I'm sorry about the lack of updates but sitting on the beach is just too relaxing to worry about typing on a computer. I just spent a week at a place called Coolum Beach, about 1.5hrs north of Brisbane and I might even have gotten some resemblance of a tan. Okay I'm still the palest guy in Australia but at least I'm a slightly darker shade of pink than when I arrived.

Audrey made it to Melbourne without incident. We stopped at the airport and walked her in to make sure her bags weren't too heavy for the flight regulations. We said our goodbyes and as I was walking back to the car I heard a desperate 'Mike' scream coming from behind me. I turned around to see Audrey running after us pushing her bags. I figured she wanted to kiss me again, say that she loved me... you know something romantic like out of a movie. She stopped and yelled something over the traffic. "I need some money!", she cried. So much for romance :). She didn't want to pay an ATM fee just to get a few Aussie dollars to buy some water once she was past security. She made it safe and sound back to the US complete with a surf lesson in Hawaii on the way back.

I was driving Martina back up to the Blue Mountains and on our drive north to Sydney we had been warned about a storm warning for the Sydney area. It was beautiful and sunny in Melbourne, not a cloud in the sky but as we listened to the radio they were talking about roads being washed away, even coal freighters being run aground due to large swells and high winds and record rainfall. All this while we were driving in the sun. It seemed kind of surreal to be driving towards this huge storm. In fact it didn't even start raining until we got to Canberra. Fortunately we were skirting the storm to get to the Blue Mountains so while it was raining it wasn't that bad. Saturday however it felt like all the fresh water in the world was crashing down around us. It rained hard almost all day. Climbing was out of the question but there was a dinner organized for Martina on Sunday night. In fact on Sunday the sun came out and we did get out climbing, to an area called Aliens' Domain which was a pretty steep area. A lot of the routes were wet but we managed to get a few pitches in.

On Monday I was hoping to drive up north of Brisbane. First of all I don't know who the heck said it was five hours to Brisbane but they must've been on crack or in a Ferrari. It's like 950kms! More than the distance from Melbourne to Sydney. On my way down from the Blue Mountains I felt the rear end of my car swerve unexepectedly. First time I thought it was a rut but there were no ruts in the road. Second time I slowed down and pulled over. I thought maybe a flat tire but after looking at the tires I guessed that one of my wheel bearings were blown. I called a tow truck (member of the roadside assistance down here) and he towed me to a shop near Alan and Christina's. I was hoping to see them on the way through town but I wasn't planning on staying... plans change. Also it happened to be a holiday monday so the shops weren't open. I had to wait to Tuesday to get it looked at and it took most of the day to get it fixed. Rather than travelling in the dark I imposed my presence on Al and Christina again and then set off early Wednesday morning. I decided to take it nice and slow and drive up the coast including a quick stop in at Newcastle to see the beached freighter from the storm the past weekend. It was still there and I was amazed just how big it was. The storm must've been pretty powerful to be able to push a ship that big up onto the sand. I continued driving and eventually made it to Byron Bay just after sunset. I was told that if there was one sporting event to watch here in Australia it was one of the State Of Origin rugby games played between Queensland and NSW. I walked into a pub just south of the Queensland border, ordered a beer and pretended to know something about the rules. Queensland won, but barely and I was surprised that most of the patrons in the pub appeared to be from Queensland. Byron Bay was too touristy for me, too many boutique shops etc... and the next morning I continued my drive up north, it was also too cold in Byron Bay. I figured a spot with the name of Surfer's Paradise looked like a good destination but when I got there it was quite windy, the waves were all blown out and the big highrise buildings next to the beach were blocking the sun! Again I decided to drive farther north. In the pouring rain I finally drove into a town called Coolum Beach on the "sunshine" coast (no sunshine...). I decided that I was pretty much as far north as I was willing to drive.

Fortunately on Friday it was at least sunny when I woke up. It was still pretty windy and the surf was crap but I bought a book and sat on the beach reading. A quick dip in the water proved that I would definitely need a wetsuit, I'm such a wimp when it comes to the cold. The next day, even though the surf wasn't that good, I bought a suit (couldn't rent one) and rented a board for three days. I figured that I was up here to surf so I might as well. I did two sessions a day for three days, one at sunrise and one at sunset when the winds were the least. Sunday was the best day with about 6' swells and a strong offshore breeze. It was busy in the water but people weren't fighting for waves. I was fortunate that I don't think I pissed anybody off. It was weird not knowing anyone in the lineup, and while I didn't know anyone I still noticed that it was really quiet. Even the people that did know each other didn't talk at all, didn't harass each other when they missed a wave, didn't cheer when they caught a good one. I also managed to get a few hours of climbing in. I walked up to an area called Mt. Coolum where there was this steep cave of basalt(esque) rock. The basalt appeared to have cooled outwards rather than in columns making for some very intriguing climbing. After trying a few routes I got talked into trying a project there. One of the local route developers was there and was psyched for someone else to get on it and see what they thought. The bottom of the route was really funky with a tricky sequence while I couldn't even figure out how to do the top moves, it'll be hard for sure. In total I spent four days hanging out around Coolum Beach. Most of the time I was just reading but I managed to do some work, some hikes and a bit of surfing as well. I like the really small town much better than my brief impression of Byron Bay or Surfer's Paradise.

