9 Months Away from Home - how do you summarize that?

As you may have guessed, I've not been writing here since my travels came to an end. This is a blog about wanderlust after all. I will summarize a bit of what's been going on since Japan, however. I flew back to Sydney and spent a few days there. It was cold in Sydney with winter falling over the southern hemisphere. I was glad to have my warm coat at my disposal. One of my close friends' sister from back home happened to be visiting the city when I was there and we connected and spent a rainy day together. That weekend I made my way back on the long flight to Canada.

Coming home was a bit of a shock to the system. I was happy to see my close friends and family again, no doubt, but the change in routine and the reality of not traveling anymore started to set in quickly enough and I was on quite a downer. I knew that actually living abroad would change things for me. That was part of the point of doing it. But I never knew I still had such a huge capacity for change after all the changes I've made in my life over the past 5 years or so. It just showed me that there is no limit to new experiences opening up your mind and broadening your horizons. The people I met while away were the real reasons behind this even more than the beautiful places I visited. One thought that permeated my mind while in Japan is that there are beautiful places in every corner of the world. People travel and say how beautiful this or that place is and how amazed they are at that beauty, but frankly, I've ceased to be surprised at such things. I'm not exactly unmoved by the places I visit, but I am now more than ever almost expecting to see wonderful things when I travel. And that's kind of cool. It emphasizes the fact that it's the people and the differences in culture and things that you learn about a place that are the aspects of travel and affect us and teach us the most. To be able to experience all of that amongst natural beauty is the bonus. At any rate, I can't say enough how lucky I have been for the experiences I've taken away in the time I was gone from my home. I have yet another new perspective on my own existence and I'm open to new ideas and experiences moving forward. It's made me even bolder, I think, to take some chances in life. And speaking of which...

I decided to take advantage of having some time off that I've actually never had in my life, and registered to take an intensive, 4-day per week, month-long French course. I wanted to just be immersed in the language and speaking it every day. I figured it would help me if I got interviews for bilingual positions. I can speak perfectly well, but I don't often get the chance to, so I can get a little rusty and trip over my words when I'm on the spot. I also got certified to teach spinning that month.

Since then I've moved out of my brother-in-law and sister's place into a house downtown (living downtown is so much more my pace!) with two roommates. It's working out well. I've got a part-time job at a health food store down here and teaching spinning once a week now. Still looking for something full-time and better paying in order to save some money and pay for the courses I took in July, but I've been so very grateful for all the free time here this summer. I've been busy, don't get me wrong, but it's been a totally different busy than I've ever known before.

I've been cycling a lot in the past month and a half (July wasn't the best for motivation on my part, nor for the weather). I'm madly in love with the bike at the moment, heading out about 6 days per week. I participated in a TTT at the end of August and had a lot of fun. I've actually done a faster TT before than what we did, but none of us had ridden together in echelon before (and most of the rest of my team had never done it at all), so there was a bit of getting comfortable with each other in the first lap of the race, then there was the fact that it was a tough course and some of us (ahem - moi) weren't in top shape at the time. Nevertheless, the point was to have fun and we did! We even got a second place medal!!! I've never had a medal in my life!! How cool is that????! I hope I'm around next spring for the next installation of this same race, as we plan to do it again and put our last result to shame. :)

I have plans for the near future that I'm working on, both travel and career related, but I will be keeping them all to myself until things are clearer and more concrete. In the meantime there likely won't be much activity here, but check in from time to time and we'll head off to another part of the world together soon! Thanks for reading and spending time virtually traveling with me. I'm glad I can share it. xo

Western Honshu, Kansai, and Back to Tokyo

After leaving Beppu we headed up to Hiroshima. It was raining that day, which was fitting for the day's activities in every sense. We visited what is now referred to as the A-Bomb Dome - the structural remains of a building over top of which the atomic bomb exploded (very, very few buildings had any structural remains left to keep as a reminder and this building was particularly fitting for a memorial). We then continued on to Peace Memorial Park and into the museum of the same name. I'm not sure exactly how long we spent in the museum, but I have to say, it was very impressive. I learned a lot of details about WWII that I didn't know and a lot about Hiroshima and how it has been rebuilt from literally nothing since it was blown to smithereens 64 years ago. The last part of the exhibit was hard to handle and I could only take in so much of it before I needed to leave. It was full of artifacts (clothing, household items, etc) ruined by the blast many kilometres away, the black rain, and photos of people before they died from the effects of radiation. It was very disturbing and heart wrenching. A lot of people we'd met said not to bother spending much time in Hiroshima, and while there might not be heaps to do beyond learning about the war, we were impressed by the city. They have done a really good job at rebuilding it and it's quite beautiful, even on a rainy day. Even though it was still raining hard, we headed out late afternoon on a short train ride followed by a 10 min ferry trip to Miyajima - famous for the 'floating' torii (Shinto shrine gate). The tide was out, so we didn't see it floating in water, but it was still very beautiful and worth the trip and getting soaked in the rain to explore the island. Finally (other than my trip to Nikko) we were visiting a place where we experienced a more rural and traditional Japan. Even cities as small as Beppu are littered with high rises and neon lights. It occurred to me that in a country of 128 million, 10% of whom live in Tokyo, there must be several more cities with several million people living in them, but that hadn't occurred to me until the disappointment of our onsen-town experience of Beppu (it wasn't a 'town' at all - more than 100,0000 people live there). So Miyajima made up for it. Wow! It was beautiful! Next time I'm in that area I would like to stay at a ryokan on the island.

The following day we started off for Osaka with much improved weather. On the way we stopped and spent most of our day in Himeji-jo, a wood and stone castle built in 1580. This was well worth the stop. We got to climb all the way up inside the castle to the top - some 5 stories. I've been in a castle or two in my travels and it is rare to be able to get such access. The gardens on the grounds were also very nice and probably the best ones we saw in our travels. Late that afternoon we arrived in Osaka and found our way to a real dive of a hotel that our friends, Tom and Claire, were staying at when they arrived the following day. As much of a dive as it was, it was still very clean and comfortable. We had to shower at a neighbouring hotel though. Strange. It was near this monolith of a place called Spa World that had a roller coaster running through and around it. I never saw the roller coaster in action, but it was the butt of a few jokes on our part. We didn't make our way to Spa World - maybe another time haha! I was hoping to find the time to get to Koya-san, but with the day wearing on and exhaustion from the travel and all the walking (I neglected to mention the 45 minute detour we took on our way to Himeji-jo... getting lost seemed not uncommon for us in Japan, with dodgy directions or maps being the norm), when I lost heart to do it after I went to the train station to enquire about the trip and learned about the 4-hour return and extra cost. I had opted not to stay overnight since it would have cost at least 10,000 yen. To put it in perspective, we were paying only 2,000 yen per night in Osaka.

So I went off and explored Osaka on my own after visiting the train station. Thought I'd give Dan a break from eating dinner with me for once - it was fairly challenging. I tried a lot of different foods. Dan fell in love with takoyaki - and even got me to try some. They were fairly rubbery. To be expected I suppose. There was a certain flavour and smell that I did not like in a lot of food there and it took me some time to sort out what it was, but eventually I did - it was pork stock or pork itself. They put it in a lot of things and it is very, very difficult to avoid. It was making me ill. I never wound up eating meat itself, but I'm sure that stock was in quite a few things I did eat and had a really hard time stomaching. By the last week though, I'd mastered enough Japanese to start ordering special things - dishes 'without' meat, like I would do at home. I was able to get people to understand me when I asked them to keep the meat out of my food. I felt particularly excited about that!! They are very accommodating and concerned about making customers happy in Japan, the trick is being able to communicate your needs. So, other than the whole pork issue, the food in Japan was really something else!! Yes, I did miss some of the western foods that I love, but overall I really enjoyed what I ate there - a few more veggies and fruit wouldn't have hurt though. They don't seem to eat much of those. My favourites were: edamame; fried tofu; some of their salads with tofu; okonomiyaki was an experience; Japanese curry was interesting; umeshu is my new favourite drink; they have bottled lemon soda type of drink which is where marbles came from called ramune; pickled cucumber; soba noodles; veggie tempura on rice; and if it was a nice restaurant, the miso soup was very good (not so good at the cheap restaurants). You'd think there would be green tea everywhere, but actually there isn't. You only get it in certain instances, with specific meals (like sushi), or at a tea ceremony or special tea shops. So I didn't have as much tea as I thought I would.

