Beginnings and endings...

Well I'm back in Sydney, this city really is great. Only a couple of hours till I'm off to New Zealand and man am I excited. Just talked to the rest of the gang still up in Bowen and they've quit work cause the season is ending and the fruit is too crap to make it worth is anymore. Its funny, but being back in the city makes my miss DC a bit. Rode the subway in from the airport and couldn't help but nostalgically thinking about pullin into Roslynn for the long cold walk across the Key Bridge. I'll definitely be playing The district sleeps alone tonight on my way back for the first time next fall. Next time I post will be in Auckland so get ready!

Finally I've escaped Bowen and the hell that it is. To be fair to all Bowenites (or whatever it is that you might be called) you seem to be well into your farming and cattle and by all means stick to it but god am I glad to be outa your little town. I've made Townsville and things are looking up. Its a small town still (though the third largest city in Queensland at 150,000 peeps) and its got an air of growth to it. Apparently about 10 years ago a big cyclone (hurricane) came through and took the beach and the first road with it into the ocean and the city, a once florishing tourist hub, is in the process of regrowth and rebuilding. As a result pockets of new and exciting looking attraction sparatically pop out of an otherwise dull and dusty construction mess. All in all it looks like a city that will be awesome to visit in 5 years or so but untill then will remain as the launching point to Magnetic Island. I'm bummed that I won't be able to get to the island its supposed to be amazing, some of the best beached in Queensland. Anyway, I fly out tomorrow morning and can't wait to escape the heat. Now that I have a little more time on my hands I can finish my laundry and get ready for New Zealand. I forgot to update about my last 2 nights in Cairns really. The last day we got to do 2 dives on our own and had a great night out with out group and instructors as promised.
our group was really diverse, we had Spain, Mexico, Germany, Ireland, England, US, Denmark, Sweeden and Australia represented and everyone was so great. The Irish lads were some of the most fun, as I'm finding out is a general rule. The Scots and the Irish are fun to have around.

this is the lot of em with me and Jan (the german from before) in the background. Its really fun to by them a stout and watch them cringe and gag at the absolute horror that is exported guiness.

rosa on the far right was born in Tuscan but moved to Mexico when she was young and is really cool. The spanish guy in the class was in the process of learning english here so not only did he have to deal with the information on the PADI course but had to do it in a language that he struggled with and she helped him a lot. It pertty amazing the things that people endevour even without great english, makes me feel like I should try more with my limited language skills. Jan is of course in the middle and Amanda, an artist from Vancouver, on the left.
Its great meating so many people, its just more and more free accommodation as your travels progress and yes mom and dad, you may need to expect some knocks on the door in the future of crazy foriegners asking you in broken English if this is where Brock lives. Its a florida thing, not as many people are excited about visisted DC, sorry.

Alright, so it was my last day of work yesterday. We stopped picking 2 days ago and started the cleanup phase which is pulling rows of plastic up out of the ground. The plastic is put down to hold the moisture into the roots of the plants and is absolutely buried and covered in dirt and dust and god knows what chemicals that they put on the plants and it all comes up as your pulling it outa the ground not to mention the stuff the truck kicks up while its pattering along behind you stuffing it in as you go. I could hardly see last night my eyes were so irritated but its better now except that all of us looked stoned all the time (hopefully that wears off before customs) Anyway tomorrow I take the bus to Townsville and fly outa Townsville on the 30th for Sydney where I leave for Auckland the next day. I'm pretty excited about New Zealand, it should be a nice break from this weather which is about 98 most of the time. The sun is so intense over here, I thought it was bad on the Florida beaches. The whole in the ozone is supposed to be over Australia and you can definatly tell the difference, its crazy. I'm sure I'll be updating from Townsville and Sydney as I'll have 2 days to kill while I wait for the next stage of Travel so I'll keep you updated plenty. Happy Happy Happy Happy Birthday MOM!!!!!!!! Love you

