{"id":24,"date":"2006-01-03T19:05:27","date_gmt":"2006-01-04T01:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/?p=24"},"modified":"2007-07-22T17:47:34","modified_gmt":"2007-07-22T23:47:34","slug":"new-years-day-in-sydney-then-off-to-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/2006\/01\/03\/new-years-day-in-sydney-then-off-to-vegas\/","title":{"rendered":"New Year&#8217;s Day in Sydney, Then Off to Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/img_0079.JPG\" alt=\"Kath and truk in Vegas\" align=\"left\" \/>Kath and I are back in the US now, in Las Vegas, preparing for our flight back to Little Rock tomorrow, where we will pick up our dogs and head back to Memphis for work on Thursday. The last few weeks have been a blur, and I&#8217;m thankful that I grabbed a few snapshots along the way to help make the whole experience much more real in hindsight.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/img_2490.JPG\" alt=\"Kath by Maori Meeting House\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/img_2481.JPG\" alt=\"Akaroa\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/img_0063.JPG\" alt=\"Karen, Justin, and Kath\" align=\"right\" \/>We flew out of Christchurch without any problems, landing in Sydney without a rental car reserved (we waited too long to book a cheap one, as Christmas to New Year&#8217;s is the most busy car rental time in Australia). We cabbed over to La Perouse, glad to be back among our friends there. Karen Linnell put us up the whole time we were in Sydney, and we enjoyed spending time with her and her 4-month old son, Justin. Karen&#8217;s wonderful generosity and hospitality will not be forgotten&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Click here for photos of the <a href=\"http:\/\/expats.mazzy.com\/g2\/v\/200512_nz_au\/the_catlins\/\">Catlins<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/expats.mazzy.com\/g2\/v\/200512_nz_au\/dunedin_christchurch\/\">Dunedin, Christchurch<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/expats.mazzy.com\/g2\/v\/200512_nz_au\/sydney\/\">Sydney<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/img_2557.JPG\" alt=\"Gillian, Kath, and Hal\" align=\"left\" \/>While we were in Australia, we drove up to Hawk&#8217;s Nest (about 3 hours north of Sydney) to spend several days with Gillian and Hal Cowlishaw. Gillian was one of Katherine&#8217;s academic advisors on her PhD dissertation and is the author of the authoritative <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0472086480\">Rednecks, Eggheads, and Blackfellas: A Study of Racial Power and Intimacy in Australia<\/a><\/em>. Hal and Gillian took us on a short bushwalk from their backyard to the ocean and lent us kayaks to explore nearby mangrove trees growing out of an estuary.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/img_0012.JPG\" alt=\"New Years Eve\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/img_0008.JPG\" alt=\"Auntie Marge and Lindsey\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/img_0007.JPG\" alt=\"New Years at Marges\" align=\"left\" \/>New Year&#8217;s in Sydney was a lot of fun. We rang in the new year at the Yarra Bay Sailing Club, our old haunt when we lived in Sydney during 2001-2002. After that, we headed down to Auntie Marge&#8217;s for a feed and few more Victoria Bitters with the gang.<\/p>\n<p>Click here to view photos of <a href=\"http:\/\/expats.mazzy.com\/g2\/v\/200512_nz_au\/vegas\/\">Vegas<\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/img_0068.JPG\" alt=\"New York, New York\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/img_0081.JPG\" alt=\"truk and the Coke bear\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/img_0075.JPG\" alt=\"truk\" align=\"right\" \/>We are enjoying Vegas but are experiencing a bit of culture shock after diving into what I would call &#8220;Americana on Speed.&#8221; The internet connection at the MGM Grand (where we are staying) is not proving to be very reliable, so I will just post a few photos and look forward to seeing all of our Memphis pals in a few days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kath and I are back in the US now, in Las Vegas, preparing for our flight back to Little Rock tomorrow, where we will pick up our dogs and head back to Memphis for work on Thursday. The last few weeks have been a blur, and I&#8217;m thankful that I grabbed a few snapshots along [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.truk.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}