, I tried). But by some miracle, they decided to have just a bit of pity on me and book me on the next flight out (the next day) free of charge, which for JetStar is pretty much unheard of.

Needless to say, the next day I was 3 hours early to my flight and made it on without a hitch.

Bali was an amazing place, breakfasts on the beach in the morning, 3 dollar Bintang beers, $12 huge seafood dinners, beautiful temples, and amazing people.

My favorite part about Bali (besides the food!) were the temples. We visited two temples, a water temple as well as the Mother Temple: Besakih - which all Balinese people are required to pray at once a year.

Our trip was on motor bike - which was a pain in the ass - literally. Hills and winding roads, combined with dirt and intense heat made for a very uncomfortable ride. We had to take bum-breaks every 45 minutes just so that we could regain feeling. But despite the soar arses, it was the perfect way to see the Bali countryside. No roof meant you could see the high rice paddies, and look around at the constant movement of people putting out offerings and tending to their children and the myriad of animals.

The icing on the cake in Bali was definitely my birthday dinner in Jimbaran. Jimbaran is a fishing community where they have started putting restaurants along the beach. The sand is lined with rows and rows of tables overlooking the water. The fish is freshly caught and kept in tanks, ready for you to come and choose. There is no menu, and once you choose your fish, they cook it - you don't even decide how. And of course, you can get a fresh baby coconut, chopped open for drinking. Sunset, seafood and good friends was the perfect way to celebrate 26 in Bali.

Festival First Nights: Al Green Still Has "It"....

Festival First Nights at the Domain. What a great idea: Picnic. Drinks.Al Green. The Man. The Myth. The Legend. For his first ever trip to Australia.

And, in case you are wondering. He still has "It" whatever that is.








He may be 60 but he still jams like Smuckers(tm).

The Festival First Night is the kickoff to the Festival season in Sydney (January). Al Green headlined the First Night at the Domain, which sits just outside the Botanical Gardens. Oh, and did I mention, this was a FREE show. With blanket packed, Vodka, Wine, Beer, Cheese and Lindt truffles, we danced, sang and shimmied to Al.

How could you not love a guy who hires only his daughters as backup singers. Because, why else, he wants to keep the money in the family! The night was hot (and I mean hot like 85 for 10pm) and so was Al. Besides him whining a bit about not having enough time to play - he put on an amazing show to a sea of tipsy dancing Sydneysiders.

So Al, Lets stay together...

(tm) note: I cannot believe how many amazing sayings I am coming up with for this blog. I mean I thought "Schnitzeled" was good. But "Jams like Smuckers" - where do I get this stuff?!

p.s. you wont actually be able to see anything with this video I was too far back for the camera to capture it, but the audio is pretty good. You Go Al.

NYE 2010 Sydney Harbour!

20 hours of travel from SF to Melbourne to Sydney to Bondi. Please tell me it was worth it to make it back to Australia for New Years Eve!?!

Exhausted from my flights/layover/bus ride home I had only one hour to take a shower, get dressed and meet friends on the Sydney Harbour to enjoy an afternoon-evening on the boat and watch the fireworks over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

After a few glasses of wine, some delicious Sydney prawns, pasta salad and of half a Twinkie (treats brought for the boat from the good old US of A!) I was feeling almost brand new (with the exception of a nap right around the 9pm mark, thankfully everyone woke me up before the fireworks!)

The fireworks were everything I was hoping for, absolutely stunning especially from the water. (In the video it is a bit shaky sorry! - I wasn't drunk, the boat was just rocking quite a bit!)

As I watched the fireworks I knew it was worth every hour of travel to get back to see it! But I slept exceptionally well that night!

Sunset Sessions: Fort Denison!

Although I have been living in Sydney 6 months, I am constantly being a tourist in my own city. Looking for any opportunity to do something crazy or different. And Fort Denison is a great example of this.

On the train ride home, I was reading the Newspaper about Sunset Sessions at Fort Denison: every Friday and Sunday until the rest of the summer, Fort Denison would hold Sunset Sessions where you could Water Taxi out to the Fort and sit around enjoying cocktails and food while watching the sunset over the Harbour and listening to a Jazz band play. How could I resist?!

So I got 3 of my girlfriends together, put our sundresses on and had a great time!

Fort Denison was used in the early days of settlement in Sydney as jail for the convict population. During the mid 19th century a Fort was built on the island to protect Sydney Harbour. There is so much history on the Fort, and the best part was that we got to walk around and read all about - with wine in hand!

Stockton: Tin City, Sand Dunes and Shipwrecks!

Miles (or Kilometers!) of Sand Dunes, as far as the eye can see...

The closest to what I imagine a dessert to look like with hills of sand but then all of the sudden beautiful beach (a mirage?! nope just ocean).

This place seemed like it would only exist in a movie. But instead it is real, Stockton is a great beach town with amazing sand dunes and much history. Some friends and I went out to the sand dunes to do a bit of 4-wheel driving as well as a bit of sun baking and swimming off Port Stephens.

But the added reason for the adventure was the Signa, an amazing shipwreck that is only accessible from the sand. The Signa was a 53,000 ton Norwegian coal ship that was beached during a major storm in 1974 and the wreck has become an icon and landmark for the local area. It has completely rusted over, but still has this majestic look.

The other amazing thing about the sand dunes is Tin City, a virtual city in the middle of the dunes of 10 or so tin houses.These tin houses were actually built during the great depression of the 1930s. During World War II the houses were torn down so the land could be used for an Army camp, but were again rebuilt after the war was over. Just in case it looks familiar.... Tin City was used for several scenes in the 1979 movie Mad Max. Being a child of the 80s I seem to have missed this gem, but apparently it is the claim to fame!

Such a cool place so neatly tucked away among the dunes.