Perth, Western Australia....My new homeland with lots of Pictures along the way

View of the mountain range somewhere near Arizona

Some peaks from 30k in the air

  This entry will be a recap of my journey across the pond of sorts, while providing some new pictures and updates of my status in Australia. The 2.5 days of total travel really really took its toll on me the 1st couple of days Down Under. It hits your body so hard that its difficult to really enjoy those first few exciting days, especially for me because I only slept about 2-3 hrs over the 46 hr journey from Charlotte, NC to settle in WA.  I snapped a few pretty cool pictures of some mountain ranges from my 1st flight across the country, no significance but I like mountain ranges and I hope you do as well!

What's wrong with this picture?

 An additional note to the picture above, after settling into my window seat from the QC to LA, I kicked something with my right foot and looked down. This is what I saw, that's always a good sign on an airplane right? You pieces falling apart at my feet haha

   To the left are my new Skull Crusher headphones that really helped my trip go by a bit smoother.  I debated on ordering the official "snoop dogg" version but when I found the exact model without the Dogg father's signature on them for a cheaper price I had to go that route. These headphones nearly drown out all outside noise while providing an amplified mini sub woofer to pump out those bass busting beats that I prefer at times.

 Here is a nice shot of what I did for about 11hrs in LA while at the airport. I got into that cool swanky, "Air New Zealand VIP Lounge" and felt like a rock star for a couple hours as there were only about 10 people hanging out w/me. As the night progressed I was accompanied with about 130 other people, so i didn't feel so cool anymore but I did manage to have about 4 sandwiches, lasagna, 2 jack and cokes and 4 beers while kicking back.

 After arriving in LA, i was stuck in no man's land because the air New Zealand section was still closed due the huge time gap in the time zones. I just laid on top of my bag until people finally came out and everyone rushed to the line. This was the 1st and only place I had to surrender $50 for checking my carry on bag which was too large for the overhead bin. Due to an error, I was able to ship a 47lb bag and my tri bike across the world for FREE!!!

   After waiting for eternity, we were called from the VIP lounge and escorted down to our flight by the concierge. We were able to straight shot to the front of the line and take our seats, which was pretty cool. Since this was the longest flight that I had ever taken, i had hoped this would be a "baller" plane with all the bells and whistles.  Since I was able to get an aisle seat I was stoked because I knew I could hop up and down as much as I wanted to stretch out the legs. The Air New Zealand 767 was very nice and satisfying to me as it was a brand new plane with our own personal TV's and a fair amount of room. I was VERY FORTUNATE to sit next to a very personable couple who were flying to New Zealand for vacation to stretch for 2 weeks. They were from San Diego and seemed to be very well traveled as I spoke about heading to Malaysia as a possibility, the gentleman had even played golf there once. This flight went by very well for me, I popped 2 ambien and slept for a maximum of about 2 hours some how? I just cannot get comfortable sitting up I guess, but oh well, i watched 4 movies along the way.

Check out the h20 and mountains

2XU compression(blood circulation)

 Upon arrival to Auckland, NZ, I said my goodbye's to my new friends. I had a 7.5hr layover so i attempted to leave the airport to explore the city but was unable to do so, because a baggage snafu with my bike and bag, which took almost 2hrs to clear up.

The final flight from Auckland to Perth, was pretty horrible. I had no desire to watch anymore movies and just couldn't sit still and I could not sleep at all. I was completely exhausted but to no avail, sleep was not an option! The last 3 hours of my 8hr flight were miserable and I hoped in and out of my seat like I had ants in my pants! After about 40 minutes of going through security and grabbing my luggage, i was greeted by my AWESOME excited friends Cody and Janna Angell in the parking lot. I looked and felt like Sh*t, I almost couldn't crack a smile because I felt as if I had been beat to hell through the process of my travels.  After arriving at my new homestead by the river, we had a nice pizza dinner in the park with some really cool locals who I found out were amazingly talented in their own individual specialties of endurance sport.

Neil (aka berrylicious) is about a 15:00 5k guy, Marc See is a former state champ and 3:47 1500m guy, Nate-dog just won a 10k and apparently used to roll 3k's in mid 8's, then Gerry (aka - g-money) just rolled a 2:37 marathon after one year of training. This will be awesome group to mix it up with, hopefully I can kick this sickness and get fit quickly so i don't get left in the dust.

AND FINALLY! Check out the shot off of my balcony of downtown Perth! The Swan river lies right in front of the city and after a short walk you can see it plain as day from Kings Park. Cody and Janna found a pretty sweet spot close to his running shop as well as close to the cycling/running paths which wrap all around town and apparently run up to almost 100 miles.

Check it out, the Noosa Asics, named after a big Australian triathlon and some kick a$$ new balance shoes which have followed suit. We don't get many cool color options in the states for running specialty shoes so i may be rocking so pretty serious rays of color for the next few months down under. 




Another Blog to follow very shortly after this is posted!!!