No Kangaroos, But warm weather and a beautiful beach (My Gold Coast Trip)

Last weekend, I head to Australia for a few games against a couple of representatives from Brisbane Football. Now that's all I want to go from that part of the story because we lost both games. I really wanted to talk about the rest of the trip. Which included a A-League game, going out at Surfers Paradise during the night and day.

It was nice to see warm weather for a change. I most definitely enjoyed not worrying about whether it was going to rain or not. Or if it was going to be cloudy and not clear skies. My impressions from Australia? I feel like it is just like America almost. The motorways, the housing designs, even the cars look similar even though they try to make their trucks look much more sportier than in America, the similarities are endless.

We only got to see a little bit of Brisbane because of the soccer game we went to after our Saturday game but most of our journey was spent on the Gold Coast and boy that was beautiful. Large buildings, long beaches, and everyone enjoying the weather with shorts, bikinis and everything else. People watching was very enjoying, seeing those who were playing sport out on the beach or running in the sand, or just glazing at the water made for a good time even though I wasn't doing anything active. Another thing is that I don't really understand how everyone could eat such disgustingly fatty foods but still have good to perfect bodies. I saw a couple of girls go into a Hungry Jacks (which is basically an Australian version of Burger King) and three model shaped girls go into there and order whopper combos. It truly amazed me. Especially due to the fact that, you probably wouldn't ever see that in America in which looks are everything.

Plus whatever happened to young ladies looking their age? It was ridiculous to see all these young girls out on the beach and looking just as developed as those who are in their 20s. I didn't see much of that when I was young. All I could do is shake my head and feel dirty for even giving them one glance. I'm certainly glad that I don't live here or I could be in trouble hahaha. In general the trip was fun, even though the soccer didn't go well. I enjoyed being in Australia with great company along the way. I'm definitely going to have to try to make another visit to another portion of Australia if I could.

I was honestly sad when we were leaving there to head to the airport. I realized that we were probably going to be heading back into a rainy Auckland scene and I was right for the most part. Especially due to the fact that I was stuck in the Auckland International Airport car park for a couple of hours because my coach's car died and we had to wait on help to get it started. On Tuesday morning when I was waking it, it was raining in bits and pieces and all I could do was day-dream about the few days I was in the Gold Coast.

Hopefully I can write another post summarizing my overall journey here in the South Pacific area. I'm leaving very very soon so I should at least do a final saying from Down Under.

The Update that you haven't been looking for

Last weekend after our game in Waikato, we went to Rotorua and to my friend's lakehouse with Tavis, and Anthony Murch and his fiancee. We got into Rotorua at about 6pm on Saturday evening. One thing that was noticeable right away was the smell. Until you get use to it, the place smells kind of bad. But I was explained to that the smell was probably coming from the sulfur that were coming out of the hot springs that were pretty much everywhere. This place is known for its hot pools. After we ate dinner, we went to a place called the Polynesian Spa which had lots of hot pools everywhere. They weren't the natural hot pools that you would see near a lake or something, they were just basically regular pools with heated water. It was nice and warm in the pools. I enjoyed it a lot. Especially since I had a game earlier that day, it got all the soreness out of my legs that I would have had if I didn't get into the hot pool.

On Sunday, we went out on the lake. Daniel, the guy that I'm staying with, went out on the lake and started skiing a little bit. They were trying to get me to go in the water, I'm like I'm not getting in that cold water. I think I'll pass on that. After that we drove the boat into a natural hot pool and just chilled out in their for a while, throwing rocks at each other and such. Then we headed back to the lakehouse and just chilled til it was about that time to head home. I tried my hand at a little cricket. The guys were giving me crap for getting out so quickly. I told them I didn't care and I was going to try to wack the ball as hard as I could. I don't care if there's a house in the way and I might break a window, it needs to get out of the way.

Mostly what I enjoyed from the trip was the land and water features. I'm a geography major so I somewhat have a soft spot for almost anything nature. I mean other than going into a forest with bears in it, I'll enjoy myself in nature. I caught myself taking lots of pictures of hills, valleys, mountains, and even farmland with sheep (lots of them) and cows everywhere. It felt like being in another world rather than staying in big city Auckland where I don't really see much else of the country.

This week is filled with a whole lot of nothing until I go to Brisbane on Friday. Maybe training on Wednesday if it isn't raining and I can get there (the bus drivers are currently on strike and the fields are all the way across town, there's no other way I can get there). I'm beginning to think about if I should leave next week. There is prize-giving on the 30th of October but I'm not really keen on staying here that long and there are two reasons why.

1) After this weekend, there will be no more games for me to play, so I will not only sit around the house, I'll be sitting around the house with hardly anything to do and nothing to look forward to. I don't really go out during the night times and usually go to sleep at about 10pm (boring life I know)
and 2) Halloween. I think that's pretty self-explanatory

I got time to think about it. I don't have anything else to do with my time this week. I'll come up with a decision by the end of this week going into next and I'll let ya know on this channel. As for Australia, there will be a lot of pictures especially knowing that I probably won't ever go there again (you'll never know) It will be a fun weekend I can tell you that even though I'll be playing two games blah!....