Adventure 18: Majestic Mountains, Alien Abductions, Lovely Landscapes, and Meandering through Melbourne

April 29^th – May 2^nd

By the time we neared Mt. Kosciusko National Park, it was well-past dark and we were keeping our eyes peeled for a campground whose gate wasn’t already barred.  Not entirely sure how close we were to the actual park, we turned off into the first campground which was open and drove through to the back to sneakily set up our tents on a wee hill on the periphery and hope that no one came to check on us.  Rising early to sneak back out, we were greeted by a cold morning, frost covered ground, and two guys in a tent next to us doing the exact same thing.  We didn’t exchange words, but it appeared that we’d all had the same idea: sneak in after dark and leave before the sun to avoid paying ridiculously high fees for the use of about 5m x 5m of their ground and two flushes of the toilet.  It was good that we made an early start, though, as we were a bit farther from the park than we’d thought but were still able to arrive just as it was starting to warm up and with plenty of time to tackle the 18k return hike to the summit of Australia’s highest peak.

It was an absolutely perfect day with bright blue skies and the sun shining down enough to balance out the cooler breezes as we increased our elevation.  The 9k to the top was surprisingly easy, with a low grade for most of the way and very well-maintained dirt trails.  This was probably my favourite day of the trip, just because the scenery was so beautiful and the day so perfect, especially in contrast to our experience the day before in the Blue Mountains.  There were wide plains between the mountains which were scattered with large grey rocks that looked exactly like the set of the Lord of the Rings when Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are chasing the Orcs through the plains of Rohan.  Add to this the eucalyptus trees which often lined the path, small rivers which wound through the valleys, and the ranges of mountains and snowy peaks which surrounded us and you’ve got the makings for one gorgeous hike.

We reached the top in perfect time to make a picnic out of lunch.  We each chose our own rock to double as our table and chair and enjoyed our sandwiches and carrots looking out over the valley and the surrounding mountains.  There was a small monument at the top, which we of course had to take pictures with, and then it was time to make our way back down.  Instead of going back down the same way, Kathleen was keen to do a loop which would only add a few extra kilometres but take us down through some more mountains and past a couple of different lakes.  Amanda and Sarah decided to just head back down but I was feeling more awake after our hike and decided to go with her to explore a bit more of the park. 

We took off down the opposite side of the mountain and before long came around a bend to the sight of a sprawling lake filling the bottom of another valley.  After this it was time to climb some more stone stairs over the top of another peak to the opposite side of the ridge which was more shadowed and actually still had snow by the path!  There had only been a little snow on the way up, but it was enough for Sarah and me to jump off the path and stage a snowball fight.  On this side of the mountain, however, there were actual drifts on the side of the trail which seemed like a great spot to lie down and cool off.  This lasted about 30 seconds, just long enough for a photo and our backs to get quite chilly before we jumped back up and continued on our way.  Through another rocky field and we could see the path winding down and across a stream before making its way back up the final stretch.  Lucky for us, the stream was not too high so it was relatively easy to hop across the stones and then make the final ascent.  24k later, it was good to be done with the climb and meet Sarah and Amanda back at the Yaris to make our way back out of the park for fuel and directions before heading out on out last big drive down to Melbourne.    

The directions took us back through the national park but, once again, Google maps let us down in a big way.  It had us trying to take a road which, from the looks of the map, didn’t actually exist in the place it was supposed to and then led us onto an unsealed road in the middle of the mountains in the pitch blackness, which neither Yarrie nor its passengers were too pleased about.  From there, we somehow ended up out on a very creepy reservoir lit by mysterious orange beacons.  Deciding that the most likely explanation for our travelling in circles and ending up completely off the map was that we had been abducted by aliens, we got the heck out of there as fast as possible and made our way back up the way we thought we’d come.  Somehow, we stumbled upon a wee town with a few houses and managed to find one of its few residents just closing up his shop.  The instant we pulled up and rolled down our window he looked at us and said, “You’re lost, aren’t you?”  Wonder what possibly gave him that idea?  Either he was a psychic or this was a common theme for visitors, because he also knew that we’d been trying to follow directions from the internet which was apparently where we’d gone wrong.  He gave us directions to get us out of the park and back to the main highway, warning us to watch for wildlife, such as kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, and wild horses.  Wait, wild horses?!  This just keeps getting more interesting...

