Fun and Furry Animals in Adelaide Part Deux!

So, on exciting day 2 of my trip to Adelaide, we went to Cleland Wildlife Park! I was promised Furry Animals and it didn't disappoint! I got to see wombats, loads of kangaroos (so soft!), emus, various birds, koalas (also so soft!) and more! The kangaroos were the best and I got to feed a ton of them and then the koalas were of course super cute and we got to meet Vincent up close and were lucky enough to pet him.







Then we went off to a Footy (Football, Australian style) in the afternoon, the Port Adelaide Power against the Carlton Bears. It was a fun game and definitely addictive to watch. Faster than American football and kinda like rugby (not as violent) and kinda like soccer (ball usually being held in arms though and tossed, sometimes kicked, but definitely airborne). Too bad Port lost, but at least it was an exciting and fun match up!

Fun in Adelaide!

All because of the lovely Coates family who, of course, I met while in Angus' lab.

I travelled out to Adelaide on Friday and spent a relaxing night in with Eleanor and Hugh, Penny and Toby's now grown up children! We watched Masterchef (highly addictive reality television!!!) and then off to bed in my gorgeous guest room which was in the Japanese Garden house!



The next day, we headed off to McLaren Vale and just decided off the cuff to stop at Alpha Box and Dice Winery. Thank goodness, because it was great fun! Not only was the winemaker knowledgeable and just plain fun to talk to, but the decor was funky (pinball machines!) and most of all, the wine was very very good.



Then off to D'Arenberg which had lovely views and good wine (their sweet and sticky wines were best). Then, one more stop along the way to lunch. We stopped off at Paper Eagle Winery. At first, we were very scared as the pourer, gave us the "$10 house wine" which was definitely not what we were looking for. We were all a bit scared to try the next wines, but the manager/owner came out and ran over - "I don't pour that wine usually! I promise the next wines will be better!" And, they were! Delicious - the Rarefied wine was $90 and tasted that much. The Linchpin was $30 and a good value.

Then off to the Salopian Inn which had a lovely menu and was just the right amount of food. I got a soup and the prawns which was lovely. Off for Eleanor's net ball coaching and then to Glenelg to walk the boardwalk. And what did I see? Camels at the seaside. Who would have thunk? They imported them to use in the desert in central Australia, which makes sense. Still wouldn't have expected it.

Then, Penny and Toby hosted a fantastic dinner - sooooo delicious and the food just kept coming out! The dessert... chocolately yumminess and then... the truffle creamy cheese - divine! And the wines! Yummy! Needless to say, it was a long, wonderful night...

Day 2 of Adelaide tomorrow! (Furry Animals! Footy!)

My first 2 forays into dining in Sydney

So. I mentioned I am a bit incapacitated right now with my torn tendons. :(

And, with the lack of a real kitchen, I have been microwaving dinner and trying some restaurants nearby by housing. So far I have gotten pretty lucky.

La Pesa Trattoria



It's literally 15 steps from my lodging. Can't get more convenient than that. It looked quaint and I had been eye-ing it since I arrived on Monday. It serves Milanese style. They had a couple things on the menu I wanted to try but overall it wasn't a menu that I was salivating over. Probably because I tend to go towards vegetarian and fish dishes. Most of the menu was meat, meat and more meat.

There was an appetizer, a burata mozzarella, that I wanted to try but thought that that plus an entree would be too much, so I still need to go back and check that appetizer out. I let the waiter choose my meal (prosecco - which I REALLY wanted to try with a gnocchi - I know, not the best pairing! - vs. a nebbiolo with the beef ravioli). Not too surprisingly, he chose the nebbiolo/ravioli pairing, BUT the management gave me a free aperitif - the prosecco! So really, the best of all worlds. :) The olives they served with the bread were divine, the bread, not so divine but tolerable. The raviolis were good. Don't get me wrong, delicious and full of pull beef. But I'm just not that into meat!

I of course couldn't say no to dessert, particularly the tiramisu. Served in a martini glass, which I hate, but delicious. I would definitely get that again.

All in all, service - 5 stars (although they didn't refill my water very quickly). Food - 3.5 stars. Wine - 3.5 stars (wine nothing super stellar and only a few available for glass tasting). I will go back for the service and to try that burata.

