Almost Paradise

Hello Mom! Greetings from Brisbane, Australia! We’re only here for a few hours on a stop-over from Bali on our way to Wellington, New Zealand. We left Bali last night at 9pm local time…landed here at 5:15 local time…then board another flight shortly to finally arrive in Wellington at 3:15pm local time (next day). Here’s how I feel right now:

I know, I know…poor us! And poor you! I feel for all of our friends who are suffering through one of the coldest winters on record. (I guess this was a good year for us to get away!) And because of that, I won’t torture you too much with tales of Paradise. Bali was beautiful though. The ancient rice paddies and terraces were truly amazing.

We also visited a temple in Ubud which has turned into quite a tourist attraction because of the local inhabitants…crazy monkeys!

We also went to a coffee farm. But this wasn’t just any coffee farm. They make poop coffee! That’s right! There’s an animal on Bali called the Luwak. The Luwak loves to eat the berries off the coffee plant. But their stomachs can’t digest the beans, so they pass right through. Now, I don’t know who first had this idea, but someone digs through the Luwak poop to retrieve the coffee beans, then they clean ’em off, roast ’em and make them into coffee!

It wasn’t that bad…really!

OK…they’re calling us to board now. More to come from New Zealand! But I’ll leave you with this great shot of John in a skirt.