Miraculously, we made it out of the park with only minor losses of Amanda and Sarah’s nerves as they drove though what can best be described as a zoo to get us back to civilisation.  I slept through most of their adventures, but they did indeed see all of the wildlife promised, including a band of wild horses right next to the road which could have completely dominated wee Yarrie if they’d had the mind to.  I was awoken around 1:30am when we stopped for gas and a driver switch at a solitary station which doubled as a cafe and takeaway.  Surprisingly, we were not the only customers who had stopped to refuel and revive in the wee hours of the morning.  Kathleen and I headed in to get our caffeine fix and were rather disappointed to pay $2 for a Styrofoam cup and two packets of instant coffee with directions to hot water around the corner.  Well, caffeine’s caffeine, right?  Off we go again.  Kathleen took the first shift and we followed the mercifully well-marked highway south, watching the kilometres count down on the highway markers.  After a couple hours we pulled off into a Macca’s for final directions to the hostel we planned on staying at that night and I took the wheel with Sarah as my navigator since she was having trouble sleeping in the back.

Driving into Melbourne as the sun was rising over the city was beautiful, tired as we were.  Only a few wrong turns later and with the help of our directions, road signs, and a couple of different maps in the Lonely Planet we managed to find the hostel around 7:30.  Of course, it wasn’t open that early so we drove down the street until we found (bet you can’t guess...) another Macca’s!  This was quite possibly our 3^rd in the past 24 hours, but there is something to be said for convenience, consistency, and most importantly free wifi.  The hostel which we’d worked so hard to find ended up being more expensive than we wanted to pay for and didn’t have any rooms that we could all stay in together so we braved the streets to find another hostel that came highly recommended by Lonely Planet and had free breakfast! Both very good things J  This venture was more successful and we were soon checked into a room at this large, modern hostel in a prime location, surrounded by shops and cafes and within walking distance of the markets and other attractions.

Warm showers helped to wake us up and, not wanting to waste any daylight, we resisted the allure of our comfy-looking bunk beds and set off for the Great Ocean Road which starts a ways south of Melbourne and winds along the coast past lighthouses, waterfalls, bays, wildlife, and the famous Twelve Apostles.  I navigated us out of Melbourne, but was so tired after my early morning driving that I persuaded Amanda to take over and napped in the back until we got to the start of the scenic route.  Our first stop was at Split Point Lightstation which gave us nice views of the lighthouse at the end of the point and the rocky ocean shore below.  Next, we tried to stop at another viewpoint and walk but due to lack of legal parking and the tickets which were on all of the other cars we decided to juts continue on our way to the Twelve Apostles, which were what we really wanted to see anyway. 

Mid-afternoon brought us to the Apostles’ carpark just as the clouds were moving in.  Hoping to avoid the impending rain, we power walked down the path with numerous other tourists down to the cliff’s edge.  It was amazing to finally be at the place that we’d seen in so many pictures and wonder at how these huge obtrusions from the sea had formed and ended up standing alone amidst the waves for so many centuries.  The blue-green colour of the ocean against the stripes of varying shades of tan of the Apostles were beautiful, but signs warned us that the cliffs were unstable and that we may fall and DIE if we strayed from the path, so we took care to stay on the walkway.  The signs in this part of the area rarely beat around the bush where safety is concerned.  The sprinkles of rain which were starting meant it was time for us to head back to the shelter of the car and make our way back to Melbourne, hoping we would have time for a wee sleep before dinner.  Sarah and I were once again in the passenger and driver’s seats, respectively, and we were on a mission to find ice cream on the way back but to no avail, sadly.  Rural Aussies don’t seem to appreciate their hard ice cream as much as Kiwis (and sleep-deprived Americans) do. 

Since it was Kathleen’s birthday the next day, we decided that we actually needed to celebrate this one and the near-end of our holiday.  With multiple alarms set, we had just laid down for a power nap when Sarah checked her email and saw that there was an amazing coupon for skydiving in the Bay of Islands on New Zealand’s north island.  The price was good enough to get both Amanda and I out of bed and we all ended up getting the deal, with both Amanda and Sarah buying a coupon for their siblings as well who would be joining them at the end of their travels.  This cut out of our naps, but it will definitely be worth it when I’m skydiving over the ocean the day before heading home J  After this, we got ready to go and headed down to the lounge to play some games before heading out to one of the clubs which was recommended by the guys working at the front desk.  They’re more serious about the dress code at the clubs in Australia than they are in NZ, which was proven when one of the guys we’d met got turned away for not having dress shoes and wearing jeans.  We made it until midnight to officially wish Kathleen a happy birthday before heading back to the hostel for a good night’s sleep after our long night and day of travel and exploration.