We spent our next day in Nara, the first capital of Japan. There are many temples and shrines to visit here, and it's all on foot. It takes the good part of a half day to walk about and see everything. A half hour train ride from Osaka and we were there, as the lady at the information desk said, the deer welcomed us (they have sacred deer here). It was a long day exploring the various heritage sites, but it was well worth it. We got to see the largest wooden building in the world - Diabutsu-den Hall, which is part of Todai-ji temple. It houses Diabutsu, a 16 metre tall Buddha - believe me, it is very impressive!! Behind the Buddha, there is a pillar with a hole in it. You are meant to crawl through this hole, which is said to be the size of one of the Buddha's nostrils. If you manage to squeeze yourself through, you will achieve enlightenment. We managed to get ourselves squeezed through it. It is a bit daunting when you crouched down and peered through the hole that you have to crawl through - I nearly didn't do it. There were many, many Japanese school groups visiting the area as well. The kids all wanted to practice their English with foreigners and seemed to have tasks/assignments to do, getting us to write notes for them in their notebooks and taking photos with us. They were very cute. Upon returning to Osaka we met up with Tom and Claire and the following day the four of us headed to Kyoto.

Our first day in Kyoto was spent in Gion, dinner in the downtown area, followed by karaoke. We DID spot a Geisha while we were downtown looking for an izakaya in which to have dinner. Gion is the Geisha district, so were were surprised to see one downtown, but we were very pleased, as it's not easy to spot one!! Gion is very expensive and touristy, but beautiful and there are lots of little side streets that look and feel like you would expect of traditional Japan. The thing to do in Kyoto though, is visit temples. As you can imagine, we were getting a bit saturated with temples at this point. So many crammed into so few days already. Our second day in the city we hired bikes and 5 of us spent the entire day riding around Kyoto. I was in my element. We had these hilarious single speed city bikes with baskets and creaky brakes. All the walking was turning my legs into lead and a day on the bike made me feel like a new woman!! We visited the famous 'golden temple', Kinkaku-ji, and the Zen gardens of Ryoan-ji. After that we rode our bikes down the Path of Philosophers, around many of the other temples and shrines and snapped photos, but had neither the energy, nor the bulging pocketbooks to enter any others. You could spend a week visiting temples in the Kyoto area. On a side note, the Kyoto train station was the most impressive of all the stations we went through. It was more like an airport. The visit here was a bit rushed, so this will be a place to go back to when I return to Japan one day soon!!

Wanting to use our rail pass to get back to Tokyo before it expired, we headed back on the last shinkansen of the evening and arrived at midnight. We decided to stay near the Shinjuku station where we were to catch a bus early the following morning, so we made our way to a mangakissa - a Japanese comic book/anime/internet cafe/games room facility where you can stay in a cubicle over night if you like. It wasn't overly comfortable (kinda like trying to sleep in a lazy boy recliner in your office cubicle), but it was a place to stay. We found out later that it was in the red-light district of Tokyo, which would explain the transvestites we saw when we were looking for the place! We boarded the bus the next morning to Kawaguchi-ko, lying on its eponymous lake, in an effort to see Mt. Fuji before leaving Japan. Unfortunately both days that we were there the entire volcano was covered in clouds. Fortunately there was the best onsen I'd been to right next to the hostel and I enjoyed a few hours there in the evening!!! Back in Tokyo the following day we loaded up on souvenirs at the stalls near Senso-ji in Asakusa, followed by one last dinner at an izakaya down the road and had a drink at a little place near the hostel where we spent an hour chatting with the staff there using our phrasebook, and them using an electronic translator they found on the internet with their mobile phone. It was a great way to end our stay in Japan!!

My flight back to Sydney not being until the evening, I still had a few hours the next day which I spent with Will and Claire, a couple we'd met the day before at the hostel, and bought myself a yukata and some tabi. Then I found my way to the airport with a little help on the train from a local who saw me checking and re-checking my subway map. Had a couple of umeshu-sodas on the plane and didn't even touch the fork and knife on my dinner tray. I have to say, being back in western society here in Sydney, I feel strange not eating with chopsticks and not being surrounded by Japanese people and language. Three weeks of immersion has definitely made an imprint. I had no idea how much I'd love the country before I went. Now I will be looking for a date and some funds to get back there!!

Exploring Japan

The evening of my last post I headed out with some new friends for dinner at an izakaya. These types of restaurants seem to be a good choice for me since there are many little dishes and I can usually find something veggie, while my friends can enjoy their meat. I was introduced to a type of sake called umeshu and have been onto it ever since. Afterwards, we wandered not far down the street and hopped into a karaoke establishment. The way you do karaoke in Japan is to hire out private rooms by the hour and you can get a flat rate with drinks included. Some even have food to order as well. Needless to say - drinks help lubricate everyone's sense of pride and by the end we were all shouting over each other really. It can deteriorate quickly - haha! But it was heaps of fun!!

Next day I headed off to Nikko for 2 nights. What an amazing little place. One of the highlights for me for sure! I stayed at a lodge run by some monks (not a temple though) and had a traditional Japanese vegetarian meal there that night, which was fantastic. No, there isn't a lot of vegetarianism in Japan outside of monasteries, so it was a struggle for me in many places. But more on that later. In Nikko there are a bunch of temples and shrines which have been listed under UNESCO's world heritage sites and they are well worth a visit - crowds or not. Here I got to see the surprisingly small, but original carving of the "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" monkeys. I got lost a few times leaving the lodge and around the temple area, adding to my km's walked (about 20K that day - ouch!). My second night there I met a nice Finnish girl named Eeva and the next morning before I headed back to Tokyo the two of us headed out for another walk to an area near the river where there are two rows of Buddhas, which according to legend, if you count them in one direction, turn around and count in the other you will never get the same number. There were far too many of them to count so we didn't attempt it. I added at least another 8 km to my walking total that day and was happy to hop on the train and chill out for a couple of hours back to the big city.

Upon my return to Tokyo I reconnected with the friends I'd met before I left for Nikko and we had dinner at an okonomiyaki restaurant near the hostel after we'd sufficiently relaxed at a public bath house - my first onsen experience. The next day Dan arrived and together with a bunch of the other folks we met at the hostel we took in more of the city sights. Unfortunately it rained a fair bit, but we made the best of it. More izakaya dining and temples and bright neon lights and one big night out... Eeva had come to Tokyo later the same day as myself and she had met a friend of a friend earlier in her travels who lives here - a Japanese local, named Yu. He organized us all to go out on the town on the Saturday night with a couple of his friends, some more folks we'd met at the hostel, and some more from the hostel Eeva was staying at down the road from ours. We met up in Shibuya and ate at an izakaya on the 10th floor of a building which overlooked the famous intersection there. On a side note: the Japanese football (soccer) team was playing that night and they had it on at the izakaya - they won and qualified for the world cup! That was fun to experience. We took a free shuttle bus from Shibuya to another ward near Tokyo's Disney and spent the rest of the night and morning at a massive club called Ageha. Multiple floors and rooms with differing music and bars and even a little food area outside. The trains stop at midnight in Tokyo, so if you stay out you have to be within walking distance of your accommodation (highly unlikely), pay a small fortune on a cab ride (in the hundreds of dollars), or just stay out until the first morning train. We chose the latter and left the club at 5:30 AM. We literally danced the night away - had sore feet the next day!! Yu was such a great host! He took care of us all and got us into the restaurant and club and sorted everything out! It was a real treat to be shown around by a local!

Got back to the hostel, slept for 2 hours (sort of - was kinda difficult), and then spent the rest of Sunday in Harajuku taking in the sights. That's the day to go there and see Harajuku girls and the like. Quite the scene. That night we stayed at a capsule hotel, another random, interesting Japanese experience. My room looked just like the ones in the photos on the link I've provided. Wonder if it's the same one? Then we got up early Monday morning and caught the shinkansen to Fukuoka.

Traveling by train is the only way to travel in Japan, in my humble opinion. It is fantastic!!! It is exactly on time - to the second. It is comfortable, and clean, and FAST!!! Fukuoka was a nice enough city, but there wasn't a whole lot to do there. We got to eat at a traditional street-side stall called a yatai - which was cool. The one we ended up eating at had won some awards and the lady who ran it was really cool and made a special dish just for Dan. We sat with an older gentleman who chatted with us all evening, practicing his broken English and us with our phrase book trying our best. It was really fun! Some more ladies came and sat down at the end of the stall and offered for us to try some of their dishes and knew a bit of English so helped out when we stumbled with words.

