I hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a great New Year. Australia has been fantastic. I will be sad to leave. Each time I've gone on to a new location, I've been ready, but not this time.

I've spent a lot of time with my cousins here. My Dad's close cousin, Walter Teeland, from Alaska married an Australian woman, Elizabeth. I have been hanging with them and their kids, Alexandra and Dave. We've had a great time just hanging out at a great beach town called Noosa Heads, about 2 hours north of Brisbane. Dave and I go surfing almost every day. The water is so warm. Australian beach culture is the best. I spent a week here just after S. Africa and now the last weeks of December.

We spent Christmas with the Morris clan, about 25 people, and had a great cold dinner. All the same stuff we have in the U.S. ( ham, turkey, etc. ), but cold . . . because it is hot!!! here. We've been hanging with the Morris's all week, meeting for drinks and going out. We also spent X-Mas going to the beach before and after dinner. I've seen a lot of Koalas as well. Noosa sits next to a headlands that is a national park and a Koala sanctuary. Each time I walk to the beach I look in the gum trees. I've spotted a few and other times I just spot the people standing there looking up into a tree.

In between stays at Noosa I spent 11 days at a great surf/hippie/backpackers town called Byron Bay. I stayed at a youth hostel and simply surfed every chance I got. The waves were not great, but it was so great to get out in the water every day, sometimes 3 times a day. Beautiful water and coastline there. Lot's of girls surf there and they surf in bikinis. That might sound shallow, but hey, it was part of Byron's charm, I have to admit.

Have a great New Year. I'm off to New Zealand on the 1st . . at 4 am.

G'Day from Australia! Corny I know, but it had to be said. I am in Australia now, 18 hours ahead of most of you guys. Since my last post, the only two things I have really done are drink lots of beer at a youth hostel and then surf for 15 days straight. The beer did not help the surfing, but the surfing did help the beer gut!

I spent 8 days at a youth hostel in Cape Town called Big Blue. It was right across the street from where they just had the big AIDS concert benefit, in Greenpoint. Great place, easy to stay for a while. They had a relaxed bar where the bartender, Andy, would say, "Welcome to the party.", each time you stopped in, which was every night at about 6 pm. Cape Town is amazingly beautiful. It sits on a big blue bay and has some of the most beautiful, hang out, beaches I have ever seen. I did the typical tourist stuff; wine country, Table Mountain, nightlife, and shark cage diving ( seriously, everybody did it ).

The real fun started after Cape Town. I came here to start a 2 month surf safari. I have always wanted to surf and this is my chance to learn. What I have found is that learning to surf is not exactly the easiest thing in the world. However, I have made some good progress.

I spent 7 days in Jeffrey's Bay, about 8 hours up the eastern cape from Cape Town. This is a beautiful bay, very similar in looks to Monterey Bay, CA. I stayed at a B&B which looked right out over Super Tubes, one of the best breaks in the world. I bought a board and wetsuit and surfed down the beach at, The Point, with Teegen from the B&B. The B&B was called Beach Music and was run by Teegen's sister, Tara. The whole family lived there and the place was really cool. You can't believe the view they had. I had some good rides and enjoyed the local language and attitude. Teegen would say, "Here is your wave my bro." and his sister would end sentences with, "man." I am told I say that a lot as well. These are my people. Very cool people at J-Bay. I enjoyed the place a lot. Lot's of dolphins around as well and one day a pod of six swam right up to Teegen and I. They had a baby and I think it was curious so they came by to check us out. They swam right underneath us and beside us.

After J-Bay, I rented a car and drove 4 hours up the coast to East London and met Louis from Dawn Patrol. All I knew about Dawn Patrol was that they would take me surfing for a week. This turned out to be a very cool experience. Dawn Patrol is a collection of local surf maniacs. These guys live to surf. They know swell, wind, and breaks better than anyone in the area. Each day, a different guy would take me surfing ( on his day off from his other job ). He would pick me up between 5 and 6:30 am and we would chase surf all day. Most days we surfed twice a day and some days 3 times a day. They would even cook me dinner at their homes each night. I didn't lift a finger. All I did was surf for 8 straight days. The unexpected benefit was getting hooked into the local culture immediately. I met all the local surf pros and colorful characters. We surfed the Nahoon Reef, Glen Garif, Nydoos, Eastens, and Seaville. I felt like the guys from Endless Summer being taken around by John Whitmore. The guys were great, incredibly hospitable. Thanks Roger, Louis, Nick, Julien, and Glen. I'll show you around California if you come out.

After 15 days of surfing, I am still a beginner. I had some small successes along the way. Each time you catch a wave and ride it, it is so exciting. However, there are a lot of falls and misses in between. I am looking forward to more surf in Australia. I am at my cousins' beach house in Noosa Heads now, but I'll head down to Byron Bay over the next two weeks to surf around there.

I hope all is well in the U.S.A. Talk with you later, man.