On our final day, we enjoyed some free cereal (a welcome change from PB&J toast!) before checking out and walking down to the Queen Victoria Market, which is open 5 days a week and boasts being able to provide for all of your needs.  This was not false advertising.  Under the shelter of a huge roof there were clothing stands, souvenirs galore, jewellery, aboriginal art, and an excellent selection of food for lunch.  We made most of our Australian purchases at this market since everything was very reasonably priced and all conveniently located under one roof.  Some of our favourite stands to browse through were the aboriginal paintings and didgeridoo sellers, who had beautiful designs on everything from tiles to wine holders and boomerangs.  A good portion of our day was spent wandering the many aisles of the market before Amanda and Sarah decided to take the car and check-in to the final hostel in a different section of town so that they could catch an afternoon nap.  Kathleen and I wanted to explore a bit more so we made our way by foot through a couple different shopping centres, Chinatown, and a huge park before reaching the Space Hotel, which was so new that it was still under construction and we were some of the only guests.  

Upon arrival, we were told by the desk worker that the other two had gone out for ice cream (no surprise!) and given a map and directions to follow them.  It was a bit of a walk, but definitely worth it once we finally made it to the brightly coloured shop and I was served my generous portion of delicious gelato.  After this, it was time to make our way back and do our final packing and cleaning of the tents before our early start the next day to return our beloved wee vehicle and catch the plane back to New Zealand.  Per usual, we managed to get ourselves lost on the way to the airport the next morning, which raised tensions a bit but we made it with perfect timing and were soon on our way back to the country which we’ve come to think of as home with only another bus ride separating us from our long-awaited reunion with our own beds back in good ol’ Dunedin.  Though we had rarely gotten enough sleep and managed to get ourselves turned around more often than not, we were all extremely pleased with the amount of Australia’s east coast which we’d been able to see in a mere 11 days and all agreed that it’d been an excellent holiday J

How I really feel after driving all night...

Friendly reminder along the Great Ocean Road!

Adventure 17: Navigational challenges, kangas, pancake spiders, and misty mountains

April 26^th-28^th

We had decided ahead of time to drive overnight to Sydney so that we would have more time to spend exploring during the day instead of driving.  Amanda and Sarah took the first shift while Kathleen and I snoozed in the back, cuddled up with the backpacks.  Around midnight we pulled off into a Macca’s (of course) for some coffee and a driver switch.  Kathleen and I hopped into the front seats and I turned the car on, greeted by intense rap music from the speakers (apparently Amanda and Sarah had the choice of either this or classical love songs to keep them awake).  This, combined with our recently purchased coffees and the late hour, completely cracked us up and we started the second shift with some slightly manic laughter as we made our way back on the highway.  Driving was surprisingly easy; I must have gotten the perfect amount of sleep to complete a couple cycles which, combined with the caffeine and Kathleen’s chatter from the passenger side kept me awake and on the lookout for ‘roos until we rolled into the outskirts of Sydney a little after 3:30am.  Since we didn’t know where our hostel was and wouldn’t be able to check in until 10am anyway we pulled off onto a side street in a nicer looking neighbourhood, got as comfortable as we could, and attempted with varying degrees of success to sleep until around 7.

Surprisingly enough, squishing 4 people and all of their luggage into one very small car is not the most conducive to a good night’s sleep so we called it quits, defogged the window, and attempted to determine from our Googled directions and Lonely Planet map just where we were and how to get to Bondi Beach where our hostel and hopefully some hot food could be found.  I was still in the driver’s seat and so was the lucky first to experience Sydney’s confusing myriad of streets and Google’s utter lack of help in telling us to “continue on” to numerous roads which we began to think didn’t actually exist, added with the complications of bridges vs. tunnels, toll ways, and general lack of directional sense.  After what seemed like ages and an extensive, unplanned tour of Sydney we managed to take the proper one-way street and only drove a wee way past our hostel before realising that we’d finally made it and finding a 2 hour parking spot.  After some minor squabbling about the payment for the room (which had already been made, she just didn’t realise it), the woman at reception agreed to let us check in early, thank goodness!  I think it was probably our smell and tired looks of desperation which did it, she was probably just eager to get us out of the hallway before we scared away any other guests!

Our two options seemed to be either passing out on the very comfortable looking beds and sleep away the better part of the morning or get some good food in us that did not involve peanut butter or jelly and power through our tiredness.  Keeping in mind that we only had about a day and a half in the Bondi/Sydney area, we opted for food and wandered down the street and around the corner where Gabby, a middle-aged Greek woman, had little trouble reeling us into her cafe for the breakfast special.  My eggs, toast, and “streaky bacon” began to revive me but unfortunately Amanda, who had been feeling slightly sick in the car all night/morning barely made it out of the restaurant and back around the corner before she threw up her muesli and yoghurt all over the sidewalk L Thank goodness the street was not very crowded and we were able to get her back to the hostel without any more unplanned stops, but it was definitely not how she had planned to begin her morning.  While she rested, Sarah, Kathleen, and I set out to explore the area and wandered around the various surf shops, an indigenous art gallery, and scoped out the best looking cafes for lunch the next day.  The weather was a bit too cloudy and cold to hang out on the beach, but it was nice to just walk around after being confined in the Yaris for so long.