The following day we headed off to Beppu - an onsen town. Here we stayed at a ryokan - a traditional Japanese inn. There is a lot of formality involved with a stay at an inn. When you arrive they have tea waiting for you (at this place it was in the room) on a table on tatami mats and cushions to sit around. Since this is an onsen town you can don your yukata (available in your room for you) and head out to the various hot springs. We went over to the famous Takegawara Onsen and I had a sand bath. Later, when we returned, the table was moved to the side of the room and the bed (called a futon) was all set out, along with water beside the tea service, which was cleaned up from earlier, to rehydrate after the onsen. The ryokan we stayed at had their own private onsens, so we booked our own time slots to enjoy two of the three they offered. One hour before dinner, and another just before heading off to bed. Three onsens in one day - whew! I was wiped out - slept like a baby!! We had dinner that night at an izakaya (obviously was becoming one of our favourite styles of Japanese cuisine) and started chatting with two men at the table next to ours. Again there were limited English and Japanese skills involved, but so much fun and they bought us some beer! Most people here are just so very friendly and welcoming. It has really made the experience!! We had opted not to have the traditional Japanese dinner at the ryokan due to the cost, but the following morning Dan was courageous enough to try a traditional Japanese breakfast - kudos to him... rice, fish, pickled things, tofu, miso soup, and many things that we did not recognize as food.

We left Beppu (in Kyushu) to head to the Kansai region to take in the sights of Hiroshima, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, etc... I will post on that tomorrow.

Konnichiwa!

That means hello or good afternoon in Japanese!

I arrived in Tokyo Friday evening and made my way through health, immigration, and customs with no issues. Met an Aussie on the plane who lives here and he gave me a few tips, one of which I took straight away and hopped on a bus instead of the train into the city since he said it would be easier with my bag and what-not, particularly because I was heading to Shinjuku - the busiest train station in the world (apparently). The train would be crowded and the station a zoo and finding my way to the correct exit to get to the hotel would be either luck of the draw or a real mission, so I got on the bus for the same price and got dropped right at my door.

The hotel was fabulous!!! I haven't stayed in a place so nice since my last business trip. I forgot how nice it is to shower without wearing flip-flops and to sleep on a proper mattress with a room to myself!! What a treat! I wished I could have stayed there all weekend! I stayed at this particular place because Stef's in-laws (Rebecca and Mitch) were staying there this weekend and I planned to meet up with them. After I arrived and had a very quick shower we headed out to have some dinner and walk around the street of Shinjuku at night - it's quite the sight! Dinner was great (noodles, edamame, miso, pickled cucumber, sake, etc) and after walking around for a while we headed back to the hotel - it had been a long day for me (10 hr flight from Sydney).

Next morning I slept in really, really late. Before checking out of the hotel I made my way over to the Shinjuku station to grab a bite to eat and scout out the subway lines there to figure out where I was going to make my way to the backpackers I was moving to, that way I wouldn't be wandering around with a big pack trying to sort that out. Then I went back, got my pack and headed out. I made my way to the hostel without any dramas - changed subway lines and all! :) I'm finding getting around here is much easier (so far - fingers crossed) than I expected. Tokyo, though, has a lot of English translations written for stations and most signage and what-not. Even though I have found many restaurants and what-not that have no English, I'd say more than 50% of things have some sort of English so you can figure things out for the most part. Once I leave Tokyo I have a feeling things will be quite different!

Tokyo is the cleanest city I've ever been to in my entire life!!! I cannot express to you how amazingly clean it is! It's mind-boggling! And it's quiet!!!!! I've read that the central part of the city has over 12 million people residing within it's boundaries and the whole metropolitan area has somewhere in the vicinity of 35 million people. It's completely amazing that all of these people live here and they do not litter and they don't yell and they don't honk their horns! It's fantastic!!! Your senses aren't assaulted every hour of the day like they do in smaller places that I've been to (NYC is a great example of horn honking and smells doing my head in!). Many, many people ride their bikes here for transport and I've only seen ONE locked up - and that was a really cool looking silver fixie with a neat red chain - I took a photo of it! Most bikes are cute little single speed commuter bikes and all of them have baskets on the front and people of pretty much every single age and demographic (business men in suits to women with their kids to 80-year-old grannies) ride around the city. Very cool. And as I said, none of them are locked up - there are heaps of bikes just sitting around at all kinds of street corners and at shops and apartment buildings. It's quite a concept - very few bikes get stolen.

The hostel I'm staying in is fantastic! I'm staying in a really great neighbourhood (or as they call it a ward) called Asakusa. When I arrived yesterday I met 4 guys here in the lounge and ended up heading out for the afternoon with them to 'electric city'. It is just completely nuts - particularly since we went there on a Saturday. My head was sore from the over stimulation and constant head-turning. There are many interesting stores - mostly selling electronics of all kinds (I bought a hairdryer) and figurines relating to video games and anime. There were also adult stores which were a bit shocking and entertaining in themselves - a side of Japanese culture I wasn't aware of... things I am really not at liberty to post on a blog I would say. You'll have to use your imaginations. Later in the evening I met up with Bec and Mitch for dinner again in Ginza - the posh area of Tokyo - wow!! Things are quite expensive there!

Today I spent hours and hours wandering around Asakusa and the temple district. I absolutely loved that. I spent quite a lot of time at the temples and at one of the shrines there I saw a wedding!! To give you a little bit of Japanese religious background - according to what I've read, most Japanese practice Shinto for the living (the shrines here are all Shinto, hence where I saw a couple getting married). For the afterlife (funerals etc) they practice Buddhism - so that's where the temples come in. I don't know how accurate the links I've put up here are, but I'm sure it will give you a bit of any idea. If you want to know more you can search for it - it's not hard to find. I've been reading some books on it now. It's very interesting. As well as visiting the temples, I wandered the streets of vendors (fans, kimonos, robes (yukata), chopsticks, etc, etc) and restaurants and shops. It was fantastic. Again, a lot of Japanese people stared at me, but as I've been finding I just smile at them and a lot of them are quite happy when I do and smile back. Most of them are older people. One really old man was really staring at me today and I smiled and he was giggly about it. Very cute. I found the supermarket and bought myself some green tea and fruit (I've found it very hard to get a hot tea in the morning - today I resorted to Starbucks - eek!!). They seem to only serve tea (ocha) in certain restaurants (like with sushi) or at a very specific tea shop (which I have yet to find, but when I do I'll likely spend my day there - haha!). I still haven't had a proper Japanese breakfast, but I'm sure that will come, particularly when I leave Tokyo this week. Later I found my way to a really inexpensive tempura restaurant for a late lunch (it cost me 500 yen - approximately $6 CDN - very, very cheap for Tokyo) where I was able to ask for a vegetable dish in Japanese (yay!) and got a really nice meal with miso, rice, and tempura veggies.

Now I'm chilling out. After a jam packed day I feel I need a nap!! And it started pouring down buckets when I was on my way back. It's been raining off and on. June is the rainy month here. It's warm enough though - no jacket required! And the hostel has heaps of umbrellas to take out for the day. Tomorrow I'm on to some new adventures. Will post again when I can.

more photos

Had to build a new album...

Rainy Coast?

After Fraser Island I headed south on the bus and stopped in a little town on the Sunshine Coast called Noosa. It started raining the day I arrived. There was a brief reprieve that first day and I set out to get some groceries and explore a little. I really wish the weather had been nicer when I was in Noosa, as it's such a quaint and charming little place. As with most places along the east coast, if you aren't doing something outdoors there isn't much else to do. That night and the following day it rained like nobody's business - torrential downpours. I read books and got organized and what-not. At least the backpackers I was staying was really great in terms of common areas to lounge around in, hang out, meet other folks, and even watch a little TV. I met a few really cool people there since we were all just hanging out, escaping the rain. The only folks who did anything fun were the surfers - apparently it was warmer in the water than outside. We were getting reports that the storm was going to get worse and there were flood warnings. I headed off the next morning on the bus and we barely made it to Brisbane. In fact, due to detours and traffic caused by flooding on the highway, we were very late and I missed my connecting bus to the Gold Coast. I got on the next bus a few hours later and that bus nearly didn't make it to the Gold Coast. The highway was being closed and the storm was worsening. The winds were picking up and people's BBQs were flying off the decks and what-not. It was not safe. I did make it to the Gold Coast and my friend, Lynn, picked me up.

I spent the next several days hanging out on the Gold Coast while Lynn went to work (she and I used to work at the same company back home and she's now working for them over here - her manager kept offering me jobs here... interesting pause for thought!). On the weekend we tried to make the best of the weather... Saturday we went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. I got to pet the kangaroos and hold a baby koala and a snake. It was super fun!! We saw all kinds of neat things: dingoes, wambats, tree kanagroos, different birds, etc. We went to see a movie: Samson and Delilah, which has won an award at Cannes this past week - it's about some Aboriginal kids in Australia's outback... I'd highly recommend seeing it. On Sunday we went to Byron Bay for the day - wow! What a fun little town. We walked up to the lighhouse (most easterly point in Oz) and toured around the little town (had to stop at the Byron Bay Cookie Company). Caught a bit of a cool show at a bar that evening before we left.