On Tuesday night I drove down to Brisbane and met up with an old family friend and his aussie wife. They have a gorgeous house that they designed themselves, not super big but really well laid out with great attention to detail. They even had a magnetic induction stove, something I had never even heard of! Wednesday I drove the long stretch back to Sydney and crashed at Al and Christina's again. I'm hoping to spend the next few days selling my car, getting packed and then I fly out on Monday morning. See you guys back in North America!

The past week has been relatively uneventful. I'm pretty sure it's rained every day and most of the days have been cold and cloudy. We've forced ourselves to get out climbing including a few days at Taipan Wall where Martina redpointed Serpentine with a cold mist blowing over the climb.

The highlight for me this past week was probably onsighting a route called Central Latitudes, a 45 long traversing climb up at Muline that was tons of fun. My arms were sore from a few days of good climbing and I think I strained my bicep on Path of Yin but I managed to tough it out and injure it a bit more :)

On Monday Audrey and I set off in the morning to drive to The Barossa Valley, one of Australia's largest and most famous wine regions. Our plan (Audrey's plan) was to hit up some wineries that she knew of and then try to go to some smaller wineries and see what they had to offer. It took us about five hours to drive there so we made it an overnight trip. We didn't get to the Barossa Valley until around 3pm, checked into a cabin in a town called Tarunda and then made a beeline to Penfolds, probably the most famous wine maker in the region. Audrey knew of Penfolds and might of even had some of their wine back in North America. Fortunately for us the tastings were free for some of their barrels but for their top of the line wines you had to pay $200 for a tour where you got a taste of a $500 bottle of wine. We didn't do that. We did sample four different wines all quite good in my opinion, for what that's worth. Next up we went to a winery called Wolf Blass, this was the only winery that I recognized and their yellow label shiraz is a cheap drinkable wine that you can find for about $10 in most supermarkets in the United States. It's kindof a goto wine for dinner parties. We didn't sample this one but we did sample a few of the free tastes and paid $5 to taste a black label shiraz and a platinum label blend of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz. The black label shiraz was my favourite, again for what that's worth. The wine tastings all closed at 5pm so we went back to town and prepared our dinner, pizza and wine.

The next morning we went first to a smaller winery called Langmiel, pretty much still family owned and run. They are famous for having some of the oldest vines in the Barossa Valley. Apparently the older the fine the richer the fruit it can produce. Grape vines extend their roots deeper and deeper each year so an old vine can pull a lot of nutrients out of the soil. Who knew? They also had transplanted some old vines the previous year that were going to be destroyed for a housing development and called these vines orphans. You could adopt a vine and this allowed you a bottle of wine each year for 10 years plus you could help in the harvesting if you wish. The orphan wine was my favourite that we tasted there but we didn't adopt a vine. Next up we went to a winery called Whistler, again a small family owned winery. They had won a few awards for their reserve for this year and we even ended up buying a bottle. They are trying to get into Whistler the ski resort for the 2010 Olympics. We then had a slight break for lunch before heading off to another small winery called Rockfords where I was tempted to buy their Cabernet Sauvignon but didn't and we finished up the day at a winery called Charles Cimiky, a winery that only makes red wine. Now that I have been to the Barossa Valley I'll pay a bit more attention when buying wines back home. We then drove the long five hours back to Horsham.

Wednesday turned out to be the last day of climbing in the Grampians but Audrey had some errands she wanted to take care of so just Martina and I hiked up to Muline. It was cloudy and a little cool for the hike but once we reached the cliff the sun came out and warmed things up nicely. It was the first day in quite a while where I didn't wear my down jacket, not even when belaying! We played around on a few routes, took a final lap on Eye of the Tiger and then just sat around enjoying the sun for a few moments before hiking down.

I am currently sitting in a laundromat doing some work and writing this entry. Audrey and I saw Shrek 3 this afternoon and it didn't quite live up to the first two. It had its moments but they were short lived and far between. Audrey is all packed up and ready for her flight home tomorrow and I'm trying to get ready for the long drive back up north. I'm going to try and climb a few days in the Blue Mountains and then drive as far north as necessary to get to warm water, friendly surf and a beach to lie on.