Adventure is out there!

Sunday November 20
I moved into another hostel today that is much closer to center city than the one I was in. Julia left to go back to New Zealand early this morning and I left the hostel around 9:15am and headed towards Central Station.

I took the train from Central Station to Kings Cross station which only took about 10 minutes. The train was underground just like NYC subways but it was a split double decker train. You enter the train on one level and then you can either choose to go upstairs or downstairs to find seating. The train in Brisbane was also really different because it had a bathroom in it.

My new hostel is right down the street from the train station and I was able to check in right away. I am staying at the Original Backpackers which is in this cute Victorian style house. I am in a four person room, so that is nicer than the eight person room I was in before.

After settling in and dropping off my stuff I headed back to The Rock to see if I could book any other adventures. There was one that I was interested in and at a reasonable price but there was no one on the other side picking up the phone so I suppose I’ll entertain myself with other things. I might be meeting up with Eirin tomorrow so we’ll see what happens.

I spent the rest of the day taking a scenic walk to the Rock. Along the way I took another bunch of pictures of the opera house and bridge as though the thousand I’ve already taken weren’t enough. I got a Subway mango smoothie. Surprisingly the smoothie was delicious and I think there was actual mango in it. I also had fresh squeezed juice made with watermelon, orange, and apple a little later as well. It has been so hot in Australia that I am always thirsty.

  

After the juice I walked to the library to use their internet. I only had about an hour of internet since I got there around 4pm but it was still good and it gave me enough time to go through the 70+ some odd e-mails I had gotten in the last three days; thank goodness for digest.

Anyways, I’ve been writing this post while sitting in the TV room and watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians. My reaction: dear goodness…

*There was a guy making glass art, an the picture on the right is the final product!

Monday November 21

Today was another splendid day spent in Sydney. My morning began with a couple pieces of toast with the last of my peanut butter. I also had the last two kiwis that needed to be eaten. Anyways, after a couple of texts to and from Eirin, I went to meet her at the library. We then walked around the botanical gardens and to Circular Quay where we took a ferry to Manly Beach.

cool sand castle on Manly!

Manly is on the other side of the harbor and is a small little town. The ferry ride is about half an our and of course you can see the bridge and the opera house. I did not take any more pictures of those two since it was a cloudy day and because I already have hundreds of pictures of them.

Eirin and I sat on the beach eating our lunch. I had another Subway sandwich and an apple. I have seriously basically only eaten Subway since I’ve arrived in Sydney… and of course peanut butter and bread.

We then took a scenic walk around town before heading back on the ferry. I stopped by the library again on my way home to use the free internet and then made my way back to my hostel. Fun fact about my hostel; I need to go down a bunch of stairs to get down to the harbor, cross the harbor and then climb up another set of stairs to get into town. I also have to walk across a field. It’s just like Brecon and I’m surprised I did not notice until today.

Similar to last night, I returned to my hostel and headed for the TV room to watch whatever was on while eating my dinner, which in the past two nights has been the other half of my Subway sandwich. Tonight the movie was either No Strings Attached or Friends With Benefits. I could not tell since I walked in more that halfway through the movie. It’s the one with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. Anyways, it was cute, and I liked it and want to actually watch from the beginning.

I am now sitting on my bunk bed, after a long shower, and typing this post while listening to two of my room mates chatting. One of them is named Mike and is from England and the other one might also be from England and I don’t know his name. The third one usually appears later in the night and is an Italian fellow that does not speak much English but says “Hi” to me in the morning.

My plan for tomorrow is to wake up early and go to Bondi Beach and take the walk to Coogee Beach. Then perhaps meet up with Eirin again and go exploring the other side of the city. It just started raining though, so hopefully it stops before the sun rises.

Tuesday November 22

As planned, I started off my day by going to Bondi Beach and walking to Coogee beach. The walk was along the coast and very scenic and there were sculptures by the sea. Although it was cloudy, it was still pretty humid and muggy outside. I noticed only when I went to shower at the end of the day that my red bucket bag had bled all over my white tank top as a result of sweating and the downpour that I’ll tell you about later in this post. I’d might as well tie dye that tank top now because with all the pink blotches and the avocado stains from my previous trip, its not all that white anymore.