The storm wiped out all of the beaches along the Gold Coast, so on my last day there, as the weather was clearing up I managed to walk down part of it at Surfers Paradise. It's going to take a lot of time and money to recover from it. Parts of inland northern NSW and southern QLD are still swimming in water. On a high note - the drought is officially over for QLD. Although I'm sure that those whose houses are floating aren't too happy about it. So I didn't get to enjoy the sunshine of the coast too much here, but I've still managed to find some interesting things to do and it was great to hang out with Lynn for a few days.

I decided to fly to Sydney instead of continue my way down the coast by bus. Many roads are still closed and all of the beaches are closed, so visiting beach towns would be a little boring at the moment. It cost the same to fly as to take the bus and was 1.5 hrs of my time instead of 12 hrs. It was an easy decision. I arrived yesterday and the sun was shining here (they did get rain here for the past week too though). Today it's raining so I will finish up a few errands left to do before flying out to Japan in a couple of days! I'm excited to go to Japan!!! And I'm also eating as much hummus and peanut butter (not together) as I can before I leave since it will be three weeks before I expect I'll be eating them again.

Weekend-ing Aussie-style (in a 4x4)

However unlucky I was to get sick suddenly (sore throat and a cough) the day that I traveled from Airlie Beach to Hervey Bay, spending all my mobile credit receiving calls from the inept travel agent who was trying to book me into the same Fraser Island trip that he'd booked my mate, Vanessa and her friends on, and subsequently not even getting onto that same trip... My luck certainly turned around, or perhaps, as I tend to believe, it was meant to be that I spent an extra day in Hervey Bay, chilling out at the beach and starting the recovery from the sudden illness and heading off the following day on my own trip to Fraser with a group of whom I knew no one - only to find myself vacationing in some of the best weather you can ask for with some of the coolest folks.

It is meant to be the 'dry' season here on the east coast of Australia. Hard to believe as I sit here in Noosa, writing an update with torrential rain pouring down, leaving me and my fellow backpackers nearly stranded inside the hostel today. Good thing this is a lovely place with ample common areas to lounge about in and read books and check in on the interweb. For some reason we're having a very big storm for the rest of this week and when I was up in Airlie, as I think I mentioned, it wasn't a whole lot better. So the weekend on Fraser Island was a particular treat - clear blue skies (sometimes cloudless), lovely warm days, amazing white silica sand beaches, huge crashing surf, dingoes, sharks, turtles, gum trees - you name it - we experienced it. It was wonderful!!

So, Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. Yes, it is only sand. There are only a few very small (like a few hundred meters in length) paved roads around a beach settlement called Eurong. Otherwise, there are no paved roads - only sand tracks which are maintained slightly by tractors when they get too rutted - most were very rutted though and interestingly difficult to navigate, but for the fact that everyone there is clearly driving a 4x4 vehicle. Our 4x4 vehicle was a large truck, outfitted with two long benches, with seatbelts (a must) for 8 others to sit in the back. Off we went, my fellow driver, Adrian and the 'kids' (all between 18-20 years of age, and too young to drive - you must be 21 with a license for at least 2 years in order to drive the vehicles there). We drove through gum tree forests and onto the east coast beach - basically a long beach all the way up the coast, which essentially serves as a highway. You must really look both ways before crossing, lest you get hit. Seriously.

On our way up to the middle, east side of the island where we were to camp for the night at a campground, we stopped in at Lake McKenzie - a freshwater lake whose blue hues completely amazed me. This was a freshwater lake that had blues like that of the Agean Sea! Wow! And amazingly soft, white, silica sand beaches surrounding it. Lake McKenzie is a big tourist draw and was undoubtedly very busy, but we loved it nonetheless. After the lake we made our way up the beach where we stopped at the main sites along the way - the famous Maheno shipwreck, the Pinnacles, and Eli Creek. Arriving shortly after at our campground, we set up camp and cooked a big BBQ and drank goon (very cheap wine in a bag). Even though I'm not meant to drink this stuff, I have been partaking since the sailing trip where the Scottish girls on my boat introduced me to cutting it with juice/cordial. Quite nice that way! The kids taught me a whole bunch of new drinking games - 4 girls from England traveling together and 3 boys from Germany. They were great fun!! Then we headed down to the beach at 9 PM (our camp noise curfew) where we could see pretty much every star in the southern hemisphere!! WOW!! We could very clearly see the Milky Way. I was able to visit, briefly, with Vanessa and her friends, since they were there for their second night at the campground. (the trip we booked was 3 days, 2 nights and we stayed at the same campground, situated very conveniently halfway up the island, so we didn't have to set up camp more than once)

Next morning we slept in and headed out just after 9 AM to see the north end of the island. We got to Indian Head where you climb to a very nice lookout and then trek down a beach for about 45 mins to get to a place where they have things that are called Champagne Pools. I had a crap sleep the previous night (side story to follow) and as a result was still feeling quite ill and decided halfway up the beach on our long trek to stop and thrown down my beach towel and told the crew to pick me up on the way back. I sat at the beach and rested, soaking up the sun - very nice. That weekend, there happened to be a fishing derby on the island, so there were heaps of locals there. Not surprisingly, the fishermen that I parked myself nearby to came over and offered me beer and kept me company while the others were off for an hour or more. That was really fun - learning more about Aussie culture and the fishing derby in particular. :) Back at the camp that night we had more goon and a big dinner and got off to sleep early. We had three tents and I was in one with Adrian and Anne. The first night I was woken up, not only by loud, drunk people, but also by very loud snoring from within my own tent. I turned over and shook Adrian, who very clearly awake, said "What?". Oops!! I said that I thought it was him snoring, but evidently not, since it was still going on. So I asked him to hit Anne! haha! Anyway, he woke her up and informed her, to her embarrassment, that she was snoring very loudly. The next night we resorted to videotaping it and embarrassing her further with the evidence the following morning.

Last day on Fraser we headed off to Lake Allom to see the turtles. We saw at least 20 of them. It was great! The girls were really keen to do it, so they made sure to wake us up so we could head out to do that by 6 AM! (I'm nearly starting to get accustomed to these early mornings) After that we drove back in, collected our tents and the one person who didn't want to come so early, and headed back down to the beach and straight for Lake Birrabeen, which is not unlike Lake McKenzie, but harder to get to (the sand tracks were crazily rutted and some steep hills to boot!), and in vast contrast there are very, very few people who visit it! There were only 2 or three groups of us at any time. We nearly had the beach and lake to ourselves! It was lovely!!! We spent about 2.5-3 hrs there and when it came time to leave and make our way back to the barge (the ferry that transported us to and from the island) we just didn't want to go.

At the campground the night before we saw several dingoes who came around to check things out. We were amply warned not to approach them or try to feed them or anything. They were interesting to watch. We also saw a dead shark that afternoon - some of the kids picked it up to take photos with it. It wasn't a very large shark, but definitely a shark! Given the surroundings, the weather and the great company, I have to say, this was a huge highlight of my trip and I'm very happy that, even though my plans did not work out the way they were initially meant to, I went ahead and took a chance on getting put into an unknown group of people and did it anyway!
I'm now on the Sunshine Coast with not a ray of sunshine to be seen!! This is not the norm for this time of year. I seem to have brought the kiwi winter with me or something... well, actually, it's not nearly as cold as NZ - I am still wearing my jandals (thongs in Aussie-speak) after all. I head down to the Gold Coast tomorrow to visit with a friend and former colleague, Lynn. No set plans after that and no idea how long I'll stay there. I have a few housekeeping things to take care of - like get a haircut!! Let's hope this big storm goes through faster than they are predicting so I can enjoy some more east coast sunshine!!

Airlie Beach/Whitsunday Islands

Holly and I arrived Thursday arvo at Proserpine Airport - about 1/2 hr shuttle ride to Airlie Beach where we stayed overnight. The hostel was a bit dodgy, but with the voucher from our sailing trip booking, the $16/night price tag made it worth tolerating. You may or may not be aware that Australia is home to he world's most stunning collection of deadly animals - most venomous snake, spider, jellyfish, etc, etc. As a visitor it does intimidate, but I remind myself that Aussies live here and go (mostly) unharmed. You just can't do stupid things like tramp through an overgrown garden or snorkel without a wet suit (or as they call it: a stinger suit). I've had some nightmares about whitetail and redback spiders though. Particularly after seeing my first really large, ugly, hairy spider poking around outside our hostel room door one evening. It was so big that in the pitch-black I still saw its black form moving. Too curious not to look, I shone my flashlight on it and now the image is permanently etched on my brain. After this Holly decided that she would wear he contacts in the shower. I went first the next morning and assured her that there were no creepy-crawlies in there, only to find out from her afterward that when she entered there was a frog. haha! Now, normally I wouldn't be bothered by a frog, but the really unnerving thing about this country (and not being familiar with all of the animals) is that you don't know which animal is dangerous and which isn't! So we were a little creeped out.

