Off the Bike...

Well... it has been almost a week off the bike now. No more getting up with the sun and eating breakfast out of our small pots; no more hopping on the bike and taking in magical scenery as we sweat up hills and fly back down them; no more pulling into a campsite, setting up camp, and enjoying the little things like a warm shower, a big meal, or a 7 o'clock bedtime. All the routine of cycle-touring has come to an end. I am a bit sad to be done, but the wonderful experience of pedalling throughout New Zealand and Australia will stay with me forever.

Life touring off the bike is not so bad either. It is much easier traveling around by bus, train, and plane! And our bodies appreciate a break from hours spent pedalling away on a tiny seat. We've spent much of the last few days getting ourselves organized for travels ahead... packing up our bikes, finding backpacks in which to carry our stuff, arranging tours of the barrier reef... etc.. etc.!

But, we have also managed to have quite a bit of fun as well. Thanks to Steve Malgeri, we had a wonderful celebratory dinner to mark the end of our cycle journey. We went to a revolving restaurant in Sydney's Skytower where we had a spectacular and constantly changing view of the city... and a scrumptious all you can eat meal with delicacies such as Kangaroo (it is quite tasty... if you don't think about the cute kangaroos).

We also joined our cycling buddies and gave surfing a try on Bondi Beach - a surfer haven. We decided to skip the lessons, rent boards, and head straight to the massive waves... where we found out that lessons would have been helpful. After getting smacked by a few waves and finally getting our boards under control, we managed to paddle out into the ocean easily enough. Actually, I think we were naturals at the paddling. Then, we layed on our boards wondering "what do we do now??" The waves kept rolling in and several surfers zoomed by, but we couldn't quite figure out how to get up from our horizontal position and stand on the board the way that surfers do. After a bit of lying on the board and watching waves, we managed to sit on the board somewhat steadily. I then watched all the other surfers around me as they seemed to miraculously stand up and ride the waves. It didn't look so difficult, but the prospect of actually standing on the board was a bit daunting. Finally, we managed to ride along on some of the smaller waves... still remaining flat on the board. I then worked up the courage to give standing a try as my board started zooming along with the waves. This resulted in flailing limbs and quite a bit of saltwater up my nose (which is not particularly pleasant!)! The closest I got to surfing was standing upright just before the board began to slow and then falling down towards another noseful of water. We had a lot of fun trying to figure out the art of standing on water before deciding our bodies could not tolerate much more abuse from the waves. We turned in our boards and exchanged them for a couple boogie boards... which were much easier to master!

The rest of our time in Sydney was spent exploring the city... viewing the magnificent harbor bridge and opera house at night, running through the fragrent botanical gardens, and of course, testing out a variety of ice creameries.

We are now up in the Whitsundays... a beautiful holiday resort area at the edge of the barrier reef and home to a conglomeration of beautiful islands. Today we took a morning run along the coast before jumping in a cool swimming pool. Then we spent the afternoon walking around the small resort town of Airlee Beach and reading in the sun with a view of the fresh blue ocean waters. Tomorrow we are headed off on a sailing trip... what a tough life off the bike.