Around noon, we all met back at the hostel to find Amanda feeling a little better, at least well enough to go hang out with some koalas and kangaroos at a wildlife sanctuary.  She was a trooper about the whole thing, not letting illness get in the way of experiencing Australia! Good on her, as they say J The wildlife park turned out to be sadder than we’d anticipated.  It was rather small and run-down looking, which wasn’t helped by the dreary day outside.  There were different pens for the wallabies, wombats, dingoes, and various native birds, which all looked like they were being confined in much too small of a space.  In the middle of the park there was a small stand of trees which housed around 15 sleeping koalas, one of whom had been taken down by a worker to get his picture taken with all of the park’s visitors.  He looked just like a stuffed animal with his dark eyes and big black nose; we all wanted to scoop him up and take him with us to a better home in the wild. 

Next, we went to visit the kangaroos, some of whom were free to roam around a fenced in area.  This is Australia’s version of a petting zoo apparently, with kangaroos that eat alfalfa out of your hands instead of the U.S. version with goats that will eat not only the designated food but anything and everything else they can sink their teeth into.  An Asian family had bought food for the animals but didn’t end up wanting it all so they gave us a couple of half-full bags and we  had fun making friends with the wee hoppers who were already quite full but obligingly stuck their noses in our palms to see if we were offering anything new or exciting.

Our favourite was one of the bigger guys who had one very floppy ear and one which stood straight up, giving him a permanent look of curiosity as he tilted his head to the side to check us out. A penguin show was advertised for quarter-past, but when we found the location it was only a small cement pool with a few bushes around it and wee wooden shelters for the group of blue penguins who lived there.  After seeing penguins in the wild in New Zealand, this also made us really sad to see them so confined and with no ocean to swim in, just a concrete pool.  It didn’t appear that anyone was going to come for a demonstration or to give more information about the penguins so, after watching them waddle around their enclosure for a little while we decided that we’d had enough of the park, passed on our remaining food to another couple and their children, and climbed back into Yarrie, who felt wonderfully spacious without all of our gear.

On our way back to Bondi, we decided that we may as well stop by the Opera House and Harbour Bridge while we were driving that way since we didn’t know what the next day would bring and we would be there right as the sun was beginning to set, making for some awesome pictures.  Only a few wrong turns later, we managed to find a parking spot and made the short walk down to the harbour to join all of the other tourists taking the requisite pictures in front of the bridge and the Opera House.  It was beautiful as the sun was going down, making the clouds behind the bridge look bright orange and purple and forming a rainbow right over the Opera House.  There was some fancy show going on that night and we felt slightly out of place in our rain jackets so we wandered around to the back where it was less crowded and discussed the fact that it would be one of the most epic first dates ever if you got to have dinner in the fancy restaurant and see a production at the infamous Sydney Opera House; that would be hard to top!  In the midst of our photo session on the steps it started to rain on us, which was our cue to bail out and head back to the warmth and shelter of the hostel.

Little did we know that awaiting us in our room was one of the biggest spiders I have seen in real life!  It was a great grey hairy thing which looked ready to pounce at any moment and was sitting boldly on the shoulder of Amanda’s jacket!  I noticed it first when Sarah picked up the jacket and quickly pointed out the beast, causing Sarah to scream and throw the jacket towards the unfortunately placed Amanda in the corner, who also screamed, which led me to yell as spider and jacket landed on the floor at my feet.  Kathleen came hurrying back into the room, wondering who was being murdered and added to the noise when she saw what she later described as the “pancake-sized” spider staring up at us all, daring someone to challenge it.  Sarah was the bravest of us, taking up her shoe to conquer the beast while I stood by, ready to back her up with a can of pasta sauce as my weapon while Amanda and Kathleen huddled in their respective corners.  We warned her that this might be a onetime shot, as the spider looked like it probably had some serious jumping capabilities in its long, hairy legs so she crept up on it with care and...whack! gave it a good, swift hit with the bottom of her shoe as we all shrieked like little girls and encouraged at least one more hit for good measure.  Success!  I grabbed some toilet paper from the bathroom to wipe the spider guts off our floor and we then commenced to thoroughly scour the room for any vindictive relatives who might be lurking, waiting to take revenge on us.  Much to our relief, we didn’t find any other creatures and made our way down to the basement to make some pasta, which was quite the step up from our dinners of the past few days and tasted especially delicious eaten with my spork out of my collapsible camping cup.