At any rate, off we went on our sailing trip on a new catamaran sailing cruiser thing. It was quite nice - even with a hot tub on the front! It wasn't heating up properly tho, so one night we did try it out but it was only luke-warm. There were 21 of us on the boat (excl the crew). Nice group - some were a bit quiet (mostly some girls who couldn't speak much English). The crew was good too. The unfortunate part of our trip was the fact that the agent who booked it for us was perhaps unfamiliar with the nature of the cruise and it seems this one had a strong push for diving. Most of what we did centered around finding good diving spots and, well, diving and some snorkeling in the same spots. Not much beach time at all - only a few hours one morning on what we were told was Whitehaven Beach, but on further investigation after the trip I've discovered that we were, in fact, north of it on Betty's Beach. It was a nice beach nonetheless and it would have been nicer to stay there longer and not be misled as to where we had landed. So I've got mixed reviews of the sailing trip as it wasn't as we'd hoped for, but it wasn't bad either - just could have been a little bit more of what we'd requested. The first day was very rough and we motored for a long way (several hours) and pretty much 80% of the passengers were green. I don't think anyone was actually sick tho. Luckily most of us had picked up these natural anti-seasick pills before we left (the key ingredient is apparently ginger) and if I hadn't taken those I don't think I would have survived!

The following day was a nicer day weather-wise, but the crew got up at 5:30 AM and set off for a 3 or 4 hour trip, motoring down to Whitsunday Island (and Betty's Beach) - which was a very rough trip and everyone was feeling horrible (even the ones with iron stomachs). The morning was spent hiking to the lookout and the beach, afternoon was spent in the water. We had a nice evening and full moon that night and the dolphins came around and swam around the back of the boat into the lights we had on, chasing fish. It was so great to watch them!! Later that day we convinced the captain to sail so we could all sit outside and enjoy the trip instead of motoring and making the ride rougher and having to stay inside, thus everyone feeling ill for 3 days in a row. It was really great to sit out on the boat and sail. So nice! I went in the water that day - was completely terrified of the reef and all the fish in it! But I got in - with much moral support from Holly and Dave (our captain - who was manning the dingy that day)! :) My grandmother informed me, when I spoke to her the next day, that sailing is really not in our genes (she dislikes the water too) - no kidding! And yet, we come from an island! Figure that one out.

The last day on the boat we headed up north to Hayman Island where we spent the morning diving and snorkeling before we headed back to Airlie Beach. Got together with a few of the folks from the trip at bar that evening for drinks and munchies and we were all suffering from the swaying, wooziness you get from being on a boat for a few days. Most had to go have a sleep that afternoon. The following day I said goodbye to Holly (who is returning to Canada today) and sorted out what I was going to do for the next few days. I booked a bus ticket to leave that evening to Rockhampton (lovingly called Rocky by the locals), beef capital of Australia - perfect place for me to dig into a nice juicy steak! haha! That's where I am today. It's a cute little town with pretty much nothing going on. I went to the Botanic Gardens and the free zoo within them. I'm happy for a little break (and a split in the travel times - would have taken nearly 14 hours for me to reach my next destination if I'd done it all in one go), but will be ready to head off tomorrow for some new adventures!!

More OZ

Greetings from Down Under!! I am happy to be here in the lovely warm weather of NSW. Enjoying some more of the sights of Sydney. Yesterday I went on a day trip with Holly to the Blue Mountains. It's actually not mountains, but rather a plateau. The misty air there makes the area blue (hence the name), and that mist is due to all the 100+ species of eucalyptus trees that populate the national park. It was quite beautiful and we had a nice day for it! Sorry, I don't have the energy to post more on it at the moment.

Today we sorted some more things out travel-wise. Amongst other things, I decided to go back to the place where I've stored my bags and get my cycling shoes... I've just seen so many cyclists and I know I'll have some opportunities if I want to hire a bike while on the east coast. Might as well at least take a couple of things that are easy to transport so I can REALLY ride a bike. :) We also visited a neighbourhood here called Glebe!!! How cool is that? It's a funky little neighbourhood not unlike my own back home! :) For anyone visiting here, I'd highly recommend the cafe/restaurant Holly introduced me to there: Badde Manors. Yum!! While walking down one of the main streets here today we also ran smack into 3 guys we'd met back a month or so ago in NZ!! How random is that????!!!! We joked back then that we'd run into each other in Australia. It really happened! Ha! And they were only in the city for the day - quite literally! Wow! These are the totally random and cool things that happen while traveling!

Tomorrow we head north and we're in for quite a treat. Sun, sand, water. Yeah, we're in need of a holiday so here we go!

Final Day in NZ

Wow! I cannot believe that this whole 'living overseas' experience has come to an end already. I am enjoying the rare privilege of the executive class lounge at the Auckland airport right now, taking some time to put down final thoughts on my travels. It's been a really amazing thing - traveling to the other side of the world and experiencing life in another country for a while. I'm really grateful!

Yesterday we had lovely sunny weather in Auckland and I took the opportunity to head out to one of the volcanic cones here and climb up for views of the city. There are several to choose from and I decided I wanted to go to One Tree Hill. There is a lot of historical significance to that cone, not to mention the U2 song that was named after it. One of my roommies from the backpackers came with me too. Otherwise it was a low-key day, spending time organizing my bags (far too much stuff still!!), etc. I won't belabour the topic. Time to move on to new adventures and countries and then back home. Off to warmer climes!!!

Rotorua and Skydiving in Auckland

After a very wet weekend on Waiheke Island, chillin' out with some friends, and getting some business sorted in Auckland, I hopped on the bus and headed down to meet my Kiwi mate, Bernie, in Rotovegas (as they like to call Rotorua) for some of the best MTB in the world.

Rotovegas is the Mecca of MTB in NZ. The area is also one of the most active geothermal spots in the country. I think they call it vegas because it's kind of a tourist trap with lots of overpriced, cheesy things to do. I wasn't actually sure I would even go to the town, but since Bernie said he would meet me and we'd do some MTB, I thought that would be a fun thing to do. So off I went. It's been raining here a lot - winter is settling in now. I'd say like 5 or 6 days out of the week it's raining most, if not all day long. When I arrived early arvo we sat down to come up with a plan for the next couple of days. The following day we managed to get a shuttle that took us to Wai-o-tapu Park when it opened at 8:30 AM. We were the first there and during our 3 km trek around the park, taking in the sulphur pools, bubbling mud, and geysers, we didn't meet another person until we were at least 3/4 done. At 10 AM our shuttle driver picked us up and took us over to the Lady Knox Geyser where they dump some soap in and set off the geyser on a schedule (otherwise it would only erupt once every 72 hours or something).

At Waiotapu...


The weather was not improving much, but the afternoon was decent to ride a MTB and we'd arranged to be back by 11 AM to hop on some bikes and take to the trails! We also figured we'd ride down to the Buried Village since it's not far from the trails. We were totally gutted to find out that they weren't letting people on the trails because it had been raining for far too many consecutive days and it was too wet. This is highly unusual! Apparently this area has some of the best soil drainage and of course, MTB is meant to be dirty. So needless to say, it was quite a let-down to not get to do some proper MTB in NZ before leaving. It will have to stay on my list of things to do if I come back here one day.

Returning to Auckland it was still raining. My Canadian mate, Holly, and I had been discussing the possibility of doing a skydive before leaving the country since we could get a deal on it right now, being off-season and all. Earlier in the week we'd checked in on it but the weather was not good. We'd actually written it off altogether since the forecast was really not looking promising for the remainder of our stay. Friday morning though, we got up and the sky was clear as!! So we ventured into the city and checked in to see if it might be a go - and it was! We got picked up downtown at 1 PM and headed off about 70 km south of Auckland. While waiting for the shuttle, I have to say, the reality of it started sinking in and I started to freak out! Holly was firm and said she wouldn't be doing it if I hadn't suggested it and that she was NOT retracting. I calmed down after a bit, but I was so nervous the whole time until the jump. In theory it sounds really fun and cool and then you realize what you are about to embark upon and you start to wonder if you really want to do it.

The clouds got progressively bigger and more numerous as the afternoon wore on, but the rain held out until late that night. There were seven of us who went out - all women! It took a long time, as most of us went up individually since they were a bit short of staff and one of the 2 tandem jump 'masters', as they call them, had to work 'ground crew' (pack up chutes, etc - important job!). So only two of the girls got to jump together when the other tandem master went up as well. Holly went first. I was second up, so I was waiting at the airfield when she landed and the plane came back in. She looked so excited when she was landing and told me how amazing it was before I headed off so I felt slightly better but still fairly nervous. I love flying. Up in the plane my feelings were so mixed. I was loving the plane ride - smallest plane I've been on - and the views, and yet at the same time I kept having to remind myself to breathe! I tend to hold my breath when I'm nervous or focused. Not uncommon, but still. When we were ready to jump and they opened the door I momentarily grabbed for the bench inside the plane! That makes me laugh now. I remember thinking to myself, 'Don't do that. Don't be silly. Just go for it.' So it was a very brief grab for something solid. Next thing I knew I was dangling off the side of the plane and we were about to jump out. In fact, before I could even think much about dangling off the side of the plane we were out!!

