Press The Eject and Give Me The Tape

What a mess. I have returned home to Dallas and my room now looks as if my bags exploded. There are clothes, winter gear, bags, chocolates, and unopened mail all over the place. On top of that, the refrigerator broke and the yard needs a good manicure. It seems that I have been thrusted back into the domesticated life whether I like it or not. I'm feeling a bit a relief coming home and knowing that my travels have ended for the most part. It is a much different feeling than the previous time where I couldn't wait to get out of the US again.



I have been absolutely rocked by the north Texas allergies since returning. I do not with this affliction on anyone. The evenings have been especially bad since I can't breath through my nose. Being home also means boiling hot temperatures and bugs that bite and sting. maybe I should have stayed in Switzerland after all.



The end of my travels signifies a close of a chapter in my life. It's as if I'm on a long road trip and I'm tired of listening to the same mix tape. Now I'm digging in the glove box looking for another mix tape to play. However, nothing is labelled so I'm not sure how the next tape is going to sound. Will it rock, will it have too much electronica, will it remind me of an old girlfriend (the break up tape)? It is a mystery to me, but what I do know is that it WILL be different. I'm sure in the future, I'll have to press the eject and change the tape again. But until that happens, I'll welcome the new tunes coming from the old car stereo.



Below is the conclusion to my list of songs from Patagonia to Switzerland. Consider the box set to be complete.

Fleet Foxes- He Doesn't Understand Why. This is one of the only new albums I had on my ipod before it was stolen in Queenstown. I listend to this album constantly while I was on the Overlander and the Transalpine.

Ambulance LTD- Heavy Lifting and Ophelia. Wow. It turns out I have listend to these two songs nearly a billion times according to my itunes counter. The album was good, but I didn't think I was listening to it THAT much. I think these songs were on a play list I was listening to a lot while in Patagonia.


Elliot Smith -Thirteen I think this is a Big Star cover. The song was featured in the movie 'Thumbsucker' Not much to say here other than the song reminds me of me friend Heather in Chile.

Nouvelle Vague- Ever Fallen In Love. Another cover song. This time I wasn't sure whether to put the Buzzcocks version here or the bossinova cover version. I kind of like the softer bossinova version so it makes it on the list.

Oasis- She's Electric. This reminds me of a German gal I met on the Routburn track. A funky girl with red dreads.

Travis- Writing to Reach You. I'm not sure why this song is here, but I was listening to it a lot. maybe because I was seeing a few people for a second time during this part of my trip.

Franz Ferdinand- Matinee. Yes I know they have a new album, but my ipod is ancient.

Verve- Lucky Man. This song burst into my head while I was walking on the beach in Australia. I was already thinking ahead to Switzerland and thought, shit! I'll be snowboarding in less than one week!

MGMT- Kids. I should thank Emma for putting this song in my head. It is one catchy ass song. Makes me want to throw big air cab 5s.

Second Time Around

Well. I arrived in Zermatt yesterday afternoon. The place was just a bit less crowded than I remember due to it being the last week of the season. Being back in Zermatt is kind of surreal. A few things have changed, such as the addition of new hotel which was under construction when I was here last year. Some things haven't changed, like the high prices for food. I happened to run into Bemsy as I got on the bus to the hostel. She was the first of many familiar faces I would see this trip. I'm only here for two nights, before heading to Zurich so I'm gonna make the most of my time here and reminice about all the fun I had here with the PL kids.

I spent nearly a whole season and never saw a storm like the one we had today. We are supposed to get about a meter of snow over the next two days. The upper mountain is shut, but the lower mountain is still skiable. The snow flakes that are falling look like giant postage stamps. They are what my friend Alex calls 'Base Builders.' The snow is making the place look like a real Swiss ski resort in the middle of winter. Those who are lucky enough to stay until Saturday (change over day) will be blessed with waist deep powder. If it does clear before I leave, I should get some great shots of the Matterhorn (you can never have too many pictures of the Matterhorn).

The Red Rocket Returns

I still can't believe that I was surfing off the beaches Australia a week ago and now I'm snowboarding in the Swiss apls. This morning I was putting on my snowboarding socks and saw that I still had my flip flop tan line. Now I'm going to work on my goggle tan this week. I truly feel blessed having the opportunity to travel around the world and enjoying things I would never have done staying at home in Texas. I'm glad the end of this chapter in my life is finishing in Switzerland. Seeing the mountains one more time makes me feel complete.

