Surf, Sand, and... Hippies?

Surf, Sand and.... Hippies?

Byron Bay

Not quite sure what I was expecting upon rolling into Byron Bay, surf culture definitely, but certainly not all of the patchatoli, dreadlocks, tie-die, camper van, bongo drumming... Wow.  I love it here.

In the past three days I have been called "beautiful", "sunshine", "fairy angel", and told I have a rainbow aura.  Again, love it here.

You can wear whatever you want, most people's clothes look some degree of handmade, and there are even some people in animal print onesies.  If you want to dress as a cowgirl, it's cool, go ahead, no one will judge you.  In fact, I felt that I stuck out more in my plain coloured, efficient travel wear, because I did not have a mash of patterns.

The first night we were here we went down to the beach, and discovered that it was the thing to do - watch sunset on the rocks! There was also entertainment.  Three bongo players, soon joined by two more, and a horn player, people dancing, a guy who looked as if he was at the original '69 Woodstock playing the pole with a rock and ... What?  That guy just pulled two rabbits out of his jacket!?

Over the past three days we have tried four times to go diving, there are sea turtles out there!!  But each time have had our trip cancelled because of the conditions of the ocean.  Dude!

The first day after being turned away from diving twice we walked around until we discovered sea kayaking.  The sign said that you might see a turtle, whale or dolphin, and in fact if you didn't, you could paddle again for free.  The trip that went out in the morning was accompanied by a Right Whale for about an hour while they paddled! Well that sounds like fun.  We went out in 1.5-2 metre swells, for two hours, and saw.... Nothing!  Not the conditions for seeing animal life.  Well the paddle was fun and good exercise, and we have a guarantee that if we want to paddle again, up to 10 years from now, that we can for free.  Thought about doing that today, however circumstances prevented it, but I am getting ahead of myself.  

Nathan's dream come true! Surf lessons in Australia.  Well, he got up and rode the waves over and over.  I got up a coupe of times, and the very last wave I rode almost all the way to the shore!  It was fun, but much much more hard work than expected - all of the paddling out was tough.  Our instructor was miserable and had a hard time understanding why I didn't just get it, while yelling instructions at me.  It was a two day lesson, and I told Nathan that if we were going to have him again, I would not be returning.  As luck (?) would have it, that was going to be the case anyway.  After our lesson we were walking down the street by the beach and as I stepped off a curb, I twisted my ankle.  Two trips to the emergency later (the doctor goes home after 7pm) it is not broken, just torn ligaments.  Great.

I made Nathan take the second half of his surf lesson, even though he wanted to stay with me at the emergency room, and he had a good time with the owner of the dive school as his teacher.  He got a lot better and was able to take some control of his board.  I stayed in our hotel and watched a terrible Miley Cyrus movie.  

Looking forward to heading back to Brisbane tomorrow and seeing Nick and Bec one more time, before we head UP to the OUTBACK, where I may not have internet coverage for a while

A Nice Visit

A Nice Visit

Brisbane

We had been looking forward to this part of the trip since we started planning! This was some planned in down-time in a nice city to visit Nick and Bec and to meet newish baby Jamison!!

Our time was relaxing and our hosts were hospitable, just... Sick!  Poor big guy Nick had a bad cold (?) and poor little baby Jams was suffering with bronchiolous, cutting a tooth, stuffed up and an ear infection.  Talk about getting hit with it all at once, little man!  Bec was just tired.  Despite various ailments we did have a very nice visit with them.  

Nathan and I also enjoyed a kayak down the Brisbane River, and in our wandering around also decided to give barefoot lawn bowling a shot.  Don't make fun, it is apparently a young person's thing to do!  We found that it was just like curling, sort of.

Nick also took us out for an amazingly fancy fancy dinner and we were tasked with eating all of the animals on Australia's coat of arms.  I think we did pretty well, we had kangaroo, crocodile, and emu in various forms.  We also had some spectacular local berries! 