At first I had my eyes closed and then Roy, my tandem master, tapped my shoulder and pointed to Seagull, our video jumper (I have a video!), so I opened them and waved at him. Then I looked around and down - WOW!!!!!!!!!!! We were free falling for 30 or 40 seconds or something. I don't know exactly. It was kinda difficult to breathe because the air is rushing up at you so fast, but I managed a few inhales through my nose and slobbery exhales through my mouth. I was talking to the camera a bit - I think I mostly said "holy s#!t'. I was just so amazed to be flying through the air. I love flying and this was about the best it could get! Then when Roy pulled the shoot we were jolted almost upwards. In the video you can see my legs fly up as a result of the force. And then we floated down pretty gently and did some spirally stuff and I was just taking it all in. I asked him what this and that was on the horizon and he moved us around to show me around and point out Auckland in the distance. WOW!!!! Then I figured out where we were in relation to the skydive centre and realized we would be landing soon. I could have stayed up longer! I think I will probably do that again one day. It was out of this world!!!!! I cannot describe it accurately enough to give you a feel for it. Honestly, it's something you have to do to know how it feels. I'm really glad we did it!!! I'm really, really glad that Holly didn't let me back out!!!!

I have two days left in Auckland and hope that the rain eases up a little bit so I can venture out to at least one spot I have in mind before I leave. Should be able to get one last post in then and will be of to Oz the next month... extended my trip for those who didn't know. I'm not quite ready to come home yet. Soon enough, but not quite yet...

Leaving Wellywood

Figured I'd blog while I had the chance - a quiet night on the road and good internet access.

I left Wellington today - for good. Wow! It feels like yesterday I was moving into my flat, and now today I've moved out. I knew that this whole living abroad thing would go by quickly, but it's still hard not to marvel at the passing of time and the turning of a chapter in my life experience. I do have one regret this evening - that I managed to let myself get run down and caught a nasty head cold on the weekend and thus, was not able to do one last ride in Welly before I left. Well, I did get out on the bike on Saturday, but I cut that ride short because I was not feeling well at all - the following day I was full-on sick. My friend Jess took Tuesday off work so we could spend some time together before I left - isn't that so cool???! If I had been well, even though it was a cold day it was a ride-able one and we would have gone for one last boot around the bays. Instead we hung out on Cuba St and had awesome Malaysian dumpling soup (made me feel heaps better!) at Aunt Mena's and then walked around that area, Courtenay Place, etc.

I picked up a rental car today which I managed to get as a relocation - meaning they need it moved back somewhere (in this case, Auckland) and you get a free rental, paying only for the petrol. I didn't get my packing done quickly enough, nor my bike broken down, so I was still sorting things out this morning. I had tried breaking the bike down last night but couldn't manage to get the pedals off - I even got a kiwi mate to try to help me and he couldn't do it. Thing is, my 8 mm allan key is just a wee one. I think I need one with a longer handle so that I can get better leverage. When you pedal your pedals tighten up you see. So they were on there pretty good. As a result I had to make a trip to the bike shop to get them to take them off for me - which added an extra task to my morning. In the end I left after 2 PM. Not ideal. Luckily I had no big schedule. I drove up the west side of the north island and when I stopped in a town called Paraparaumu, decided to hit up the i-site for thoughts on where I might stop tonight, as I was clearly not going to make it as far north as I'd originally thought. The lady there was awesome and gave me a few suggestions and tips on things to check out if I have time. So I've stopped in a little ski town called Ohakune. It's pretty much winter here - they are gearing up for ski season (yes, it's cold - it's been blisteringly cold in Welly the past week!). The nearby ski hill: Mt. Ruapehu seems to be the main attraction and source of revenue here. You can take a shuttle to do the Tongariro crossing from here as well, but I'm not sure it's as popular a spot to stop in for that as some of the others. So, since it's still early and no skiing yet, it's very quiet here and I've got a whole dorm to myself at the backpackers. The only others staying here are a family doing a kayak trip on the Wanganui River tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to heading north into warmer weather - and hopefully warm enough to head to the beach. I'm even looking forward to exploring some more of Auckland! I have two weeks left in NZ! Hard to believe!

My Dichotomy

I find I'm always split - travel, the bike. Sometimes the two go hand-in-hand very nicely. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes it's ok to hire a crappy old rental bike when I'm travelin' just to shake the cobwebs off the ol' legs. Sometimes it's just not good enough and I am desperate for my own two wheels. Sometimes I see other cyclists when I'm traveling without her and I long to join them. And then there is the back and forth, loss and gain of fitness every time I'm away from riding while I'm out exploring. It really can be a dichotomy for me.

Traveling with the bike is mostly challenging. It's great that it can be done, but it's costly, and tedious. I'm wanting to travel some more right now and I would love to be able to ship my bike home, but it's far, far, far too cost prohibitive. So I'm looking into storing her. I think I've found the place, but man! It's been a bit of a mission (to quote all the Brits I've met - I seem to have latched onto their expressions as much as the Kiwi's). I wish traveling with the bike were easier. Even when I store her I know I'm going to have moments wishing I could go put her back together and get out on the road.

Sydney

After being out in the wilderness, for all intents and purposes, for the week prior, landing in Sydney was a culture shock for sure. It's a very big and busy city and I wasn't so sure on the first day how I was going to feel about it since my senses were a bit overwhelmed. I was pleasantly surprised tho, that Sydney is a really great city!! I thoroughly enjoyed it! I arrived late in the evening and my friend, Narelle, whom I'd met on the south island in NZ picked me up at the airport - she lives in Sydney. She drove me around a bit and gave me a quick orientation of the city and then I stayed over at her flat that night and she cooked a nice Aussie BBQ for me. It was really great to sleep in a warm flat on a comfy bed after a week on the cold ground! Although, I have to say, I'm now keen to camp when I travel - just need a little bit more equipment and a warmer sleeping bag! It's such a cheap and easy way to travel!!

The next morning in Sydney Narelle and I drove out to famous Bondi Beach and had brunch on a cafe patio. It was a grey, rainy day, but it was still warmer than NZ!! This is a big surf beach which is apparently always very crowded with lots of chic looking, buff people - it was quite empty when we were there. I did see a lot of surfers tho. In the afternoon Narelle dropped me downtown at the backpackers I was staying at for the remainder of my trip and I got myself organized and settled. The next day the weather improved significantly and I spent the entire day walking the city - down to Circular Quay and The Rocks, around the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, the Botanic Gardens, and back into the city again. I was fairly tired when I got back to the backpackers around 5 PM, but after eating something I ventured out again to Darling Harbour where I visited the aquarium. I really enjoyed that - I got to see all kinds of sharks and crocodiles and their newest addition - a sea mammal called a dugong.

The following day I set off on the ferry from Circular Quay to a suburb called Manly, situated across the bay in north Sydney. I met up with my friends, Elly and Ness, and we spent the day at the surf beach. It was the hottest day I've experience since last summer in Canada - 27 degrees!! And the first time, other than to enjoy the hot pools in NZ, that I've actually gotten into my togs (bathing suit). Later that afternoon I returned to Sydney to meet up with Narelle and set off for dinner and a concert at the Hordern Pavillion. It was really cool to go to a show in a foreign country and the venue was awesome - not to mention the show itself!

My final day in Sydney I went back to Manly to visit with Elly and Ness again and hang out at the beach one more time before heading back to chilly NZ. Brrrrr. I really liked Manly - if I were to live in Sydney that's where I'd like to be. It was a quaint little place with a laid back beach culture. I flew back to Welly that evening and now I'm making preparations to pack up all of my things and leave here for good in a few short days. I can't believe it's winding down to my last weeks now. Whoa!! And I'm not so sure I'm really ready to come back to reality...

Here are some photos from the trip.


Koala at Cape Otway

Sunset on Johanna Beach

The Grampians National Park
Sydney Opera House from the ferry

OZ - Victoria and South Australia

Greetings from OZ!!

