Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted. John Lennon.: skim reading

We are in the Capitol. We skipped a butt-load of stuff to get here, but I think we hit all the good points. We are full on back in populated territory. It kind of sucks, but it has its own appeal. Brisbane was alright. South Brisbane had a gigantic man-made lagoon right in the middle of the city with sandy beaches. We watched a guy build a sand sculpture until we fell asleep in the grass. Other than that and Starbucks, we didn't do much in Brisbane.

From there, we headed south to the Gold Coast. It was exactly as we always dreamed... People piled on top of people... Everyone and their dog trying to surf in what seemed like miles of clean peeling waves. We did some swimming and playing in the waves, but only stayed for a couple days. The most entertainment came from stalking the mass amounts of beach goers with our point and shoots.

Nate was thoroughly entertained by his 27th birthday present. A picture says it all...

We burned down to Sydney to check out the most well known city in Australia simply so that we could write about it in this blog. It was a city. We were in constant confusion about what train to get on and which direction we should walk. We ended up cab-ing it back to the car because we couldn't handle it anymore. We took on an additional 18 year old German girl who stayed out too late and was also having trouble finding her way home. We dropped her off and headed west.

We got to the Capitol, Canberra, and dropped off our passports to the Viet Nam Embassy. We hung around for the afternoon and caught a movie that night - Seven Pounds. Will Smith hit another one home. It was a lot more relaxing than the hustle bustle of Sydney. We found a little grocery store and I had my first Reeces Peanut Butter Cup and Dr. Pepper in three years. They were both amazing.

After that, off to the mountains. Lots of good stuff: high meadows, winding roads, wild horses, mountain streams, lakes and rivers containing water, and cool, fresh air. The best Australia has offered us yet.

We burned back to the Capitol to pick up our passports today and we're heading for the south coast soon. We've only got about a week left in Australia before we're off to Southeast Asia. We are both really excited to get going and do something new... or newer...

Here are a bunch of photos to make you jealous. Or not... depending on what sort of stuff you're into.

Nate about to rinse off in one of those mountain streams.

Emu.

Mountain Stream.

Dyanna making breakfast and trying to keep some of that 9am sun off my neck.

The best camp spot we've had through this whole trip.

Same spot as above.

I took this one of Nate from inside the tent while he was making us dinner.

Mecca.

Grasshopper.

Nate flying the kite on the Goldcoast. Some kid was flying a little kite with his dad, so we thought we'd pull out ours and squash them right out. They left shortly after. Just kidding... They were getting ready to leave anyway.....