Wine + Entree (Ravioli) + Tiramisu = $60 (with 10% tip)


Simizu



I had seen a lot of people in this sushi/Japanese restaurant the other day and made me start craving sushi again. It got decent reviews and since it was only 30 steps away from my lodging, I decided to give it a try! :)

I went kinda early cause I am jetlagged in general. Kinda a mistake because the staff stared at me eating the entire time which kept me from 1) feeling comfortable and 2) made me self-conscious so I didn't take a picture of the most gorgeous and delicious appetizer! Continuing on that statement, I will say that it was difficult to really communicate my needs/allergies - that I am allergic to soy! - as they all were obviously more comfortable with speaking Japanese.

One of my favorite dishes in the US is the Agedashi Nasu from Sushi Kazu. I think their dish is pretty fantastic. I finally got this restaurant to agree to make me the Agedashi Nasu instead of their special Nasu Simizu dish which I can't eat because it is served with a Miso sauce. DEAR LORD! Thank goodness I insisted, because not only was it the MOST BEAUTIFUL dish (this is where I am so sad that I didn't just the guts to take out my camera and start snapping away!), but delicious! They had deep fried to perfection an entire HALF of an eggplant and served that. I know my description doesn't give it justice, so I will just HAVE to go back there to get it again. I know, it'll be really hard for me to have to do that for the sake of this blog. :)

I also got a hand roll and a rainbow roll. Too much food. They use a ton of rice and the sushi roll was HUGE. But in all seriousness, delicious. Warm, not too hot, rice perfect. The only thing that would have made it to die for would have been more vinegar in the rice. But now I am just nit-picking.

Forget about the sake. Not good.

Sake (120 ml) + Agedashi Nasu + Rainbow Roll + Tuna/Avocado hand roll= $45 (and I got leftovers out of it!)

Definitely will be returning!

My new workplace!

It's nice to be in a stand-alone Children's Hospital again. And everyone is so super nice!



I have already discovered so much about the Australian medical training here - so much nicer in many ways compared to the USA! They realize that 80 hour work weeks are still not very humane. The registrars (like a resident+) work 40 hours a week, get paid OVERTIME!, have most weekends off, 4 week vacations, and most importantly, have NEVER HEARD OF q4 call (I had to explain!). WTF??!!!???

I'll get a better picture soon!

Land of the Barbie!

I've arrived! OK, technically, I have been here for DAYS, but I've been held up in posting by 1) the gimpy right ankle, 2) jetlag, 3) jetlag, and 4) a frightful lack of photos. Mostly no photos because I just go to work everyday and back (that gimpy right leg!) and also because I just don't have the asian tourist in me which will photograph anything at any time!

So. Here's my place! I didn't photograph the outside yet, but you can see it on the website: 55 Yurong Street

It started off not so great as I was on crutches and arrived and NO one was around to let me know. Thankfully, after asking 5 random strangers to help a girl on crutches out by calling the management for me, a nice man came to my rescue! 15 minutes later, the manager came to let me in and I proceeded to hand over $1760 in AUD. Man!

But here is my place:






Ok, will tell you more later! Well, in a new blog entry. :)

Up, up and away!!!

Day 4:

Today was the day we explored Abel Tasman National Park. It started off with me going on my Paragliding adventure, and boy did I luck out – the weather was in ideal conditions for the flight, good temp, little wind. In short, perfect! I was still sad that mom didn’t want to go, but oh well! I tried a couple more times before I went up, to no avail.

The flight in one word was spectacular. We flew around the mountains over Khangerei Park to the left and Abel Tasman on the right. From there, after seeing the famous sinkholes, we flew to the coast and started down the coastline. The park from the air on a clear day was awesome. The water was clear and a lovely azure, teal, it changed depending on the depth of water. We saw stingrays below the water and some black dots that were maybe the fur seals? But basically saw the beautiful beaches and got stories. A Bark Bay, there was the 85-yo man who back in the day squatted on the land and now has a lovely house with a new roof just replaced last year. How sad that when he dies, the house will then be owned by the National Park who plans to tear the house down. We flew over Split Apple Rock – cute! – and then back to the hangar… where, what a surprise, mom all dressed up in a flight suit! Yippee! Mom decided that she just couldn’t pass up on the beautiful weather and the content faces of the people who went before her (there was a German guy who went up before me). She had a lovely time and is glad she went!



After that experience, we decided to go on the scenic boat tour along the coastline. It afforded us views completely different from the flight which was great. And this time we saw a seal! Ok, maybe we saw TWO seals. After that, we decided to make it a restful day and just head back to the hostel to make ourselves a delicious dinner on the grill then bed! Tomorrow we head off to see some pancake rocks and some glaciers. I think.