We are looking forward to seeing them when we return from Byron Bay, and are going to take them out for a dinner that we are hoping will remind them of where we met (on our trip to Egypt) shhh don't tell them, it's for pita with sand in it!!

Taz-Mania!

Taz-Mania!!

Hobart & other small towns that shall remain nameless, because I can't remember them.

We flew down to Tasmania, an island province, off the coast of an island country/continent, I am not really sure how it works.  Whenever we would tell Australians we were going down here there was always a sharp intake of breath followed by an "oooooh that's nice", at the time, I wasn't sure what that meant, but I can now see why Australians like their sweet little island province.

Unfortunately a good part of the time we were there, it rained rained rained, I am sure there was much more to see than what we saw, but all was throughly enjoyed!

We went to Port Arthur, one of the islands first, (and last too, i think) penal colonies.  It was interesting to read and see the history of the area, gone from farming community, to small jail, to massive penal colony, back to farming community/men on ticket of leave, to heritage site.  After hearing often of Australia's criminal past I was looking forward to seeing some of it.  The lady who did our little tour (in the rain of course) kept emphasizing how well everything worked together and in fact what an effective jail this was for rehabilitation and simply the way it functioned.  It was almost disappointing!  Nathan and I both got cards of real people who had been jailed there, and throughout our wander we had to discover our individual's past.  Well, my guy had a sentence of 7 years because he abandoned his wife for another woman.  Oh my!  He was good in jail, so was given the job of keeping the storehouse and tuck shop running, and so, got extra rations of tea, sugar and tobacco.  Nathan's fellow got thrown in jail for stealing some clothes and he was sent out to work in a chain gang, logging.  Well, he got the flu and died.

My favourite part of the trip happened here. We went to the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary.  What a cool place!!  They have all sorts of animals that they are taking care of.  Either rehabilitating for release in the wild, like a wombat whose mother was killed by a car when he was a baby in her pouch, or have rescued from being pets, like some parrots and magpies, or who are too damaged to be released, like several tawny frogmouths who are all blind in one eye because of various injuries, and they are giving them a nice life.  They also run a 24 hour "roadside wildlife assistance" program where they will help animals who have been hit by cars and injured.  We did a spectacular after hours tour, which was especially good because so much of Australia's animals are nocturnal, where we got to feed and interact with a bunch of the animals.  I won't go into excruciating detail, but here are some the highlights. 

- hand feeding kangaroos, Nathan finally hand feeding a tiny one, and scratching their neck!

- hand feeding Tasmanian Devils (parts of wallabies) and feeling the strength of their jaws and listening to them scream and carry on. (Nathan's highlight)

- life-long dream being realized and petting a koala (just couldn't hold it) IT'S SO FUZZY

- carrying on a conversation with a 98 year old cockatoo

- finding a new favourite animal: the wombat. Who knew they are the cutest animal ever??  Just nasty biting things, so I pet it but didn't feed him

- feeding and being crawled over by sugar gliders.  I WANt ONE!!

Overall the whole time was amazing, and I would recommend this tour to any animal lover, it was worth the trip to Tasmania itself.

What is going on?

What is going on?

Back to Melbourne

After our drive of the Great Ocean Road, we were back to Melbourne to explore the city some more and attend a real, live Australian Rules Football game (footie).  We had a great time, and now are fans of the game.  I tried to read up on the rules before we went, but reading them did not prepare me for what was to come.

First off, the game was between Carleton and North Melbourne, which we discovered were both local teams, so the fans were pretty well equally divided.

And the fans... What fans, a Stanley Cup playoff game would have trouble reaching the passion, enthusiasm and pompoms that these teams had in their fans.  That was partially the fun part! To watch them.

First quarter: First impression: it reminded me of a Timbits hockey game, bodies everywhere, mayhem, and people falling down randomly.  By the middle of the third, things were starting to come together and make sense.  It was helped along by the kind, sweet, grandmotherly like lady sitting next to Nathan who was only too happy to help us along with the rules and penalties.  It was actually a great game, very close the whole time and the final scare was 118 to 119.  Nathan got a kiss from the sweet lady, because in the end, her team won.

