By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

For nearly two weeks in July, Nathan Augustine traveled halfway around the world, toured a volcano, ate kangaroo, stayed in a beachfront hotel and had two races against otherAmerican and international athletes.

Augustine, a 2008 Hays High School graduate and a current cross-country and track runner at Fort Hays State University, was part of the 20th annual Down Under Sports Tournament. The competition provided athletes a chance to travel to Australia and Hawaii, sightsee and run.

"It was fun," Augustine said. "It was exciting."

The trip marked the first time Augustine had been outside the United States. The Kansas contingent, headed by Sterling cross-country coach Dan Whisler, first traveled to Australia.

Augustine didn't run well in the international competition, a five-mile race.

"I was a little dehydrated," he said.

In the American race, Augustine finished ninth. Sandwiched around his meets was seeing Australia for about a week. Augustine went to the tallest residential building in the world.

"That was pretty cool," he said.

They also went to a fair and stayed right by the beach. Augustine sampled the local fare, including kangaroo.

Along with 300 photos and different keychains and a boomerang, He took back home emu, beef and crocodile jerky.

"The most unique I think would be the food because they eat kangaroo," Augustine said. "I tried that. It was pretty good. I liked that a lot. Other than that, everything was pretty much the same, other than they drove on the other side of the road."

The kangaroo had a rare flavor.

"It is really hard to explain," he said. "... It was a unique taste, but it's really good, though. A lot of us wanted to try the kangaroo because that was one of the more well-known animals down there."

The beach was also an enjoyable sight. Augustine had been to American beaches before in Texas, but the Australian beaches were much different.

"They were probably the nicest beaches that I have been to - and probably the nicest beaches that I ever will go to," he said.

"They are really nice. The water is really clear and it's really blue. It's just an amazing sight."

On the return, they stopped in Hawaii for three days to rest, and travel. Augustine also went surfing for the first time in his life and went to a volcano.

"It was pretty dormant," Augustine said of the volcano. "They had a building in the middle of it and everything. It had been pretty dormant for awhile. It was extremely high and you could tell it used to be a volcano. There is a big crater in it. It was a pretty cool sight."

Just like the entire trip.