I left Wellington and flew direct to Melbourne over a week ago now. Spent 2 days in one of the former national capitals (frankly I'm not sure how many capital cities this country has had, but it's been at least three now). What a great city! Highlights from my perspective were the Queen Victoria Market, St. Kilda, and just hanging out with some great friends! I was fortunate enough to meet up with, now a long time friend (met back in October and been reconnecting whenever we can ever since), Elly, and her friend Vanessa. The two of them flew over from Christchurch the previous day. Another newbie to the group of people I've met while traveling, Dan, also flew in the day I did, and then we met two cool peeps at the backpackers, Tom and Dark Cloud and the group of us got on so well we hung out both evenings in the courtyard. Tom brought his guitar and he and Dan entertained the rest of us one night, while Elly and Ness got out the gin they'd bought at duty free. haha. I'll leave the story at that!

Original plans dictated that Elly, Ness, Dan, and I were to do the Great Ocean Road trip together. In true form, Elly's plans changed, and so Dan and I went ahead with the trip ourselves. Which was cool as he'd just come back from Tasmania with a tent and since we had such a heck of a time getting a rental car for a decent price we decided to camp and save some coin. Yes, first off, the rental car situation was a surprise - who knew so many folks rent cars on the Easter weekend (which, btw, when you are traveling you wouldn't know is coming up since you never keep track of holidays - hard enough to remember which day of the week it is!!). Secondly, I know what you're thinking - I camped!! I can count on one hand the number of times I've camped in my lifetime. Doesn't help to have grown up under the Marriott umbrella. We weren't really adequately prepared for everything, but I got myself a cheap sleeping bag (which in hindsight I should have spent some money on - wasn't warm enough) and we made do.

So off we went on the Great Ocean Road - final destination Adelaide the following Sunday. Everything in between would be a decision made on the fly. Best way to travel! We took two days to drive the road. It was really beautiful, even though the weather didn't fully cooperate with us - misty and rainy the first day. We visited the lighthouse at Cape Otway, which is nestled in the Otway National Park and near here we were so very fortunate to see koalas in the wild!!!! A whole bunch of them! I was so excited!!! Luckily the rain cleared up that first night and we had stopped at a famous surf beach called Johanna Beach near dusk and decided to camp there which was one of the coolest things we did on the trip. The only facilities there were national park-style outhouses. We had sandwiches for dinner and used my Swiss Army knife to cut things. Next day we finished up the Great Ocean Road and headed inland.

We'd decided to do something different and head up to the Grampians National Park. This is a mountainous region in the middle of Victoria. It's really beautiful. Here we stayed at a holiday park (camping park) with several hundred other families and the like - Easter weekend in full swing. At least we had facilities. There were kangaroos EVERYWHERE there - they are even bold enough to come into the campground and bum food off people and scrounge through the bins!! Unfortunately I was always so awestruck when I saw them that I kept forgetting to take photos and I have none! We almost hit some on the road at dusk - which is a common hazard up there. We stayed there two nights since we figured we'd do at least one mid-length hike (about 3 hours) and several smaller ones, as well as do some activities through the cultural centre there. We did do a few hikes - one we drove a ways to where we saw some Aboriginal rock painting and several others to beautiful lookouts. But the longer hike took a back seat to lounging on a patio since we were pretty tired due to lack of sleep... at night the temperatures dipped below 10 degrees even though it was very warm during the day. We learned how to play the didgeridoo (well I did - Dan already knew how) and throw boomerangs which was fun, but a little anticlimactic, as our 'guide' was fairly unenthusiastic.

Upon leaving the Grampians we headed up further north toward Mildura - and wine country. I saw the Lindemans winery from the road on the drive in to Mildura. We'd originally planned a route through a desert, but our plans got chucked when we got to the road only to find out it was a 4x4 only road - common in rural OZ. So we had to turn back to the highway, adding a fair bit of time to our trip. We eventually made our way there and found that Mildura, while a bit sleepy, is a nice little place on the Murray River - the largest river in Australia apparently. We stayed at another holiday park here for one night and went into town to a microbrewery and hung out on the beach at the river where our campground was situated. The temps dropped again that night and I just couldn't cope. The previous two nights Dan had given me his warmer sleeping bag, but that night since we were told it was going to be warmer overnight I decided to give it back to him. Middle of the night I ended up sleeping in the car! You gotta do what you gotta do.

Next day we had a long drive into South Australia and on to Adelaide. The temperature was getting progressively warmer. We saw heaps of dead roos on the highway. From what I've been told it's a bad area for that. Saw more wineries as we approached Adelaide - I saw Wolf Blass here. Memories of my wine-drinking days. I do miss the wine! We were quite short on time when we arrived in Adelaide - I had to be at the airport around 3 PM. As a result I saw very little of the town (beaches looked nice from the air tho). Even though it was Easter Sunday, you could tell (and I've been told by a few people now) that Adelaide is a very sleepy town. Not much going on at all and quite a small city. Big suburbs, but small city. So I dropped Dan in backpacker central to find himself a place to stay and headed off to drop the rental at the airport and hop my flight to Sydney. Which is where you'll find me tonight updating you. But I'll have to fill you in on Sydney in a new post in a couple of days perhaps.

Crossing a Mountain

I'm not sure if I've adequately explained that NZ is one of THE places in the world to do hikes. Here they call them 'tramps' and trails are called 'tracks'. There are several 'Great Walks' of the world here and one that makes the top 10 list of must do walks is the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, residing in the heart of the Tongariro National Park. You basically take the whole day (average is anywhere between 6 to 8 hours), crossing over Mt Tongariro - an active volcano with many cones, the most famous of which is called Mt Ngauruhoe. This cone can be climbed as a side trip (adding about 2 hrs to the crossing - so if doing it you must hustle it on the rest of the tramp in order to make the last bus pick up on the other side at 4:30 PM), and is famously (or perhaps infamously) known at Mount Doom (see Lord of the Rings or read the books if you aren't aware of this). I had a hard time finding an accurate reference to the exact total ascent, but it looks like it's somewhere between 1000 and 1100 m, and the total distance covered is 19.4 km according to the DOC website. So, now that I've given you the background on the tramp, I'll take you through my experience of actually doing it. And I should also point out that I am not a seasoned tramper to say the least, and in actual fact doing a lot of walking can be quite painful for me as I have a really bad knee and I find my legs often really stiff from all the cycling. Let's just say I only did this tramp because it's so famous and supposed to be amazing from a scenery standpoint.

We arrived in Turangi, a town not far from the National Park and stayed overnight Friday at a nice backpackers there. The weather forecast for Saturday was looking so-so, but the worst of it they said would be showers that would be easing up and we figured we'd take a chance since often they are wrong about the weather here and even so - the worst would be some light showers right? Might as well. Saturday worked out better for us time-wise anyway - who wants to do a 6-8 hour tramp and then drive 3.5 hrs back home afterward? So we booked a shuttle for 7:30 AM the next morning to take us to the start of the track (and would pick us up on the other side in the afternoon, with two times to choose from: 3 PM or 4:30 PM). The next morning the weather seemed ok. As we got nearer the mountain though, the rain was kicking in. We all had reasonably good clothing on to do a tramp in showers - mostly layers of quick dry clothes (thank you Icebreaker!), tuques, gloves, proper tramping shoes or boots, etc.

Here we are at the Mangatepopo carpark at the start of the track (well 4 of the 6 of us):


The first part of the tramp from the carpark to Soda Springs is fairly flat, a little bit of climbing up and down lava rocks and stuff, but not too bad. It was misty but not too cold or windy and not raining too hard. This took about an hour I guess.

Here is a photo of Mangatepopo stream on the way to Soda Springs:


After Soda Springs you walk a bit further on til you get to a climb called the devils staircase - climbing about 200 m in an hour's time. It was fairly hard and here I got stuck behind a slower group of people (I should mention that there were HEAPS of people on the track, even though the weather was crap - I can't imagine how busy it would be on a really nice day). I decided not to try to pass and just go at the slower pace as it worked better for me anyway but as a result I got separated from my group and they ended up waiting at the top for me for at least 20 mins, maybe half an hour and at the top it was brutal weather-wise. As I climbed these steps carved into the volcanic rock the rain got worse and worse and the wind was picking up. When I met up with my group at the top I was soaked through. My quick drying pants, which had been drying and re-wetting off and on earlier were now sticking to my legs and I'd stopped part-way up the devil's staircase to put on my 'emergency poncho' which I was so glad to have brought since, even though I was wet all the way through, that thing stopped the wind from chilling me and I was still warm inside! Climbing up the side of a mountain doesn't hurt to keep you warm either. At the top of the climb there is a junction at the south crater - although with all the cloud and rain I wouldn't have known it but for the signpost. Here you can choose (on a nice day when it's worth it) to climb Mt Ngauruhoe. Apparently from the top there you can see out the valley and to all the mountains in that range. Would have been nice. But it wasn't meant to be for us that day. So we trudged on.