After dinner, we were all fading fast and decided to take a short nap before going to check out the night life and celebrate Sarah’s birthday which had been a couple of weeks earlier but had never gotten a proper celebration.  This nap turned into a rather deep sleep though, and we all slept through my alarm and woke up independently and very confused at various hours of the morning to find that we had, in fact, not made it out at all but were not very disappointed by this fact.  Sleep seemed like a much better and more welcome option and we finally woke up the next morning feeling much more refreshed and not at all upset that we’d gotten a few more hours of sleep than we’d planned. 

The next morning we had plans to meet one of our friends from Uni who was travelling through Sydney and wanted to visit Bondi Beach before continuing north.  This was made a wee difficult by the fact that he’d lost his phone, which we didn’t know until we met him, but we waited at our hostel, hoped for the best, and were pleased to see him walking down the street only a few minutes later than planned.  Tim had apparently been planning on meeting up with a couple of other groups of friends along the way but, due to loss of phone and lack of other means of communication we were the first that he’d actually made contact with.  None of us had been down to the famous beach yet so we spent some quality time jumping the waves and looking at the wee blue jellyfish that were washed up all along the shore.  It was a grand time until Sarah let out a yelp and came back up on shore; she’d been stung by one of the jellyfish!  Fortunately, it didn’t look too bad and had mostly just scared her when she felt something wrap around her ankle, yikes!  After that we decided that we’d had about enough of the beach and dropped Tim off at the bus stop, saying good-bye and wishing him luck with meeting his friends on the Gold Coast.

By this time we were getting rather hungry and our thorough investigations and keen noses led us to a small Thai place that looked delicious and didn’t appear to cost an arm and a leg.  Perfect!  I’d never had Thai food before but this “ThainaBox” (Thai in a box, clever, eh?) made it relatively easy for beginners like myself.  We got to choose our type of noodle or rice, sauce, herbs, nuts, and meat or vegetarian option and then they made it all up right there!  Of course, everything sounded delicious, but I finally settled on wheat noodles with Thai stir fry, garlic and sweet basil, cashews, and veggies.  So far, this has been one of the most delicious meals that I’ve eaten in my time spent on the Pacific Rim.  It helped that it was nice and hot on a rather drizzly day, but even the leftovers which I ate at a gas station for dinner the next night were delicious, and that’s saying something! 

After our scrumptious lunch, we braved the Sydney streets again to head to the mall for some retail therapy.  The mall which we found was very high end and most things were a far step out of our price range.  However, all the expensive shops were made up for by the Target (YAY!! Home of great “Mum’s Day” cards and enormous bags of gummy dinos), Lulu Lemon’s (still expensive, but the workplace of one of our flatmates so we had to get a picture for her), and best of all a Borders which housed a Gloria Jean’s coffee shop!  In Brisbane, Blake had told us about a drink which combined Amanda and my two greatest loves: TimTams and coffee, sold only at Gloria Jean’s.  We’d been on the hunt for this elusive shop ever since and it’s possible that we got a little too excited when we finally reached the end of our quest.  Added bonus on top of the absolutely delicious TimTam Chiller (think chocolate frappuchino with cookies blended in)?  Free wifi!  This was utilised to get directions to the Blue Mountains and not long after we were again on our way.

Not surprisingly, we managed to get ourselves good and lost trying to escape from the maze that Sydney likes to call its toll-way system.  Since we’d already seen most of these streets before (on accident), we were slightly less delayed than we had been on every other navigation.  By the time we reached the town outside of the Blue Mountains National Park it was a little after 7, at which time everything starts shutting down, apparently.  This made it very difficult to find anything for dinner and, after being turned away from three different restaurants, we settled on gelato, complete with mix-ins, before beginning our search for a hostel.  Unluckily, our first choice closed their reception at 7:30 (I swear, it was probably 7:32...) but we stumbled upon another one that turned out to be very nice and had a palace of a room for us to stay in.  I’ve been in hostels that could have fit three 8-bed dorm rooms inside of this one 10-bed room.  There was only one other guy, from the U.K., staying in the room with us and it was hilarious trying to talk to him.  He had a bit of a cockney accent and I’ve never known so many language barriers when everyone is speaking the same language!  He did understand, however, when we started getting ready for bed around 9 that we were not going to be very much fun or go out with him and quickly gave up on us as lost causes.  I’d like to see him camp and drive and explore on minimal sleep and then pass up the chance to sleep in a comfortable bed before hiking the next day!