 

I arrived at Coogee beach around noon and there just happened to be a bus back into the city from there. I hopped off near Hyde Park (south of the city) and roamed around since I had not been there before. I first stopped by Chinatown, which is pretty small but still cute. I became a little annoyed because just before going to Chinatown I had Subway for lunch again, for like the fourth day in a row, and then I was suddenly in Chinatown where there was legit Chinese food. Anyways, I then walked towards Paddy’s Market but it was closed. Paddy’s Market is one of those semi-underground type things where lots of people set up their shops and sell stuff. It’s much like a flea market, except the flea markets I’ve been to in the U.S have been on open fields and stuff and all of the markets I’ve been to in NZ and Australia have been in underground parking lots. Same idea though.

I then ventured to the Chinese Gardens which is much similar to the Chinese Gardens in Dunedin, but cheaper (it was $3 to get in). It was a nice place to spend another hour or so before I decided to see what else there was. After walking a short distance from the Chinese Gardens I stumbled upon a playground. This was probably THE best playground I’ve seen in all of the U.S, N.Z, and Australia. It was actually big people sized. There were big slides and big swings and a BIG ZIP LINE and there were actually adults playing on it. There were actually more teenagers and adults than little kids. But of course, the one time I find my dream playground, I 1.) Don’t have anyone to play with and 2.) Within five minutes of me arriving it was raining so hard that I had to run for cover. Oh well…

there is an upside down little kid on the HUGE slide!

So then it was this very wet walk all the way back to Central Station. I don’t know why I thought I’d be a good idea to get gelato, but I did, and it was deliciously Nutella nougat flavored, but I was then juggling a map, an umbrella, and a cone all at once. I took the train back to Kings Cross where I took a shower and am now comfortably sitting on my bed. I’m not sure what to do later tonight (other than pack) but I usually don’t arrive back at the hostel until 7 or 7:30 and it’s only 5:20 right now. I’m also not sure what I’m doing for dinner, but I guess I still have that other half of my Subway sandwich….

*notice how most people in the pictures are not tiny children. Perfect playground...

Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves

Saturday November 19
I woke up to my alarm at 5:30am and got ready for our day of adventuring in the Jenolan Caves and the Blue Mountains, both of which are about 1.5 hour to 2 hours away from central city Sydney. We got our bus in front of the Sydney Central YHA which was about a 30 minute walk from our hostel. After eating a peanut butter sandwich I dozed off for a little while until we got to the Jenolan Caves.

Prior to our tour we had a few minutes to explore the area. We saw the blue pond, which is blue because there is limestone dissolved in it, and some very colorful birds that really wanted to be fed. Some of the birds we’ve seen here are very determined to get our food. One bird even landed on Julia’s knee the other day and tweeted/squaked at her. We left the birds to their scrounging and met up with our tour guide to begin our 1.5 hour tour of the cave.

 

This cave is definitely the biggest cave I’ve seen. I had been in smaller caves in the south (in the U.S. somewhere in Virginia area) and I had been spelunking with the Westover Outdoor program but I have never been in a cave where the walls literally many stories high.

We learned about stalagmites and stalactites and columns and a lot about the caves history. We also saw another blue pond which is deceptive to the human eye because it seems incredibly shallow but is in fact over three meters deep. At the end of our tour we walked through a part of the cave that had rainbow lights installed and it made it look like the cave was tie-dyed.

After eating another peanut butter sandwich (Julia and I really had nothing else) we were back on the bus to drive to the Blue Mountains. One of the first things we saw at the Blue Mountains was a waterfall with rainbows in them. There was two streams of water and each stream had a rainbow. DOUBLE RAINBOW ALL THE WAY.

Then we saw the three sisters, which are three big rocks in the mountains. The story of the three sisters is that once there were three sisters that would sneak into the mountains to talk to the boys on the other side. One day the sisters’ mother found out and said that she would no longer let them go out. The men on the other side waited and waited but when the girls did not show up they decided to go find them. They geared up with their armor and swords and rode into town looking for the sisters. From a distance, the sisters’ little brother saw the soldiers riding towards their home and ran to tell their father. The father knew what the men were looking for so he temporarily turned his daughters into stone in order to go talk to the men. The men killed the father and he was not able to turn his daughters back into human form, and thus, the three sisters are still stone.

