School approaches.

I finally go back to school tomorrow. Not the Knee's Bees. It's been about 3 months since my brain last thought about school, and I can't say I'm to happy to go back.

This past week has been a blast. Monday was orientation day for international students, which was pointless. The only plus about Monday was the free food and hanging out at "Bar on the Hill" on campus. We spent most of the day relaxing at the bar, enjoying drinks, and listening to live music (Thats right... a bar on campus).

Two main topics for the rest of the week: Blue Mountains and Kangaroos.


Blue Mountains


My roommate Will and I went on a three day trip to the Blue Mountains this week.  We spent most of our time climbing in the Mount Victoria area and stuck to mainly single pitch sport climbing (and one multi pitch route). By the end of the trip I could barley lift my arms or open a water bottle.... great start to get back into climbing shape. We meet some cool climbers, including a local crag developer/renovator.

We did learn two valuable lessons. Bring lots of water and bring warmer clothes. Will didn't bring a sleeping bag and ended up sleeping in his shoes to try and stay warm (I don't think he got much sleep that night).

 If I was an English major or a poet I would probably be able to come up with some amazing descriptions for how breathtaking the area was. Hopefully the pictures will do it justice. (There will be plenty more trips to the blues in the future).


Base Camp.


Approach.


Where's Waldo? (a.k.a where is the ridiculously strong girl pulling through a roof?)


Sector Two climbing area (we worked through a really fun 5.11b on the left called lyptus)



Some cool rock. There were lots of these "iron" looking bands in the rock. They made for great holds.



Will resting on Lyptus (surprisingly not as comfy as it looks).



View behind one of the climbing crags.



View in the early morning near our campsite.



The Three Sisters.


Horne's Point.



Will resting on Horne's Point at sunset.



Kangaroos and stuff

Saturday the international student association organized a dolphin watching trip and a visit to Oakland zoo. We've seen dolphins swimming in the waves on Newcastle beach, so I wasn't expecting to much. The only dolphins we saw on the cruise were off in the distance, but it was a great opportunity to meet new people.
The zoo on the other hand was an awesomely hilarious experience. Animals on the free rang zoo ranged from chickens, goats, sheep, and cows all the way to camels, kangaroos, and koalas. I felt like a little kid again.

The animals were all obviously very tame, but it was weird seeing a lot of them for the first time.


Picture time.

Stefan and Cameron on the way to the cruise. Kids will be kids.



Captin Cam.



Dolphins.



And its Zoo time.



Roos!!!!


Roo inside of Roo.


Feeding.


Stefans attempt at getting a distracted hungry kangaroo to look at the camera.


Friends.


Chilling.




Gettin' that itch.



Camel + Stefan = Best friends for life.


King of the eucalyptus.






Bonus Pictures!!!!

Little Dude. Big World. Bad Day.


Struggling for that top-out. Bouldering in Sydney last weekend.


Tanker coming into Newcastle port.

Settling In.

So I've been living in Australia for a little over a week and been getting settled in. I'm finally getting on a regular sleep cycle, and getting used to always hanging left.

The convenient location (beach/train) and the people in my apartment are making this an awesome housing situation. There are 2 Germans, 1 Austrian, 1 Irish, 1 Australian, 2 Chinese, and 3 other Americans staying in the apartment complex.

Only one drawback so far... Australia is expensive. I paid $17 for a 6 pack of beer. I'm using all my cheapscaping  skills acquired during college to make grocery shopping more affordable. I have been able to make two awesome affordable dinners; Seafood pasta and kangaroo burger.

My first Australian beer..... $17.




Seafood pasta. Cobbled this beast together for about $5.




KANGAROO MEAT PIE !




Our Kitchen.





Surfing update.

I have a surfboard now. A 7 foot 6 inch mini-mal (between a longboard and shortboard). The first day I "surfed" I paddled out to the other surfers and sat around for about 45min waiting to "Catch" my first wave. Nothing ever happened. But at least I can call myself a surfer, right?

Since then I've been learning in the white wash and catching some smaller waves. I'm getting better at getting up and am almost consistent at it. The majority of my surfing endeavors consist of me getting thrashed around by waves while trying to paddle out.


