The wonderful wisdom of Oz

MacGyver is diligently working on a voice over recap of the whole honeymoon trip that I may did! remember to hyperlink back here.  He's already launched a teaser clip of a shark feed in the Coral Sea.

So while we wait, I figured I'd just brain dump the stuff I thought was cool about the trip.  Since I don't really chase epic things around with my camera, I'll probably be outlinking to a bunch of other people's work and hoping they don't change their URLs and break the flow.

• Google Fi as a phone provider Just Works.  Before we could track down sim cards at the airport, our phones sent us a friendly alert welcoming us to Australia and letting us know our rates were pretty much the same as before.  GPS and maps worked reliably for about as good as any of the locals, even in remote parts of the western coast.  The only drawback was that we often had reception where we didn't have reliable power (like driving the Jucy campervan) so we put the two portable USB battery chargers through their paces.    
• 2-speed toilets.  Almost everywhere had a "big job" and "small job" designation on the buttons.  In the one park restroom I found that didn't, a helpful patron had taken the trouble of graffitti'ing toilet feature feedback on the stall wall.  
• Communism done right:  so this might be chalked up the the budget accommodations I often selected for us, but it seemed like most venues like cafes had a well-stocked book swap case.  Most hostels and campgrounds had gear swaps and "take what you need" herb gardens.  We were the only weirdos using the laundromat dryers because everyone else was cool hanging their unmentionables on communal clothes lines.  
• No Starbucks!  Initially I thought this was a code red overlooked feature, but then discovered Sydney has a cafe culture pretty similar to Rome's (Ok, much much more laid back/read the paper while you sip vs. belly up to a bar, shoot an espresso and prende a la via).  So this trip turned into a tour de Flat Whites from all the mom and pop places that had managed to run Sbux swill out of town.  That said, the Australian chain equivalent (Gloria Jeans) was abysmal, much much worse quality than Sbux and seemed to be skating by on that extended hours niche to cater to the "got up at 4 because jetlagged, why does no coffee shop open before 7?!"  
• Alt milks are also pretty common, so it is possible to dairy-free your flat white without the barista batting an eyelash... That said, I would say the dairy version was consistently tasty so probably harder to mess up.  
• Vegetarian options on every menu.  I had my happycow app thing all ready to go since I'd been reading too much Dr Gregory on how not to die and wanting to be plant-focused.  MacGyver was supportive, so it might be a selection bias in the places we chose to hike for meals, but pretty much everywhere had a decent not-even-envious-of-your-meat-entree-option for me to demolish and we ate at different places almost every meal.  It helped that the Australian preparation of bacon is limp, oily and almost Canadian in its disappointment, so I wasn't fiercely tempted.    
• "No Junk" stickers on most mailboxes.  Turns out Keep Australia Beautiful has pushed for an effort to get "throwing advertising on an owner's property without their consent is...considered litter."  We should copy that in the states.  Until then, I've got an industrial sized paper shredder on my to-do list and am contemplating if the mailbox generates enough brown matter to sufficiently cover humanure deposits.  j/k.  sort of.  
• Cow mailboxes in The Channon.  We saw a bunch of converted milk cans hung as mailboxes as we cruised to Zaytuna Farm (aka the Permaculture Research Institute).  Each one was unique and got me thinking how bucolic living in this area must be with cows grazing in knee-high grass instead of a really stinky densely packed CAFO like we see in the states.  Sadly, this memory quickly became bittersweet as a local on the dive boat pointed out how the land was that lush and productive because it was recently clear-cut rain forest and lots of native wildlife is threatened because of it.    
• Weird wildlife.  The birdsongs even sounded different.  There was a bird we took to calling the "uh-oh" bird because its call sounded kind of like a minion or person on helium watching humpty dumpty tumble off a wall.  Trash turkey/bin chicken/White Ibis seems to occupy the same niche in Sydney as pigeons do here... oddly, the hotel down the street was named Ibis, I wonder if that is a metaphor for the way the country sees travelers?  *shrug*  We saw a koala, a giant spider, and toads that seemed to live in the campground toilets/septic systems at campground #2, a monitor lizard and a couple cassowaries at Etty Bay campground, loads of pet-able joey kangaroos at a roo sanctuary/campground, a tree full of bats in Cairns one of whom has exceptional aim, what am I forgetting?  Oh yeah, all the awesome stuff we saw while scuba diving.
• Sydney and Cairns are walkable!  Ok, so that might be a bit of a stretch in that I did make us walk about an equivalent of a half marathon in Sydney one day and it is jungle humid in their summer.  But I figured we'd run up huge charges in cab fare or have to figure out how to navigate mass transit with Opal cards and whatnot.  Turned out that was totally unnecessary.  If I had to pick a favorite borough, I'd say Glebe  in Sydney is pretty bomb.  It somehow managed to convey a small German ski town feel (like Bishop, CA) with an intelligentsia vibe in the middle of sweltering summer.    
• Sydney also has a bunch of Victorian era townhomes that have fascinating little iron patios and iron balconies. 
• Plants lean the other way!  Discovered pines leaning resolutely North in the Royal Botanic Gardens which really tripped me and my general sense of direction out... Northbound means walking towards the sun at high noon, how outlandish! I found orion in the constellations out at sea but I think he was upside down.  The nice thing about plants is it looks like the companion planting of herb gardens holds globally.  I saw a bunch of combinations in the RBG herb garden that are identical to stuff that the master gardeners do here.  
• Scuba.  Granted, Scuba is more DH's fixation now, but Mike Ball made it hard to dislike diving.  Easy entries, no giant strides with 15' drops (except when the dive master let DH and other crazies jump off the top deck at the end of the trip).  Crazy comfortable water temps without all the raw knuckles from having to pull on a stinky still-damp 6mm.  Visibility for dozens of feet, enough to feel vertigo diving the walls the drop off quickly.  Tons of wildlife to watch and learn about and tons of knowledgeable folks on crew and other guests to help you figure out what you saw and hook you up with tips on spotting more esoteric stuff on the subsequent dives.

So yah, 10/10 would honeymoon again.  :)