We ventured farther into the forest, stopping at a few look out points, mostly to see the waterfall and three sisters. I would have liked to stay longer and actually hike to the bottom to walk around the path to see everything else but we only had an hour and it was 1000 stairs just to get to the bottom, the start of the walk. I figured that walking to and from Brecon is about 200 stairs so the entire way to the path and back is like walk to and from Brecon 10 times. Believe it or not, I probably have walked to and from Brecon 10 times in a day… during Customs Week. Anyways, we did not get very far before we needed to turn around, but the Blue Mountains were beautiful. You may be wondering why they are called the Blue Mountains. It is because there is a blue haze that lingers around them that is caused by gases released by eucalyptus trees.  I don’t know the exact science behind it, but the cooler the day, the more blue the haze is. He pulled off some eucalyptus leaves for us to smell, which was cool, but I was rather familiar with it already as just a couple of days ago I was basically swimming in a eucalyptus forest with koalas. I also got to smell some lemon tea tree leaves.

We did not drive all the way back to Sydney since there would be traffic. Instead, we were dropped off at some station where we watched our guide throw a few boomerangs before taking the ferry back to Circular Quay. The ferry was nice and we went underneath multiple bridges including the Sydney Harbor Bridge. I also probably took another hundred pictures of the opera house along the way.

Later that night we went out for dinner at an Indian restaurant called Holy Cow. It was delicious, especially after eating peanut butter sandwiches. I don’t think I can eat peanut butter for a long time after returning to the U.S. I never really ate all that much peanut butter but for the last month it has been a staple food in my diet. So many peanuts. Anyways, I had pistachio chicken, which I’ve never had before and it was delicious.

We found Nemo!

Friday November 18
At around 10am I got out of the creakster bed and moseyed downstairs to eat my left over half of a Subway sandwich. Julia and I did not really have plans for the upcoming day so we decided that it would be an “explore center city” type day. It actually turned out to be an incredible day where we saw the Sydney Harbor Bridge and Opera House and hung out around The Rocks.

We originally planned on taking a bus into town but after being told by a convenience store man that the Opera House was only a 25 minute walk from our hostel we decided to walk. Okay, the walk was more like an hour, but on the way there everything was exciting and we had just gotten up so walking really wasn’t tiring. Ten hours later though I was a little grumpy on the walk back because the backpack on me had grown infinitely heavier (I was carrying my computer and stuff around because I didn’t know where to leave it in the hostel) and I really wanted to shower and go to bed.

To begin our adventures for the day Julia and I made our way to George Street, a hustling and bustling street with little and big shops and tall buildings. Australia in general has reminded me a lot of the U.S. We decided that we would visit The Rocks, and the Sydney Opera House, both of which are on the harbor. The first thing saw was the Sydney Harbor Bridge from a distance. We were at The Rock, which is another hub of the city where there was an outdoor market and a bunch of little shops and pubs by the water. There were cobblestone-ish roads and cute little alley ways throughout this section. We went to the information center to book a tour to see the Blue Mountains and after that we decided to go explore the bridge more. We ended up underneath the bridge but soon we found stairs that led us up to the pedestrian walkway. We did not go across as the Opera House was on the other side but we got some pretty amazing views.

Upon seeing the Opera House I declared, “WE FOUND NEMO!” and then proceeded to admire the infamous building even though we were still quite far from it. Some of my first reactions to the opera house was that it was very shiny and rather off-white. I always imagined it as a very very white color with a silver-ish sheen. Also, it was much taller and pudgier than I had thought. I thought it would have been longer and not as tall. Anyways, I continued admiring it for a long time as we walked towards it. I did not get to go inside since it would cost money but the outside was spectacular enough.

I bought a few postcards, which upon purchasing was placed in a bag that informed me that all the tiles on the opera house roof is made of self cleaning granite imported from Sweden. I’m not sure what self cleaning granite tiles mean exactly, but if they do actually clean themselves, that would be amazing. I would want my future bathroom and kitchen to be made with self cleaning tiles. Maybe I’ll inquire about them the next time I’m at IKEA. Okay, since now I’m on the topic of IKEA, I have not seen one in all of New Zealand or Australia thus far. I love IKEA and lingonberry sauce and my lack table. Mmm… now I’m imagining my future apartment with self cleaning tiles and multi color lack tables… for lingonberry sauce and everything else because lack tables are good for everything.