It was raining the next morning when we got up, but we weren’t going to let that stop us from hiking in the Blue Mountains since we’d heard that they were beautiful and we’d come all that way to see them.  We were surprised to find that, unlike what we’d been experiencing in New Zealand, this national park was much more of a tourist attraction, complete with a couple gift shops, guided walks, and boardwalk paths on parts of the trails.  The map we picked up told us that there was a walk which was 3 hours return and would take us down into the valley, past the most notable waterfalls, and along the sides of the Three Sisters rock formations.  This was all well and good, except for the fact that everything was so shrouded in mist that we could barely see the falls and the only way we knew we were above a valley was the fact that we had to walk down 1,000 steps to get to the floor below.  Even though it was misty and muddy, it was nice to be able to stretch our legs a bit and get back out into (colonised) nature and away from the hustle of the cities. 

Our final stretch was up the aptly named “Giant Staircase” which came with a warning of “very steep - strong walkers only.”  Bring it on.  Approximately 900 steps up the side of what we could only assume to be one of the Three Sisters later, we finally reached the top and were able to see through a crack in the clouds into part of the valley below.  It was easy to tell how beautiful the views would have been on a clear day but, alas, we settled for our close up of one of the sisters.  *Side note: we’re still not sure if it actually was one of the Three Sisters that we were looking at, but it was a large rock formation and we couldn’t see anything else through the mist so we decided that it must be in order to make ourselves feel better about or slightly disappointing hike.  A short walk/run through the rain back to the car park and we were ready to set out to Mt. Kosciusko National Park with hopes of finding free camping for the night and better weather for our hike the next day.  All fingers crossed!

Adventure 16: Australia, Days 2-4 - Beaches, peacocks, markets, and finding Nemo!

April 23^rd- 25^th

After leaving a thank you note under the door of the church, we piled back in the Yaris and made our way back towards Surfers Paradise, stopping at a shopping centre to use Macca’s bathroom and get groceries, which consisted of bread, peanut butter, jelly, carrots, and Honeycomb Crush TimTams (a flavour unique to Australia, needless to say Amanda and I were very excited to try them!).  A well balanced diet, no?  Since we’d risen so early, it was only a little after 9 when we got to the beach.  We were still pretty tired from our travels and short sleep in our short tent, so we decided to spend the morning lounging on the beach soaking up the sun, relaxing, and reading our books.  The sun was plenty hot by 10am, which was a welcome change, and by lunchtime we were feeling rejuvenated and ready to do some exploring of the town.  There was a lot of shopping right near the beach, but most of it was a bit out of our price range.  I’ve never seen so many Ugg boot stores in my life, and it doesn’t even get that cold there! Guess it makes sense since they originated in Australia, but it still seemed a wee bit superfluous.  One of my favourite parts of the day was walking by a Zumba (Latin dance aerobics) demonstration near the beach.  All of the instructors were dressed in obnoxiously bright clothing and one of them was an older gentleman who was one of the more enthusiastic dancers, which was quite entertaining!

Learning from our mistakes of the night before, we hunted down a pay phone and called all of the Byron Bay campsites that were listed in our Lonely Planet, all of which were fully booked except for one.  The guidebook told us that Maca’s (not to be confused with Macca’s!) was a campsite located about 15k outside of Byron Bay amidst a macadamia grove; sounded good to us! Unfortunately, we slightly overestimated both the amount of daylight left and our navigational abilities so we once again ended up driving around in the dark, attempting to follow the directions which we’d written down on a napkin.  After driving on dirt roads in the dark in what looked more and more like the middle of nowhere, we stopped at a lone cafe/convenience store which was just shutting down for the night (around 6pm).  We completely lucked out that one of the patrons who was just leaving was heading in the same direction that we needed to go and told us to follow them out and they would flash their lights when we needed to turn for the campsite.  Thank goodness for helpful and friendly people!

I was driving at this point, and after our lovely guide signalled our turn-off onto a very small, poorly marked drive to the campsite (which we totally would have driven right past if not for the guidance!) our wee Yaris had its first big test: MUD!  We’d only driven about 20 metres into the campground when all of the sudden I felt the wheels slip and the car did a nice little swerving manoeuvre as I tried to keep the wheels straight.  To a chorus of “Stop! Back up! Turn around! NOOOO!!” I quickly put it in reverse and was guided blindly backwards by my wonderful backseat helpers, since the dark and packs rather impeded my vision.  This was a rather nerve-wracking couple minutes, as I literally had to put all my faith into Amanda and Kathleen’s directions and pray that I wasn’t going to back into a tree or end up pushing Yarrie out of another unseen mud pit.  After a few tense minutes, we made our own parking spot on what seemed to be a firmer patch of ground on the side of the road and set up camp, hoping that doing so in the dark wasn’t going to become a pattern.  With the help of headlamps and torches (flashlights) we made our way to the other side of the campground and up a wee hill to the main shelter area, which housed a kitchen, TV, laundry, and...showers! Yes!  Speaking only for myself, of course, I was feeling more than a little grimy and in need of a serious scrubbing.  I was very pleased to find that they had hot water and enjoyed the decorative (if not slightly old and broken) tiled walls of the sinks and stalls.