Curvy & Groovy!

Curvy and Groovy

Great Ocean Road

We rented a car for two days of driving the Great Ocean Road, a highway that runs along the edge of the ocean.  It was built by men returning from war as a means of economic stimulus.  Without going into too much detail, it was gorgeous!  Sheer cliffs, lots of ocean, and some rainforest too.  The towns along the way were worthy of a trip on their own as they are quaint with lots of personality.  One of the towns we stopped in was filled with white cockatoos!! Along the way we saw lots of koalas!!!! (My koala face - for Big Bang fans - was much used) We also visited a golf course that had kangaroos on the course, and we did a rainforest walk, which was, while pretty, not worth the money. 

Perhaps the highlight of this trip was actually our bed and breakfast.  When we signed in, the owner invited us back to the kitchen to have a drink and a chat if we felt like it.  This is probably the only time that NATHAN had to force ME to be social, but it paid off big time.  We found conversation between our host and another guest stimulating and interesting.  The guest was travelling around the area to try and document the history of a lithograph that has been in his family for generations of an Aboriginal cricket team from 1866.  You know if someone is doing that, they have got to be interesting.  This guest was tickled to be in the presence of what he called "one of the greatest Australian musicians ever".  It turns out that our host was part of a band in the 70s called Madder Lake.  He even had a gold record, which he showed us upon request.  Interesting stories of life on the road as a musician flowed out of him.  Along the way his band opened for the Rolling Stones, and a little band called AC/DC had once been their opening act.

A little more adventure than expected...

Melbourne

We enjoyed very much seeing Michelle, who we met our our Middle East trip.  I was very determined to see some little penguins, and there was supposed to be a rockery just down the road from our hotel in St. kitts so after meeting Michelle we took a walk down there.  Oh no! Disappointment! fencing and construction and signs that say to go away, danger and no trespassing. Good thing Michelle brought her sense of adventure because she was overtop of the fence before we knew it.  I climbed along the outside of the bridge, and Nathan walked along the top of the railing on the bridge.  This is justified by saying.. There were other people who did it!  

In the end it was worth it, as the place was filled with Fairy Penguins (little penguins) and I got to see them up close and also take pictures of them, and I wouldn't get to do that again.

Michelle took us to a very cool pub after that and we enjoyed the rest of our evening.

The next day we were supposed to explore the city, but I got very sick (24 hour flu? Food poisoning? Who knows) so stayed in bed most of the day, but I had to force myself out of bed in order to get on yet another bus, but this one was destined for Phillip Island and the penguin parade!  Literally grandstands are built on the side of the beach and you can watch Fairy Penguins raft up to the beach and scurry off to their homes each night.  Precious and priceless!

The South Island

Christchurch, Greymouth, Franz Joseph, Queenstown & Milford Sound

Two thirds less people on 75% more land boasts a sign upon our arrival to Christchurch.  Interesting, I didn't think the North Island had a lot of people.

In Christchurch we were met by a long-time ago (haha) friend from high school, Elly!  Facebook is so awesome for keeping people in contact, I don't think we would have been able to keep in touch otherwise.  She gave us a tour of nighttime "post earthquake Christchurch", it was very interesting.  Being that the two major earthquakes happened about 2-3 years ago,  would have thought that the city would be engaged in rebuilding, but that was not much the case as Elly pointed out that she is mostly working in damage assessment still.  We saw some ruined buildings, a shell of a church, and some markets and bars that have popped out built out of shipping containers.  She gave us an interesting overview of what the earthquake would have felt like - 1.5 gs of upward force (i think?), and an explanation of the economic impact, most people have left the city.  She even said that that if we are lucky, we might feel an earth quake while we are here (ummm, ok Elly)

