Abridged Schedule of Events in the Land of Oz

Day 1/2: Day of flights from hell (PDX-LAX-Auckland-Brisbane)
Day 3: Raining in Brissie. Botanical Gardens, shopping.
Day 4: Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane Art Gallery
Day 5: Flight to Cairns
Day 6: Sunbathing. Shopping. Bats in trees.
Day 7: Fitzroy Island... hiking and swimming on the coral beaches of paradise
Day 8: Great Barrier Reef trip on the Passions of Paradise catamaran. Mind blown.
Day 9: Markets, bungy jumping at AJ Hackett Cairns - 50 meters. Backwards.
Day 10: Sleeping in, shopping, sunbathing
Day 11: Trinity Beach north of Cairns, party party party
Day 12: Hanging out with new friends at hostel, return to Brisbane
Day 13: Walking tour of dowtown Brisbane, Southbank and Kangaroo Point, pub crawl
Day 14: Friends, pub crawl
Day 15: Dinner with Sam's friends
Day 16: Tamborine rainforest trip + beer, cheese and wine tasting
Day 17: Brisbane Museum
Day 18: Moreton Island trip + FWDing, sandboarding and snorkelling shipwrecks
Day 19: Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast
Day 20/21: Day of flights from hell.

Santa has a sunburn

I love Christmas. I usually spend it with my family, indulging in our holiday traditions both at church and at home, but two years ago was a little bit different. Four days after Christmas 2006, I was in Honolulu on the first leg of my South Pacific adventure with my school. It was a warm December in Boston, so there wasn't any snow when we flew out, but our arrival in Hawaii still made us feel like we'd flown from winter to summer. On our first day, we were turned loose to find food at the Ala Moana mall. Santa was on the roof!



You don't expect to see Santa in the land of palm trees and luaus.

Not even four days after Christmas.

(...I always knew there was a reason that my parents paid my brother and me in macadamia nuts for reciting Luke 2 at Christmastime when we were small)

Walking around downtown Honolulu, we, the group of students raised with all four seasons (and I, having spent my formative years in Oregon, formerly found a nor'easter to be a culture-shock!), were amused by people in flip-flops and bathing suits ambling past the light-up snowflakes and other festive paraphernalia decorating the palm trees. We rang in 2007 in the air over Hawaii, looking down on the fireworks exploding all over the island.

By the time we arrived in New Zealand, we were slightly more accustomed to our summer/winter paradox, even though the Christmas holidays being in the warm season still took some getting used to. I'm not the only one who feels that way, as I found when I recently saw a bit in the New Zealand Herald asking for Antipodean views on the best and worst Christmas carols. One commenter from New South Wales summed up general opinion: "worst: ...anything that mentions snow, sleighs, reindeer, winter wonderlands. It's summer, people!"

So this Christmas, whether you are wishing your loved ones a "Mele Kalikimaka!" or simply a Merry Christmas*, remember that it can be merry and bright, no matter the weather. Also, there's nearly two feet of snow where I am, so please stop singing White Christmas.


*Or if you're doing your wishing in any of the following languages-

Feliz Navidad (Spanish)
Vrolijk Kerstfeest (Dutch)
Hyvää joulua (Finnish)
Joyeux Noël (French)
Frohe Weihnachten (German)
Buon Natale (Italian)
Feliz Natal (Portuguese)

-then Merry Christmas to you, too!