Taking a break at Nobby's beach.





In the past week I've also gone on my first climbing trip. I meet up with some guys from the newcastle mountaineering club (which I'll be hanging out with a good bit) and went climbing in the Nelson's bay area (1 hour north).

I've never climbed along the shoreline, so this was a spectacular new experience for me. It was very relaxing and a good way to spend the afternoon (except for the occasional slippery rock). Even the approach to the climbing area was a blast.


The Approach:






The Climbing:





Yesterday a huge Rain/Thunderstorm hit Newcastle. I was waiting on a train to get back into town, but the Trains shut down due to flash floods. They shuttled us to the nearest bus station. We shortly found out that the buses were also useless due to the flooding and huge traffic jams. Soooo we were sent back to the train station where we waited until the trains resumed. *Note: Australia and flooding don't like each other.

That night after the storm me and some roommates got bored and decided to go explore Newcastle at night. Below is what we saw. Some awesome beaches and views at night.

Weird statue on the way to the beach.




Newcastle beach at night.




The view to the south of Newcastle from "The Hill"  (Everything was very misty due to the storm).




Not sure??




Til next time.

Tasmania anyone ?!?!?!




-Pieter

Here's a quick video edit of some of the beaches and ocean in the Newcastle area. Some of the video quality is a little lower because I was messing around with video cropping. Everything is about a 5 min walk from my apartment. Hopefully this will give you an idea of the area! Enjoy.



(watch in vimeo for HD)

-Pieter

Aussie Aussie Aussie land.

So my Australian adventure begins. I arrived in Newcastle, Australia on Tuesday Feb. 8th, and I'll be exploring/studying here until the end of June. The apartment I'm staying in is one block from the beach and extremely close to shopping centers, and the train/bus station. PERFECT location! Over the past few days I've been getting settled in and cooping with the jet lag, so not to many adventures so far.

Things I've encountered or learned so far:


-Very few buildings have A/C... So I went to go buy a fan, but they're all sold out. lame.

-I wake up at 5am every morning because of the jet lag, so I go for a run and explore the beaches (subsequently  I pass out at 9-10pm).

-Everybody surfs here. Surfing is awesome. I'm buying a surfboard.

-DON'T GET ON THE BACK OF THE BUS!
 I attempted to do so, and almost got cut in half by the doors but I managed to wiggle my way on.
THEN, I was summoned to the front of the bus by the driver where I was yelled at for a whole minute about how I'm not allowed on the back of the bus.
I gave a thumbs up and did not say a word (To hide the fact I was american).
 For the rest of the ride no one was allowed off the back of the bus. My bad.

-Healthy Coco puffs exist in Australia. They go by the name of Milo Cereal (see picture below).
I think I've been drinking bad milk, but I can't tell because the Milo taste so gooooood.

-As you all know they drive and walk on the left side of the road here. I still walk on the right. Collisions and close calls are plentiful.


Pictures (Bigger versions on Flickr...click the pic):




Sunrise at the Newcastle Ocean Baths.




Bath Chains.





Another view from the Ocean baths. Tankers in the back ground.



Some dude fishing.




More fishing. View down the shore to the light house.




Some crazy bird doing his morning thing. DAY TIMMEEE! Must be the same bird from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aAtFrWft2k (thanks ethan)




In Australia they have little gnomes to clean the sidewalks .... either that or they have giant signs.



The street I live on. Watt street.



My room.




MIIIILLLLOOOOO!!!





More to come. Short video should be up soon.



-Pieter

Starting off the new year with some powder.

Below is a my first attempt at video editing using my new GoPro HD helmet cam . The footage was shot in mostly Wolfcreek, CO from Jan. 3rd - 10th. We also made a stop in Silverton, CO , but the snow conditions were sub-par.

 Even with the bad snow conditions Silverton's skiing potential and antmosphere make it my #1 "resort" of all time. Check out Silverton's website for more info on why (P.S it might have something to do with the mandatory avalanche beacon, snow probe, and shovel).

Andrew and Emily were kind enough to let me use some of their boarding and face-planting for the video. I can't wait for next season. Enjoy.