“It’s your experiences that shape you not how you were born” stated my drifter friend from the UK that I met watching the sunset tonight in Lennox Head.  His statement might not have been eloquent but it was right on.  Ae offered me a beer, each word he uttered made complete sense and provided plenty of food for thought.  If there’s a moral to this journey of mine it would be that every single person I have met has come into my life for a reason.  I hiked up to Passage Peak in the Whitsunday islands on Sunday and, although I thought I might have a heart attack on the way up, the trek was well worth it.  As I sat on the highest point for several hours I encountered a lovely woman from San Francisco who happens to be a life coach. How perfect when just that morning I was questioning my path and my future. The day before I debated going on a boat trip and at the very last moment decided to go and sat next a girl who works a few blocks from me in NYC. My cabbie who drove me to navigate the streets of Byron Bay during “schoolies” last night was from San Francisco and his mother lives in Sausalito.  The list goes on and on with every moment, hour, interaction I have.  I’ve made new friends who are at crossroads in their lives for different reasons – often divorce or breakups. But also those just exploring….the world and themselves. A few I will probably have as lifelong friends and others are just part of that moment in time as I learn to live in, and appreciate, the moment.

I know I have finally started to relax when I don’t know what day it is. It’s a good feeling and has only taken me a month to get here.  That said, I have spent an inordinate amount of time in every destination planning my “activities” as well as my accommodations/flights for the next adventure. So much for winging it but I’m trying…

A few thoughts about my travels, travails and random Aussisms I have learned or heard…

I got my koala on – meaning I hugged a koala but getting “anything on” is a common expression – eg getting on my beach

Flying in a helicopter without the doors on to take photos wasn’t scary at all. In fact , I kinda loved it!

Crack the shits

Slip slop slap wrap- slip on a t-shirt, slop on some screen, slap on a hat, wrap on some sunglasses

Numpty= silly person

Bevied numpty = drunk silly person

Busking- someone who performs in the street for $$

Swimming costume or bathers = bathing suit

Budgie smuggling = a speedo

Schoolies – MUCH worse than senior week in the US – for three weeks after high school ends (but before graduation) kids basically inundate beach towns and party as much as they can.

Drink driving – instead of drunk driving – and might I add that the blood alcohol limit here is .05 as compared to .10 in the US. They have check points at 11am and they swab the inside of people’s mouths randomly for THC. Thank god they don’t do that in the US!

At clubs you can’t buy a scotch neat or a Baileys on the rocks – all alcohol has to be mixed with something.  Very inconvenient.

Campa vans – Camper vans – was a weird/foreign concept at first but it is actually starting to sound better and better and makes sense so you don’t have to do so much planning and can just drive, get to your destination and chill.

Australia is like a warm Ireland in terms of capacity for alcohol and the candid human landscape.

There are many more but I wanted to share some photos of the incredible Great Barrier Reef, the Whitsunday Islands, Whitehaven Beach (the whitest beach in the world they say) and Byron Bay (where I got my hippie on!!).

Good shit velcro….nature is amazing!

The summit of Passage Peak…

Sunrise with a cochatoo…

Hill Inlet…

Seaplanes and Whitehaven beach with a fellow New Yorker…

Whitehaven Beach…

The heart reef…

The Reef…