After Christchurch we hopped on the Trans Alpine train, which had some very nice views of land and mountains and water. The neatest part was traveling through a very long tunnel (8.5km) with a grade of 1:33 (every 33 m travelled forward, we also traveled 1m up) so when we came out the other side of the range of the Southern Alps the weather had changed from mild, warm and sunny, to snowy, cold and blustery!  Stopping at Arthur's Pass was funny because everyone turned into a kid as they jumped off the train and threw snowballs at each other, exclaiming how cold it actually is!  There were many people on the train who had never seen snow before.  I was keeping an open eye for Kea, but didn't see one (yet)

A stop in Greymouth and another bus ( for a small country, it is rather big but it has good transportation) took us to Franz Joseph.  In Franz Joseph we enjoyed the warm welcome, although it was a cold place.  Taking a short helicopter ride up got us on a glacier!  Very exciting!  I had never seen one before.  The ice is actually blue!  Our hiking guide found a tunnel we could walk through, carved out by melting water.  It impressed me with how fast the glacier was actually moving and changing.  He said that the tunnel we went through wouldn't be there in two months (two months ago there was a slide in a different spot, Nathan was disappointed) and at the end of the day they were going to build a new helipad, because the one that we used was getting ready to fall off of the ice fall.

Our last adventure in NZ was a trip to Queenstown.  Here, we tried our hand at zip lining, which was fun, except for the last one, the steepest tree to tree length in the world - i didn't like it so much.  We loved the city and its resort atmosphere.

We also took a bus to the Fiordland National Park to cruise around Milford Sound.  It was beautiful for sure, but I have to say that it was the first thing in New Zealand that surprised me with not being giant.  (Huge Fiords, I just thought that the Sound would be longer).  I finally saw my Kea in the wild - although it was out of the bus window.

We have had great experiences in hostels all over New Zealand, and would definitely advocate that as the way to go if you want to try and travel NZ less expensively

I have very mixed emotions about leaving this green, friendly, rugged, beautiful land.  The wind has carved out a hole for NZ in my heart, and I think this will be a place I return to, sooner rather than later.  Until then, I will take a little piece of pounamu (greenstone) with me.  Onto bigger, defiantly different adventures in Australia!!

It Smells!

Rotorua

We checked into Rotorua day early, as there was no reason to stick around the National Park as there was nothing going on, even the ski hills closed, and we crashed Shaun and Catharine's leaving party, they are off on their own adventures travelling through the States and then moving to the UK.  

Shaun and Catharine very kindly offered to be our tour guides for our time in Rotorua, and are we ever glad we took them up on their offer!  They are fantastic tour leaders, knowledgable and full of fun!  Having locals give a tour is always great, because they know to stop at places, you might not take the time to.  We did a little history, with the buried village.  It reminded me of Pompeii, but without the stone. Tried some Oz food - flat white and our first pie.  Oh my, so good!  Looked at lots of colourful things; volcanic wonderlands, coloured lakes, boiling mud. And did a hike up a rainbow mountain, which was nothing for their superhero physique, but the steepness of the hike was challenging enough for me to make the view very rewarding.  Everywhere in and around Rotorua is permeated with a lovely sulphur stench which burs the nostrils, due to all the volcanic activity.  

Our last night together we enjoyed a "traditional" (parentheses are there because the meal included scalloped potatoes, and lots of desserts that I am not sure are traditional)  Maori hangi meal, put on by a family group who runs this event. Delicious meat cooked underground, and all sorts of other delicious foods, the event also included explanations of Maori culture, dancing, singing, weaponry and tattooing.  (One guy even showed us his bum tattoos) I found it all fascinating as I have always been drawn to the traditional Maori stories.  Our host impressed us by being able to greet 23 different countries represented in all of their languages, amazing!  After dinner we did a walk around to see some animals, including kiwis!  

I am really impressed by how much of the traditional Maori culture and language is still kept and used so frequently in common culture.  It is almost as if the European settlers who came were integrated into the Maori culture, rather than the way it is in so many places that the aboriginals are forcibly required to integrate into the European culture.  In my very unknowable sociological guess I think it might have to do with two things; the Maori people being so strong, but also their willingness to adopt and change seems to be what has preserved so much of their heritage.