While enjoying another dinner of PB&J and whole, raw carrots, we witnessed another car get completely stuck in the mud at the bottom of the hill, which made us feel a bit better about our near miss.  Later, the group that was in the car came up to the shelter and we got to talking, finding out that they were all from various countries in Europe, with the exception of one guy from Mexico, and were utilising their break to travel as we were.  It would have been fun to stay up and talk with them more, but by this point it was already a little after 9, aka our bedtime.  Amanda and Kathleen kindly agreed to switch tents every other night so Sarah and I got the luxury of stretching out as we fell asleep beneath the macadamia trees.

 In the morning, we were woken by the sound of the varied and extremely vocal birdlife which inhabited the campground.  Upon further inspection in the daylight, we came to think of it as more of a zoo than a campsite.  There were three or four peacocks strutting about right outside our tent.  They were some of the major contributors to the noise; Amanda’s dad described their sound as analogous to that a woman getting her towel stolen from her after the shower, which is surprisingly (and unfortunately for us) accurate.  On our way up to the bathroom and kitchen, we also saw a kookaburra perched on a post, some huge rams with long, spiral horns, and a couple of dogs running around searching for love and table scraps.  Sarah is not a coffee drinker, but the rest of us were extremely pleased to see that there was free (instant) coffee and that it was one of the better brands, not the Budget brand that we were used to!  Not seeing much point in hanging around, we packed up soon after breakfast and were back on the road towards a market that we’d heard about just outside of Byron Bay. 

This was one of the coolest markets which I have ever been to, with a huge variety of food, artwork, crafts, clothing, and pretty much everything in between.  There were so many different aisles to wander down I’m still not sure we saw everything.  One of my favourite stalls was an artist who made everything out of a diverse assortment of cutlery.  There were frogs playing the drums, a wine holder which looked like a person lying down and taking a giant swig, and glasses with eyes and beaks on them, just to name a few.  After wandering around for the better part of the morning and sampling some delicious falafel, we all met up again and continued into the town.  It was a rather cloudy day, but Kathleen decided to brave the beach anyway while Amanda, Sarah, and I wandered around the shops and enquired about potential sleeping options. 

Once again, most of the campsites were full, but the one remaining was charging an inflated rate of $30 per person to stay the night, which seemed rather absurd since you can pay less than that for a lot of hostels.  Since all we were planning on doing was sleeping there, none of us felt too bad about sending Sarah and I on our own to register and only paying $15 per person for our unpowered patch of land.  This seemed reasonable too since Sarah and I ended up sleeping in the car that night to avoid getting soaked in our subpar Wal-Mart tent, which we decided probably couldn't handle the rain if it couldn't manage to even keep out the morning dew.  When people camp in Australia, we discovered, they normally mean business.  Our two wee tents were dwarfed by the palaces which surrounded us.  Most people not only had extremely large sleeping tents but patio tents as well for sitting (around their real tables on actual chairs) and eating their fancy barbequed meals.  We were rather jealous of all of these luxuries until we realised how much more efficient we must be at setting up and taking down than they all were.  This provided us with some small consolation J   

Monday was a morning that, for once, we were all looking forward to.  We’d signed up for snorkelling at a little rock island a short way off the coast and couldn’t wait to swim in the warm water and hopefully see some exciting sea creatures!  After getting all (wet)suited up, we were driven down to the beach, from where we took a boat out to the rocks.  One really cool thing was that we were able to pay $5 each to put my camera in a waterproof case so that we could take pictures while we snorkelled, which was really convenient and seemed like a pretty good deal.  As promised, the water was around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which was much warmer than any of the waters surrounding New Zealand. 

Almost immediately upon entering the water, Amanda waved us all over to a little cove and pointed down towards the bottom.  She’d spotted a sea turtle! It was rather difficult to tell if I was actually getting any pictures of the turtle, as opposed to just the bottom of the ocean, but I gave it my best effort and then settled for watching him swim along and out of sight.  Along with Crush, we found most of the other characters from Finding Nemo, which seemed appropriate since we were in Australia J Along with Nemo and Dory, we got to see hundreds of brightly coloured fish, a huge stingray resting on the bottom, and a couple of (harmless, thank goodness!) leopard sharks.  It was so much fun floating around and swimming with the different schools of fish that before we were quite ready to leave everyone was called back to the boat. 