Sorry for the slow updates, internet is scarce out here in the boonies. I've been picking tomatoes for the last 2 days and it sucks. About 7-8 hours a day in the sun on hand in knees sometimes through lines of vines, whats worse of all is that you're paid by the bucket not hours so if your on a crappy team or if the picking is bad that day you might only make 10 or so $ and hour. ITs funny too, we don't pick the ripe ones that look good. We pick the green and yellow hard ones that are of a good size then they put them in a gas room to slowly ripen them so that they get to the shelves right on time for the best looking tomatoes. Funny thing is that they still aren't really ripe, they're just the perfect color so get organic and fresh local grown ones as much as you can. Also you wouln't believe the amount of chemicals on these plants uhh.
Getting outa here in three days to get back to Sydney and then New Zealand so that'll be nice. A lot of people are here for several weeks even months. Happy Happy thanksgiving to everyone! It was great to talk to some of you and the ones who I didn't I miss you tons. Hope that it was a good one. Hopefully I will have more fun updates soon, not much fun is being had right now. Wake up around 4:45 a.m. hour drive to the farm get off around 4 or 5 then and hour ride home cook dinner and in bed by 8 at the latest. It certainly is making me appreciate the labor thats done in the US for cheap, although technically speaking we're making some of the best money that can be made by unskilled labor. There is a Korean team on the farm that picks about 16 bins a day which is about $140 a day. Tom only made 120 in 2 shifts as a Pizza delivery boy. Anyway enough of that we can talk politics and social reform when I am back but you better eat every last tomato you start cause it sucks to get em to you Hope everything is great at home.

Woot woot I am now a certified open water SCUBA diver! Sorry the updates have been slow but its a real pain to get pictures onto the computers at some places and I was tired of updates without photos. The Reef was awesome! The first day out we spent most of our air on the bottom practicing practical skills and stuff and didn't have a lot of time to swim around but as the dives progress you get more and more free time and today I saw a sea turtle and a cuttlefish and a giant clam that I could easily have crawled into. If you put your hand in it and rub it it freaks out and tries to close up but it can't because its so big. Also i learned a neat trick with a sea cucumber, apparently when they feel threatened they eject their intestines at the attacker (not exactly my idea of a great way to protect itslef, but hey, who can question evolution?). Anyway their intestines are increadably sticky and white and gross looking so (as my typical Ausi instructor was eager to demonstrate) if you rub it up and down really hard it will procede to "ejaculate" it white gooey mess of intestines out into the water and onto whatever it is that you are pointing it at (we were shown that the effect can be exagerated if you hold it in a particular place). Unfortunately (and I'm sure he does it every time) the closest girl ends up with a giant wad of white grossness all over her BCD or wetsuit or face depending on how quick she is really. Quite an amusing spectical, I'm surprised that more people don't drown choking on there regulators as they crack up 12 meters under.
The program was definitely worth it, tonight our Dive Master is taking us out for a night on the town as we've been prohibited from partying while the course went on.

me in the pool on the first day, I'm kicking myself in the head cause the underwater case I bought for the camera was the cheap one and it only goes to 3 meters, which was great at the time cause i didnt think I'd be diving but now...

me and jan (he's german I think thats how you spell "yon") on the bow of Osprey V about to head out to the reef

Cairns is in a cool location cause its in a little bowl of mountains that run all the way out to sea, it makes for a pretty dramatic shoreline

lookin back at the town from the water

Heath (our instructor) lookin scarily confused as he briefs us for our first reef dive
Appart from the obvious great scenery that Cairns has, I wasn't totally taken by the city like I was thought I was going to be. Airlie is much nicer for its more low key and less vertical feel. But I'm starting to change my mind just cause I've met some of the coolest people here. The nights have been pretty crazy because the first night was our riunion with long lost mono who was off the Melbourne to visti his mates for a bit. The second night was the Canadian twins' (I'll talk about them in a bit) last night in Australia and then 2 nights ago was Andy's last night it Australia and for him especially we thought he needed a propper send off. So last night i went to bed really early for the most intense diving which I think we all can appreciate

Brandon and Britt are twins from Winapeg Canada and were awesome.

I've been hangin out with 2 sets of Siblings, the ones on the left are Brandon and Britt and the ones on right ar Maria and Isabella who are from Soa Paulo, Brazil and are living in Brisbane right now.

Andy always manages to sneak into pictures, even when we're trying to keep him out

The girl on the left is Fiona, she works in the bar which is great for all the people she knows. Her Boyfriend on the far left is a crazy Kiwi that just happens to be best mates with our instructor, Heath, and they've been able to get us some great deals in Cairns for dinner and nights out. Its good to know the locals, I figure by the time I see Nick again he'll be as good as a local at Airlie so I'm exctied to see what hes found out about the local scene.
Anyway I'm going diving one more day tomorrow and then Mono and I are headed down to Bowen to meet up with Tom to do a week of Mango picking, I should make 1020 and then its off to Sydney to fly to Auckland. I'm meeting up with Sarah for the New Zealand tour, we're renting a wicked campervan and should be able to see most of the country though I'm hoping we stay more in the South Island, its supposed to be the best. There is a 145 meter bunjy from a cable car hanging in a canyon that is lookin more and more inticing but we'll see how it goes, seven seconds of free fall is pretty intense. Hope everything is great backhome, Dad I think that you'll have to make me 4 apple pies when I get home cause I'll be missing both of my fixes wont I? Love you guys.