Well, anyway I am not writing a thesis, so I will end this here

Relief and Disappointment

Tongariro & Whakapapa

We were told upon checking into our hotel, that there would be no way we would get to do the Tongariro Crossing.  Weather was moving in, and soon there would be "gale force" winds which would potentially blow us off the side of the mountain. Hmm, well ok, I am glad that it was someone else who made the call for us.  If it was left up to us, we would have a hard time judging, as we aren't familiar with the area.  We did run up to the Whakapapa ski hill to watch the sun set over the mountains, very pretty!

The next day we decided to give the first part of the crossing a try, just to see the area.  It was beautiful,  giant rocks and boulders, low scrub, streams and some snow the higher up we got.  We made it to Soda Springs - just before the Devil's staircase, where you gained altitude dramatically, and turned around and came back, still about a 9km hike when all was done. As we were coming back, we watched scary cloud cover sweep over and obscure the entire mountain in the matter of about 30 seconds.  Eeep, glad we weren't up there.

Dark & Damp

Waitomo & Otorohanga
Upon leaving Auckland, the "big city" I immediately found the New Zealand I had envisioned.  So green.  So many greens! Rolling hills and beautiful farmland.  

We rented a car for this journey as there really doesn't seem to be great transportation/bus systems in the North Island.   We headed to the Waitomo area.  Here we took a little metal boat through some cave systems and saw limestone stactalytes and -joy- glowworms!!  The commentary was very dry and the ride very short, but seeing those glowing little green bugs made it worthwhile.  Later during our time here we "black water" rafted, which essentially is river tubing though a different cave system.  This involved a lot of climbing (spelunking seems to be a north american term) though caves dragging our tube behind, and some floating through tunnels, we also jumped backwards off of the edge of a couple underground waterfalls.  It sounds much more dramatic than it actually was, and this was. Definitely my favourite part of the trip so far!  Underground we also saw some more glow worms, yay!  And our very engaging guide described their true nature... "Canablistic Maggots with shiny (poop) who shag themselves to death."  It's ok, I still like them.  

While we were in this area, we went to Otorohanaga to do the "kiwi watch" tour.  We sat in a hide in a conservation area for a few hours, and caught glimpses of three different ones.  Before we went Nathan and I were making guesses about what they will sound like, you should google it, their call is not what I would expect.  They are hilarious looking birds, if you can call them that, with really unique features.  Their nostrils are on the end of their beak, and so, when they keep sticking their beak underground looking for bugs, they make funny snuffling noises because they have to blow the mud out of their nose.  My favourite feature is the stubby little wing that is still where they will put their giant beak when they go to sleep.  We were lucky to be paired up with a very enthusiastic teacher from the area when we went, so in all of the down time between kiwi sitings, we compared notes on the schooling systems, and made some interesting observations.  She basically said that her district needs more teachers, and if we wanted to, we could probably have jobs.  It's an interesting thought, I love it here

We're off!!

Vancouver & Auckland
Our undeniably long flight to New Zealand was fortuitously broken up with a 7 hour layover in Vancouver.  We made sure our bags were checked through, and hopped on the sky train into the Waterfront area.  We met up with Nathan's long -time friend Chris, who is currently living in Vancouver, and he took us on a little walk around to see the sights, most notably the Olympic Cauldron from when Vancouver last hosted the olympics.  Before we knew it our lunch date was over and we were hopping back on the train to head back to take our long 13 hour flight to Auckland. 

The flight was unremarkable, being over night we somehow missed July 1st, as we took off on June 30 and landed on July 2nd.  I guess that means we get to celebrate Canada Day on the flight back when we have a super long day.  

Auckland was a nice town.  We didn't plan much as it was a time to get rid of our jet-lag (little did we know that would take more than a week)

In the two days we were there we walked into the city twice, took the ferry over to Devonport island, to walk around in the rain, and met up with some friends, Chris and Rachel, that we met in Africa, for a nice dinner.  It was very nice to see some friendly familiar faces and they dispelled any homesickness