I was hoping for more people from the Peak Leaders group to come back for the reunion. Unfortunately, the kids are busy with exams or lack the funds to come out. My first stop is in Saas Fee which is in the valley next to Zermatt. I'm staying with little Emma and Hamish in their parents flat. Since Hamish broke his collar bone a week ago, I'm using his season pass this week. Last year, we spent over 70 days on the mountain. This year, I have spent two and a half days. My legs are not in the same shape as they were a year ago. Every time I strap on the board, it feels like I'm riding for the first time.

Saas Fee is much smaller than Zermatt. However, the freestyle park is awesome. The kickers are well shaped, the halfpipe had the perfect pitch with well maintained vert. Emma is teaching lessons in the morning, so I'm doing a lot of exploring myself. I need to be careful since this place seems to be more avalanch prone compared to Zermatt and I still don't own a beeper. Come to think about it, a beeper is only good if you are riding with a partner. Since Hamish is out of commision, I'm less likely to take risks off piste by myself. In any case, I'm chillin' on the mountain and should be well relaxed by the time I get home to Dallas. The time change hasn't affected me too much, but I did sleep about 11 hours the first night here.

Brisie

I walked past two nearly identical piles of vomit this morning on the way to the South side river area. The contents were about the same. Same color. The only difference between the two piles was that the second one was actually stepped in by someone. It reminded me of the all the dog shit on the side walk in Buenos Aires. The vomit was located next to two adjacent park benches just outside of the Tinbilly Hostel. It is the hostel with thumping base emanating from the bar 24 hours a day. I'm so glad I didn't book there.

So my day started off with me trying to see the Nick Cave Exhibit at the performance hall. I really wanted to see it since I was late to the place the day before. I reached for the doors and everything was locked. Then I looked at the hours printed on the side of the door. 'Exhibit open from 10AM-4PM Tuesday-Saturday.' However, to me it read 'You are fucked!' So I wandered over to the GoMA which is the modern art museum. The GoMA had a free Chinese contemporary art exhibit, so I hung around for the rest of the morning before heading to Chinatown for some grub.

Brisbane isn't bad. It does have a nice area downtown by the river with museums and performance halls. like with most cities, it would have been good to see it with a local. That way you can really find things you would have missed in passing. Banana Benders Hostel was one of the better places I landed during my time in Australia and New Zealand. It reminded me a little bit of Pudu where most everyone in the hostel knew each other after a couple days. I made a few new friends in the hostel and was even taught how to do the Tim Tam Slammer (which is a method of eating a Tim Tam cookie by using it as a straw for hot tea). It was a good place to wind down the travel to this part of the world. looking forward to going home now.

They Travel in Pairs

Noosa is a small town and most folks arrive and stay for only a day or two. Due to the length of my stay, I felt that I had to stay for a while instead of wasting days on a bus or train. I started to notice that people were arriving to my hostel in pairs. Everyday pairs of travellers from different countries arrived my dorm room, Germans, Swiss, Danish, Israelis, English, and Norwegens. It was as if the rain was a signal for Noah to collect pairs from each country to deposit into the ark also known as the Koala Backpackers Hostel. The only single traveller in my dorm was a Welsh guy who had been travelling since the last world cup (yep, thats three years ago). All this got me thinking that I'm about ready to stop my travels.


My plan was to file the claim for the stolen backpack this weekend. In so doing, I mentally reviewed the list of items in my bag which were stolen. The list was fairly short, but each item had wither high practical or emotional value.

1. Passport- high practical and sentimental value. Do I really need to explain? I can't go home without it. It also was chocked full of stamps and visas from all of the countries I've seen over the last 8 years.

2. Camera- High practical value, low sentimental value. Although the memory cards had all of my picutres.

3. Books (Autralia Lonely Planet and Buddism Explained)- High practical value, low sentimental value. One can argue that you don't need a travel guide for Australia. However, I ended up buying another one when I returned to Auckland.