Aaanyways, we went to the Royal Botanic Gardens next and spent the next couple of hours looking at the beautiful garden. My two favorite things about the gardens is the succulents section and how there are Flying Fox bats dangling from all of the trees. Basically anywhere you look up you could see sleeping bats dangling from above. They are not those scrawny scary looking bats, but very furry and quite leathery. We saw a bunch of them flying around, which confused us because they were supposed to be asleep. We figured that the flying ones were discontent with their previous branch and was just flying to the next tree.

After the botanical gardens we went to the New South Wales Art Gallery. The gallery had an exhibit on Picasso and was surprisingly bigger than I had thought. We did not get to spend much time there as we got there pretty close to 5pm but we did see a bunch of cool things. I am kind of equating the botanical gardens and the art gallery to Central Park and the MOMA.

We headed back to The Rock as there were festivities going on tonight. Julia and I both ate Turkish food from one of the market stands and it was delicious. It was basically pita bread like stuff with spinach, cheese, and beef (well, mine had beef) and toasted with lemon on top. It was delicious. We then moseyed around and listened to rag-time music from 100 years ago, tried on ridiculous rubber masks, and looked around the shops. We also went to this crazy three minute burlesque show. I have never been to a proper burlesque show but this one was crazy and not very normal I think but amazing nevertheless. I have no idea how to describe it other than a cross between Phantom of the Opera and Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter. Basically, Professor Trelawney in a neck brace appears in a Phantom like stage, and begins to dance to the James Bond theme song. She takes out a chain from inside her leggings and proceeds to twirl the chain but then throws it off stage. Then she takes off her Trelawney outfit, about half way because she gets stuck, and there is a black and red lingerie type dress underneath it. She dances some more before removing the black and red dress and walking off stage topless. We then began the epically long walk home.

 

More air travel adventures...

Thursday November 17

Julia and I spent our last day in Brisbane in Roma Street Parklands, a serene park in the middle of the city. One of the most impressive things about Australia so far is how you can be in a bustling city one moment and then be in a park or rainforest in the next.

 

When entering the park we walked through a small wooden bridge that had cold mist coming up from the ground. I presume this was to water the bamboo and other plants that were growing around it. We then walked around what seemed to be another rainforest before we found a playground where we happily played for a good long time. We met some very nice young children; one little girl see-saw-ed with Julia and another came to retrieve my sunglasses for me when they flew off my head while I was on the rocking black swan. We then went on the most interesting set of swings. They were ordinary swings other than that they were attached to a see-saw. When both Julia and I were swinging nothing seemed to feel different but when Julia suddenly jumped off I went flying upwards while still swinging back and forth. We both agreed that Australian playground regulations fall somewhere between the U.S and New Zealand.

 

We then walked through the gardens where we saw bushes cut into elephant and kangaroo shapes. There was also a plant that smelled amazing but I could not figure out which plant it was. There are also a bunch of lizards everywhere. They basically take the place of squirrels in the U.S.

 

After dwaddling about in the cool shade, we walked into town for some lunch. I was going for a homey Asian theme so I got a pork bun and red bean bun at an Asian bakery and topped that up with some Jasmine green milk tea. It was really a taste of home, especially the tea.

 

At around 3:30pm we headed for the train station to go to the airport for our flight to Sydney. At the airport we had another interesting experience. Long story made short, Julia and I went up to the counter to get our boarding passes and the woman basically said that our bags were too big and that we could only have 10kg per person for a carry on. However, this was exasterbated when she decided that she wanted to weigh all of our stuff a bunch of times and then told us that we had to re-pack and do this and that or else we had to pay $80AUD to check a bag. Here are my thoughts: 1.) Why would you weigh 2 different passengers luggages together? 2.) It doesn’t matter how we re-pack because it’s going to be the same total weight. 3.) We have already flown with all of our bags without checking them. 4.) Why are you making this harder for everyone?

This was randomly in the park. Yay computers!

Anyways, after attempting to repack and really getting no where because our total weight was 22kg so no matter what each of us were going to have over 10kg anyways, I gave up, a little passive aggressively and went to self-check in. By doing so, I couldn’t sit next to Julia on the plane but I really did not want to deal with the woman again. I got my boarding pass and fearing that that woman would stop me and re-weigh my bags another five times I ran to the departure gates. It wasn’t until Julia texted me “WHERE ARE YOU?” that I realized that in my passive aggressive frustrations and fright I had run to Qantas security instead of JetStar security. This was about 20 minutes before we had to board our flight so it was another frantic run across the airport to find my Julia and my gate. Julia told me later that if I had not shown up when I had she would have had someone call me over the loudspeaker like a lost child. Anyways, I then got on the massive line to go through security and guess what?! They had to check me for explosives again. I am such an explosive person, apparently. We both made it onto our plane and all is okay and we are both in the hostel now.

