Reason #3

This is one of my top-five reasons why I love Australia: because public pools in Australia look like this . . .

And this. In fact those three pools are all part of one public aquatic complex, the Noosa Aquatic Center. It’s got a kids’ pool, a 50-meter pool, and then my all-time fave pool distance, a 25-meter pool.

More than anywhere else I have traveled, Australia has year-round public pools (and often really nice ones like this) with proper lap swimming lanes open all day everywhere you look! I’ve done road trips and found 50-meter pools in some middle-of-nowhere country towns, and in the big cities, you can take your pick of any number of options.

Swimming is a big deal here. The other morning on the news they were literally showing graphs of their national team’s swimmers’ dives off the blocks/ entry into the water. Yes this was being discussed on the morning news. It’s kind of like a really cool alternate universe here in some very good ways, and then similar to home in others.

I heart OZ.

And these girls. We had a girls’ afternoon yesterday for the essential pre-race nail situations.

And shopping. I bought 11 tank tops: I stock up on the same ones every time I come here.

Then we had lunch at RAW Energy, one of my favorite cafes here—fresh-squeezed juices and all kinds of veggie and gluten-free options.

I was depressed all afternoon today after having to say goodbye to Belinda at the airport. The Grangers and McKenzies are heading to the 70.3 in Busselton this weekend while I’m in Port Macquarie. So thankful for our week together though!