4. Journal- High sentimental value. I'm really pissed off about this one. As Heather and others can attest, I was writting a lot over the past two months. Only a tiny fraction of my journal entry made it to the blog. There was about a half year of memories documented in that book. My hope was for Teo to be old enough to read it one day and to become inspired to travel the world. However, after some thought, he has already been to Berlin within the first six weeks of his life, so I'm thinking that travelling will not be a problem for him.

5. Sunnies- High practical and sentimental value. I loved those Smith sunnies! I'm wearing those sunglasses in nearly all of the pictures in the blog. I ended up replacing them with a pair of Electrics, but they are just not the same as the sliders.

6. The pack- I also loved that DaKine pack. I replaced it with another brand and I just don't like the fit.

Wave of Mutilation

The last time I tried chasing the weather was about 5 years ago when we were searching for big powder dumps in the pacific NW. I ended up flying to Reno to catch a depression which dumped a ton of snow in the Sierras. It was the best powder I had ridden in Tahoe. Instead of following storms, this time, I was following sun. The weather forecast called for rain and storms for the rest of the week. However, I was afraid to venture too far north since getting back to Brisbane would be a hell of a long ride from Airlie Beach. I ended up settling for Noosa which is two hours north of Brisbane.

Despite the rain, I ended up doing a surf lesson in the morning. The lesson itself was well run. For some reason there were only women in my class (not that I'm complaining). Our instructor was a French guy who looked exactly like Clive Owen except for an annoying accent and zinc oxide all over his face. Having a REAL lesson was much better than taking instructions from a friend. The last time I tried surfing was in LA and the only thing my friend Steve told me was to paddle hard then stand up. The lesson that time was like the skiing scene in Better Off Dead when Booger tells John Cusack's character to go straight, then when something gets in your way....turn. Maybe it was due to the snowboarding or the BASI training, but I was able to get up on my board every time. I even paddled into my own wave. Although the the lesson was fun, I was absolutely getting worked by the waves. The incoming storm had really made the surf big (not that nice for beginners) and the rip current kept taking the students towards the jetty. I wish I had been able to take a multi day surf course, but the weather was not expected to ease until later in the week.

The next day, all of the schools were cancelled due to the surf. There were still people in the water, but the waves were too big for beginners. It would have been miserable if I would have decided to rent a board and practice on my own. I did see something unusual that morning. She was a tan and super hot Asian surfer girl. For those who don't know, most Asians HATE the sun and do as much as possible to stay pale. The beaches in Thailand often have lawn chairs under a canopy to keep Japanese tourists out of the sun. And if you pick up any Japanese beauty magazine, every other page is an add for skin whitener. That is why I was so surprised to see this gal so tan. It is obvious that she was not a FOB Asian based on her style. My guess is that she is actually from Hawaii and is just here for the endless summer surfing all the time and living out of a camper van. There is no other explanation. This is what I believe and I'm sticking to it.

The rain has killed the Frazier Island cruise, so I'm going to play things by ear until it's time to head to Brisbane.

Look at that Rippah...Crikey!

Instead of flying up to Cairns, I ended up heading to Noosa from Brisbane. The weather forecast didn't look too good, so I figured heading a little north would buy me some time. Australia is definitely more expensive than NZ for travelling. Both hostels and food prices are jacked up. It may be a function of being on the east coast in summer. I guess it is not bad since I'm here for less than a week.

Spending a few days in Sydney only left me about 5 days for the rest of my travels. Originally, I wanted to do a cruise and some scuba diving further north, but I'm only able to do a few activities and limit my travel destinations. Noosa will be the furthest north I would go. All of the other destinations would mean lost time on the bus.


Never in a million years did I ever expect to see the Crocodile Hunter's Zoo. I remember watching the older shows with my buddies and laughing my ass off. Steve Irwin's antics looked like excerpts from a animals bloopers show. Since the zoo provides free transfer from Noosa, I decided to spend a day there to check it out. The place was awesome. It was one of the best zoos I've been to. You are able to get up close and touch the koalas and kangaroos. The staff were really accommodating and would take time out to take your picture and talk about the animals one on one. The highlight was the croc feeding which is not like what you have seen on the TV shows, but a more mild form. The zoo is constantly expanding. The original zoo was just a reptile reserve, but now it has everything. They plan on expanding over the next few years to add an Africa and Americas exhibit. It is a must see if you are going to Queensland.