So I’m not too much of a JetStar fan at the moment, as you may be able to tell, but I’d have to say that the flight was pretty smooth and I saw one of the prettiest sunsets ever. It was a sunset but instead of the sun setting it was more like we were landing so the bright yellow became a golden orange and then dark red and purple and pink and then white cloud and then gray clouds and then airport. It was beautiful. It was also one of the smoothest landings ever. Kudos to you JetStar, you’ve redeemed yourself a little bit.

A little bit about the hostel we are staying in. As you may remember everything was booked out except for this one which is called Kangaroo Bakpak (yes, spelled with no c’s) and it is in Surry Hills. It’s a cute little backpackers that provides free breakfast and laundry. The man running it is also a nice French (I think he is French) man. He showed us around the hostel, got us our sheets and keys and then even brought our bags up to our room for us. We are on the top floor so like 3^rd or 4^th floor. While this hostel is pretty nice, it is also very very very male dominated. I have seen one other girl here, other than me and Julia. Both Julia and I are on the top bunk, and Julia’s bed seems to be okay but mine shakes and creeks like madness. Without any exaggeration, I am typing and the bed is moving. These are going to be a very squeaky three nights. The person in the bed underneath me is another French man here in Sydney on a work visa. The guy under Julia is this Asian dude that is pacing back and forth around the room nervously scratching his head and it is driving me crazy. I want to throw an anvil at him.

England or America

During our last night in Brisbane, Julia and I were enjoying our dessert of yogurt and fruit when Julia noticed a man’s tattoo. He was standing on the porch drinking a beer when we spotted a tattoo on his ankle that said “America” in Chinese. If you’re wondering it sounds like “Mei Guo” and is written like this 美國.

Julia was very interested in the tattoo and wanted to ask them man why he had decided to tattoo “America” in Chinese on his ankle and after much discussion about how to most politely ask the man, we decided that there really wasn’t a good way to ask. Anyways, I went to bring our dishes downstairs while Julia went to ask the man about America and moments later, Julia came into the room and said, "I asked him what his tattoo said instead of why he had America on his ankle!” That wasn’t even the best part though, because the man said that his tattoo said “England”, which I thought was hysterical because it actually says America.

According to Julia he had an English accent too. Regardless, we never found out why the man had America tattooed on his ankle IN CHINESE and the man never found out that it was in fact America on his ankle and not England. I almost wanted to go back upstairs to tell him that it was America and not England but I didn’t want to anger him. I dunno, if I paid to get something permanently put on my body and it wasn’t what I wanted, I’d be pretty mad. But hey, I also wouldn’t get something in a language that wasn’t one I knew. Anyways, rock on, America! 

Koalas and Kangaroos

Wednesday November 16

Today is our third day in Brisbane and Julia and I spent most of our day at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which is about 40 minutes outside of the city center. Once again, the two of us made the sweltering walk to the bus stop on Adelaide Street and took bus 445 all the way to Lone Pine. Once we got our tickets, we entered to find a forest full of amazing Australian animals.

BATS!

We first saw tropical rainbow birds, and then HUGE bats. Since it was during the day, they were all dangling upside down rolled up in their wings, asleep. They were quite cute and rather large. We then saw this big white bird, which I believe is some kind of cockatiel. This bird greeted us with “Hello!” and then squaked at us loudly but as we turned around and started walking we heard, “Byebye!”

We then stumbled upon koalas, everywhere. All of them were fast asleep, in awkward positions. Some looked like they were gripping branches for their lives and others were in a peaceful meditative position, with both arms out. We learned later on that koala’s have two opposable thumbs instead of one so they have impeccable grip. We also learned that because they only eat eucalyptus leaves, which is only 5% sugar and carbohydrates. Koalas do not have much energy and must sleep for most of the day, 18 to 20 hours. The other 4-6 hours are used to consume the 500 grams of eucalyptus leaves they eat in a day. This is approximately two shopping bags stuff full of leaves.

