Erik and Erin in Australia

I have a story for you that I am sure everyone will find hilarious. Christmas eve is a big party night for a lot of people around here, so we went out to a bar. That night Erin met a young man from Scotland named Steve. They got along quite well and danced and talked for a good part of the evening. Later, when the bar was closing Steve asked Erin if she would like to return to his hostel with him, or perhaps watch the sun rise from one of the city's parks. Erin politely declined, and returned to the hostel we are staying in. The next morning when Erin woke up she was told that there were notes on every door in the main building of the hostel. They all went something like:

We spent a night out on Rottnest Island, just of the coast from Perth. The island was great, it had some amazing coast lines and views. The island is full of small marsupials named Quokkas. The look kind of like really small kangaroos, and kind of like really large rats that hop, which is where the island gets its name from (Rat's nest). At night the things were everywhere. They have no predators, and the tourists don't hurt them, so they don't seem to be afraid of anything. We also saw a couple of snakes and a big harry spider. This seems unremarkable at first, but then you remember that you are in Australia, and that these things are in all likely hood very very posinous. Knowing that a bug could probably kill you makes it a lot more impressive.

We are having another BBQ tonight at the hostel, and there seems to be a large street party in the area, so we are going to wander around outside and see what we can find for a New Years Eve party.

No new pictures today, but Erin will probably get a roll of film developed soon, so stay tuned.

We love it when everyone from back home posts messages and sends email, so please keep it up. Keep the messages clean though! I've cleaned out the current set of messages, so you all have a blank slate to work with. You can read the old posts here now.

Have a Happy New Year everyone!

I have to say that it is very strange to think that it is Christmas. I just can't bring myself to belive that it is late December when it is 30 above and sunny out. Not that I am complaining. It just seems a little odd.

We have spent the last eight days traveling south of Perth, and we are now back in the city for the holidays. The southwest was a lot of fun. We spent the bulk of our time in Dunsborough, where the hostel was 40 feet from the beach. We went whale watching and saw three Blue whales. They were huge, 30-40 feet long, and these ones were only young. The tour operator said that he has seen Blues over 100 feet long. Erin thinks it is ironic that we spent a bunch of time and money just to watch some animals breath. We both had a lot of fun though.

In a town called Margaret River I hired bikes with a couple of girls from England, and we went on our own wine tour. It was great. We made it to five wineries in under five hours, and sampled 51 different types of wine. The ride home was a bit of a challenge. Erin decided to avoid the wine and explored Margaret River on foot.

If any of you are interested in stalking... I mean following our progress, check out this site.

And now, more pictures. No rocks this time.

I've added a copy of the email that Erin just sent out to everyone to the site. If you want to read it, go here.

Have a happy holiday erveryone.

I'm sure the page is loading very slowly for everyone now that all of these pictures are here. I might move them to a photo gallery page later, but I will leave them on the main page for everyone to see for now.

Kangaroo Island was very nice. We went out on the ferry on Thursday night. Once we got there we went on a tour of the penguin colony. We were able to see about 30 fairy penguins.

We did a day tour of the island that was very nice. We saw a lot of different wildlife.

We spent a couple of days relaxing around the town that the ferry docks at. We relaxed on the beach, went swimming and walked around the town. We were planning to do the same thing yesterday when we checked out of the hostel at 9:30am. We spent 9 hours outside in the rain waiting for the ferry. We managed to take a 4 hour break for lunch in a cafe. Ah... the glamorous life of world travelers.

Not that we expect anything from anyone, but... We will be in Perth for Christmas. We can receive mail at the main post office. The address is :

Erin Baydak (or Erik Johnson)
C/- POSTE RESTANTE
PERTH GPO
PERTH WA 6000

Erin does expect something from Kim.

We have developed our first set of film. When I find a scanner I can use, I'll post pictures from Australia. In the meantime, here is a picture of Erin and I with Karen. This was a promotional campaign marketing the Dungeon Krud beer that we brewed a couple of years ago. Krud Man, with his Krud girls. Any dignity we once had is long gone.

And now we are off to Perth on a train.