After leaving the junction we walked on the flat for a little bit - maybe 20 mins at the most in my mind - until we reached the hardest climb (at least I thought it was) to the red crater. This climb was on loose rock and sheer rock face on a ridge and it was steep. There were points where I had to grab onto the rock or others around me for support so I wouldn't fall off the side of the cliff and the wind was pelting me with rain from the side like mad. I was soaking wet. I couldn't get more wet than that. I turned to one of my friends, Bernie, and announced to him that I thought that "This Sucks!!". Indeed. It did. We took a chance and unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side. So, after climbing this relatively precarious ascent we had to descend a very steep section of what is called scoria. It's like scree - very, very loose. So you have to just let yourself slide down taking care with your footing as there are larger rocks in there as well and you don't want to topple down the side, or else you'd end up landing in one of the Emerald Lakes. It smells very strongly of sulphur here and we did get to see a small semblance of a view. The rain started to ease up a tiny bit on us and it was far less windy on this side of the mountain (we are about to start descending now, having been up as high as the track goes on the main crossing). Here I am at Blue Lake (I think this is Blue Lake) looking happier than I actually am, primarily because Bernie and Simon were telling fart jokes and were kind enough to fix my hair for the photo op. (BTW, I have fewer photos than usual of this trek because of the bad weather - bummer) And yes, I am aware of how dumb I look, but hey - I was warm. Not dry, but warm.
The descent continues from Blue Lake to the Ketetahi Hut. People can book to stay in the hut I think, if they choose to do tramping around the area (??). At any rate, there are some toilet/outhouse type things to take a pit stop. Our arrival at the hut marked my the first break from walking - about 3.5 hours in. I'm not joking - I did not stop walking except to let Bernie help put his waterproof pants on me at the top of the devil's staircase. Here we stopped for maybe 15-20 mins and ate. I'd been eating off and on, little bits of PB&J sammies while I walked. Here I dug into my trail mix with Mini Eggs added in for good measure (and extra sugar!).

Here is a view of the valley below and Lake Taupo in the background, on our way to the Ketetahi Hut.

After the hut is a 2 hour descent. I didn't relish descending red crater to the Emerald Lakes in the very steep and loose scoria, but I wished that I had two hours of descending that once I started this one. This descent hurt my knee a lot. However, the weather was continually improving, the rain had ceased and the sun was slowly starting to make an appearance. I was starting to dry out and I was able to stop every so often and stretch my leg to give my knee a break. This helped a lot. We crossed a few more warm sulphur springs and during the last 45 mins to an hour we descended through native forest, which was very beautiful. We arrived at the carpark on the other side of the mountain in record time - just under 5.75 hours. As I mentioned before, the crossing generally takes 6-8 hours, depending on fitness and how many breaks you take to take in the scenery (and whether or not you take the 2 hour side trip to climb and descent Ngauruhoe). We basically crossed a mountain, covering a half marathon distance, in extremely inclement weather in under 6 hours. Wow! Needless to say I was and still am quite sore. My poor muscles are so cycling specific.

Here we are in the carpark waiting for our shuttle to take our stinky butts back to the backpackers for much deserved hot showers:



And Sunday, when we drove back to Welly we stopped to take this photo of the park and the terrain we'd covered the day before. Mt Ngauruhoe is the crater you can see there on the left (aka Mt Doom). So we crossed from the other side of that, up the right hand side of Ngauruhoe as you see it there and then across and down heading through the range you can see on the right. I hope I'm explaining that accurately enough that you can imagine it. Needless to say, Sunday would have been the better day to cross. I can only say of the experience that I'm disappointed to not have seen the views that make it worth all the effort; the crossing is very difficult and people do not take into consideration how difficult it is and are often not prepared (one girl we heard of who was wearing jeans - such a no-no - got hypothermia that day, and another gentleman fell and hurt himself and we saw him being helped by others, covered in one of those silver emergency blankets); and finally I'm glad to have had the experience. I didn't know I could do that. Admittedly I didn't do it without a couple of complaints on that ridge to red crater. Maybe if I do come back to NZ one day, and my knee is up for it, I might try this one again in fine weather and enjoy those views.

Kiwiana #4

I'll be posting on my mountain crossing tomorrow I think. In the meantime, I've had this one waiting for a bit, so figured I'd share...

ANZAC = Australia and NZ Army Corps (they make Anzac cookies here in NZ, which I love - apparently started back in WWII era for the soldiers)
bach = holiday home/cottage/cabin (pronounced like the shortened form of bachelor)
chilly bin = cooler
choice = fantastic
dairy = corner store
docket = receipt
pinch = steal (pinched = stolen)
footie = rugby
chunder = vomit
layby = put deposit on goods until they can be fully paid for
knackered = tired/very tired
afternoon tea = dinner
ute = pick-up truck (short for utility vehicle)
wops = the sticks (rural/remote area)
plaster = bandage (or as we like to call them: band aids)
sunnies = sunglasses
gum boots = rubber boots (like wellies)

Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula

Dunedin Railway Station

We arrived in Dunedin late evening, as I mentioned in my last post. I checked into my backpackers, and because I decided to circumvent the bus route altogether after that stop (i.e. not get back on again), I had a 4-night stay in this nice town. I really enjoyed Dunedin. It's quite small, has a very large university presence, and some great architecture. Way back when Europeans and Brits were heading over this way, the crown doled out parcels of land to various groups as they came to settle. Dunedin is the Gaelic name for Edinburgh - it is the parcel of land that was given to the Scots. They have heaps of cathedrals - apparently the only requirement to being deemed a city was to have a cathedral. In this case size didn't matter. ;) They have a beautiful train station and part of the railway still run out toward the old gold mining country in the western Otago region (heading back toward Queenstown). Seems the east coast of the South Island has the nicest beaches (on the west they are rocky or stone beaches), and Dunedin (and the whole south east) has some gorgeous, soft sand beaches to enjoy. I took the bus for $2.50 to the suburb of St. Claire and spent most of my afternoon one day at this little beach town and their very large beach. At the end of the school day the kids were out for surf lessons. And yes, it was very cold down south, but I was lucky enough to have 2 warmer days in Dunedin, which enabled a reasonable sit out at the beach with a good book.


St. Clair Beach
The highlight of Dunedin for me was the Otago Peninsula. I was lucky enough to meet some great people on my bus, and 5 of us decided to rent a car together (cheaper and more fun than taking another bus tour) and drive the 70 km to the tip of the peninsula and then make our way back, exploring as many sights as we could. The attraction at the tip of the peninsula, Taiaroa Head, is the only mainland Royal Albatross colony in the world. This bird is something else - with wings measuring up to 3 m!!! This bird traverses the globe regularly and apparently logs about 90,000 km each year. It can fly at 120 kph!!! I was so impressed. We opted not to take the overinflated tour where there was no guarantee of seeing any birds other than the babies in the nests. Instead we hung out at the edge of the cliff and we did see several albatross flying back and forth to the colony with food for the babies! We totally lucked in!

Later we drove 3 km down the road from here and visited the Penguin Place - a reserve for the yellow-eyed penguin (although they do also see some little blue penguins there too). As I'd mentioned before, since the penguins are moulting right now they are land-locked and we got to see some. They've done a great job at helping this fragile little species prosper and have done everything they can to keep it natural and with the most minimal of human contact. They have a penguin hospital where they collect those that are sick and get them healthy enough to be released back into the wild, but otherwise, these are very much wild penguins and this is their natural home - the beach on the edge of a farm. The farmer started this up back in the 1980's and they have had good public support since then (although there are several conservation workers there, they get very little public funding and rely mostly on the revenue from the tour they give to people like me).

Yellow-Eyed Penguin - this guy's name is Flax.

After that we headed down to Larnach Castle, which is the only castle in NZ. It was kinda cool. I didn't go inside, but wandered the grounds and hung out with two of the other girls while we waited for the two who paid to go in.

At the end of our day, we decided to visit the steepest street in the world, Baldwin St, since it's outside of the central city area and if you don't have transport it's kind of a nuisance to get to. At it's steepest part, the pitch of this street is 35%. If you climb up the street, there is a little shop that will give you a certificate for doing so - you have to pay for that though. None of us bought the certificate. We saw lots of tourists driving up it. We opted not to put our rental through that effort.

After four days in Dunedin I flew to Christchurch, spent one more day finding my way around that town and then flew home to Wellington. It's been weird being back here, as when I flew in I felt like I was coming home (so I think I can say that Welly is my 3rd home now), but since I've been back I've woken up at night several times wondering what hostel I'm in and looking around, realizing that I'm in this room that looks really familiar but it takes me a few minutes to realize - 'oh yeah, this is MY room'. I don't have a lot of time left here so I won't likely feel really settled again. More travels in the coming weeks and very soon back to Canada!