We continued walking around the sanctuary looking at the possums and wild lizards that ran everywhere. We then went to see and feed the kangaroos. However, we first encountered an emu. I did not know what they were at first since it looked a lot like a miniature moa. It let us get really close to it and both Julia and I had pictures with it.

Then with our little brown bags full of kangaroo food, we went to seek out the kangaroos. The first kangaroo we saw was a joey. Julia bent down with a hand full of food but the joey did not eat it. I wonder if it had only recently started eating food since it took it quite a while before it figured out that it could eat what was in Julia’s hand. The male kangaroos definitely knew it was food though, as multiples of them came hopping to Julia and eating out of her hand and her bag. I fed the little joey, and a few of the female ones, but once the males started coming over I just held out the entire bag and soon I had no food left. It was okay though because I just spent the rest of the time petting them.

After the kangaroos we went to cuddle the koalas and have our picture taken. The koala we held was named Utopia and she was only three years old. I always thought that koalas were very compact and would weigh a lot but Utopia was surprisingly light. She was so soft I wanted to keep on holding her.

At 1:00pm we went to go see the Bird of Prey presentation. They presented from the smallest to largest bird. There were even two owls! We watched these majestic birds fly from one keeper to another, eating the squishy animal guts out of each person’s hands. Each of the barking owls got a mouse at the end of the show and after chewing up the head a little they each swallowed the mouse whole. *the birds immediately underneath are not birds of prey.

 

Dingo!

After the birds of prey show we walked around looking at the animals. We saw dingoes and thought it was funny that they wore collars and were fed dog food. They really look just like dogs though. The one that we saw looked a lot like Blue, Ellie’s orange Blue Heeler dog. It is also funny that all the dingoes at the sanctuary go to doggie school and have certificates.

bird of prey

At 2:00pm we went to the Koala show and learned all about koalas. A koalas gestation period is only 33-35 days, and then they give birth to a little pink thing the size of a thumb nail and that lives in their pouch for the next eight months or so. The most common and most lethal disease that koalas get is Chlamydia, which we were told is a different kind than the human type. Koalas are also great swimmers and have different markings to help them camouflage. We also learned that all the people working at Lone Pine have to know each and every one of the koalas by name. There are 130 koalas.

Our next stop was the platypus house, were we saw the one and only platypus swim around and eat worms. I always thought platypuses were really big but they are actually quite small, only 1.8kg (~3.5 pounds). They are rather pudgy and very cute and also very interesting. They are both a land and water mammal that lays eggs, produces milk, and also has venomous feet. Also, platypuses are not purple. I am not sure why cartoons and Beanie Babies and movies all portray platypuses as purple. Here is a video of the platypus, since it was too dark and it swam too fast for pictures.

After the platypus feeding we headed to the Tasmanian Devil cage where we saw two female devils. They were also very cute but when the food was thrown into the cage they both started chasing each other and making rather scary growling noises.

Before heading back to the bus stop we also found some wombats. All the pictures of wombats I’ve seen have been these cute little furry things that looked a little like a bear. Wombats are actually 1.) huge 2.) kind of smelly 3.) not all the cute and kind of look like wild boar. Nevertheless, they were interesting to see.

Strangely enough the only animal we did not see during the entire day was and echidna. I’m sure they were there and we probably passed its cage a bunch of times but I guess it was just too hot for them to come out and say “Hi”… or we could have just missed them…

Upon arriving back in center city Julia and I roamed around a little more. McDonalds is even more expensive here than it is in New Zealand and the US. Well I guess some things were cheaper, but most were more expensive. I also had my first Pie Face pie. It was chicken and mushroom.

We also went into the Reject Store. I’m not sure why it was called that other than that everything inside was extremely cheap. I got four bottles of travel shampoo and conditioner and one bottle of travel soap for $5. All of that plus the stuff I managed to bring over from NZ will probably last me until I get back to the US. It's also nice that they are all 100ml or less so they can make it back to NZ with me.

In other news, Julia and I have gone a little crazy with delicious yogurt (NZ/AUS spelling: yoghurt) Each of us have both eaten one of those jugs already in the last two and a half days and today we have another jug of lovely plain yogurt. We are happy, our digestive systems are happy, our meals are happy meals, and the yogurt company is probably happy too. WIN.