Land of the Hobbits… and Sheep

Mom, Dad, and I have arrived in New Zealand! Well, we’ve been here a couple days and it’s definitely been busy starting from day 1. I arrived after my 14 hour flight (complete with crying baby) and met up with Mom and Dad at Christchurch airport. From there, we rented our hatchback and then we were off!

Left, left, left – this has become our daily chant as we drive around South Island. Along with Baa, Baa, Baa… and Moo, Moo, Moo… you can guess what our most frequent sightings have been.

Day One:

We drove from Christchurch to Kaikoura where we had a lovely lunch (dad chose the best thing that day, the black cod). We stopped by one Marlborough winery, Montana Winery, which also produces Brancott wines. I bought a lovely Sauvignon Blanc. From there, we went to the Queen Charlotte Sounds area where we stayed at Anakiwa at a lovely Hostel. It was definitely not your typical hostel and was very very nice. We drove to Havelock for dinner where, since they are famous for their green lipped mussels, we had, yup, you guessed it, green lipped mussels for dinner! Delicious! And also delicious were the Nelson scallops which had the muscle-thingy still attached – it was beautiful looking and delicious!


Day Two:

The theme of the day: Splish, Splash, I was taking a bath…

So we opted to head out to try and find Sawcut Gorge which, from pictures seen in a tour guide, was AWESOME – stand at the entrance of a narrow gorge and then walk in ankle deep water within the gorge. We looked it up, and according to the directions on the NZ DOC website, drive 12 km on gravelly road, go thru private land (so leave the gates as found) and then from there, it would be a 1.5 hour one-way trip to the Gorge. It would require Waima River crossing. With these detailed directions, we started on our trek and all was going well until we hit a fork in the road… and yup, you guessed it, we chose POORLY. So, we went for quite a few km driving through lots of tall grass and brush up until we hit the big drop off in the road that would require a 4WD car – which we didn’t have. So we turned around, sad that we chose the wrong road. We decided to drive out to the main Hwy to make sure we were even at the right river (we were!) and on this detour, we went to the beautiful beach and had our picnic sandwich lunch out of the hatchback. Refueled, we decided to try again for Sawcut Gorge.

We drove out and made it and despite the not-so-excited (not so impressed with the Gorge apparently) caretaker of the visitor log, we headed out on our hike! After several river crossings where Mom and Dad faithfully took off and re-put on their hiking shoes, they finally, fed up, decided to hike the remaining crossings in their hiking shoes. I finally caved too. Pants hiked to above our knees, we crossed the river at least 12 times, climbed up a rocky path, endured Mom getting stabbed in her shin by a dead branch, but we finally made it to… a lovely view. We were so exhausted by this point, and after dad and I went off on a scouting mission and found that the Gorge itself was still at least a good 20-30min hike over many boulders, we decided to forgo the Gorge itself.

Headed back, we were doing well but a little hypoglycemic. I should have eaten the darn powerbar in my bag, but I kept telling myself, “I’m fine, it’s just a little longer.” Well, as I waded through the mid-calf clear river water, I could feel myself starting to lose my balance. Everything moved in slow motion, and as I kept taking steps left to try and prevent the inevitable fall, I had only one thought in my head, “SAVE THE CAMERA AND CAMERA BAG!” Which, as I landed flat on my butt in the river, in JEANS mind you, I waved my Rebel and camera bag in the air and yelled at mom and dad, “Forget me, SAVE THE CAMERA!!!!!” Repeatedly. Mom and Dad, as a mom and dad, were of course more concerned with getting me out of the water. And, of course, by this time I was laughing my wet ass off which didn’t help matters. Poor mom, she got pulled into the river too trying to pull me out of the water. Sorry Mom! Luckily, my camera and its attachments survived, and I walked around in wet jeans the rest of the day. :) Too bad there wasn’t a video or camera of these events!


**Audrey, after the jump. Or rather, the slip, fall, whatever.**

Day Three:

We drove from Anakiwa to Motueka in anticipation of our Abel Tasman National Park explorations. We arrived around 11:30 AM and decided to drive up to Totaranui and the Pupu Springs. After a nice curvy mountain road (apparently 365 turns!), we ended up at the Mussel Inn and had an all-organic lunch (they even make their own sodas – and beer!) and then off to Totaranui! The beach was lovely and we arrived there safely despite crazy 4WD-driving maniacs who drive WAY too insanely on gravel unsealed roads with sheer cliffs on one side. Home-made dinner at the hostel and our day was done…


On a side note, I LOVE my Canon Rebel XSi. Best purchase EVER. And so is the telephoto zoom lens. And my filter. I think I may have converted my parents. :)