One really nice thing about the company that we went with was that they provided free (yes!) hot showers after our swim so we took advantage before heading back to the beach for some more relaxing.  That was one of my favourite afternoons, just being able to lie on the beach, reading Pride and Prejudice, and not worrying about deadlines or other things that I should be doing to feel productive.  With a bit of regret, we finally tore ourselves away from the beach in the late afternoon and stuffed ourselves back into Yarrie for our first long drive of the trip...on to Sydney and more exciting adventures!  To be continued...

Adventure 15: Australia, Day 1- Welcome to Oz! Home of the Bilby, Macca’s, and SUNSHINE!

April 21^st-22^nd

For mid-semester break (all of the Americans kept calling it “spring break” and getting corrected by the Kiwis, since it’s actually fall here), I had known all along that I wanted to travel somewhere in Australia, since who knows when I’ll next be back in this part of the world.  I (quite easily) convinced my flatmate Amanda and fellow Ole Sarah to forgo the calls of the island paradises of Fiji and Samoa and accompany me.  We also intended to travel with a guy from Slovakia, who unfortunately had to cancel last minute, but to our good fortune he introduced us to Kathleen, who goes to Ohio State University, and she decided to join in our adventures!  We all met a couple of times to form a basic outline of our route down the lower half of the east coast and decide which stops were on the top of our “To Do” list.  Somewhere we had heard that there was a bunch of free camping in Australia so we borrowed a couple of tents from one of Kathleen’s friends, one of which I had the pleasure of packing in my newly purchased tramping pack!  I’d decided to order my own pack for the trip and future excursions, since it would be very inconvenient to drag a suitcase around, not to mention trying to camp with it.  Packing was a bit of a struggle, since we had limited space and didn’t know exactly what to bring or what the weather would be like compared to Dunedin’s dreary climes.  Luckily, Amanda and I were able to yell at each other from down the hallway as we were packing and try to decide what we actually needed or not.

Thursday night around 9pm found Amanda, Sarah, and I making our way down Cumberland St. to the bus stop, wearing our tramping packs on our back and our smaller bookbags on our fronts.  We felt like quite the spectacle, but most everyone else heading that way were also going to be travelling on the Night Bus so we didn’t look too out of place.  Our friend had told us about the Night Bus, which travels, as its name suggests, in the evening between Dunedin and Christchurch.  This was perfect for us, as it would take us to the Christchurch airport in time for our early morning flight but we wouldn’t have to miss any of our Thursday classes.  By the time the bus rolled up a little after 10, my lack of sleep during the week due to assignments and the excitement/stress of packing was seriously starting to catch up to me.  This was a blessing, as it enabled me to sleep for most of the 5 hour ride north.  The bus rolled into the airport parking lot around 3:30am and we all stumbled off and gathered our packs, half asleep and feeling more like zombies than humans.  In typical New Zealand fashion, the check-in area didn’t actually open until a little after 4am, and then the gate area couldn’t be accessed until 5, so we parked it on the floor and played the waiting game a couple of times before we could actually get to the gate and sprawl across the chairs for another short nap before our flight boarded around 7.  Not the best night’s sleep, but better than nothing!

Our flight took off smoothly, but we were very disappointed to find that they did not even give us free water, much less free snacks, for the entirety of the 4 hour flight.  I managed to get some work done on my history paper, but it definitely would have been aided by some complementary coffee!  I was too indignant at the lack of service to pay $3 for a measly cup of black coffee and wasn’t yet feeling so urgent about the looming deadline of the paper to make too much of an effort to stay awake and write rather than catch some more zzz’s.  When we arrived in Brisbane I was the first to get off the plane and was greeted by warm air! This was very exciting after the cold front which had been moving over Dunedin for the past few weeks, and I couldn’t wait for the others to get off so that we could meet Kathleen, who’d been on a slightly earlier flight, and start our real adventures!  Going through customs, I had to take the tent out of my bag and have it checked for any dirt or other foreign substances which they didn’t want entering the country.  I didn’t know when it had been last used, but fortunately Kathleen was still waiting on her tent’s inspection only a few tables away and was able to yell across that it had been used in the Fjordlands in New Zealand.  Apparently, the customs official hadn’t liked that she was travelling alone and didn’t have a specific intended destination for the night, since we hadn’t booked anything ahead of time.  This, combined with the fact that she wasn’t part of a group, caused her to look more suspicious than the rest of us and allowed Amanda, Sarah, and I to catch up to her.

Picking up our rental car was much more of a trial than we’d anticipated.  When Sarah had booked it online, the final price had appeared to be only a little over $400.  When we arrived at the Hertz counter, however, we were told that there would be an additional charge for being under the age of 25 which brought the total, including insurance, to around $1,000...that was an unpleasant surprise.  We checked with the other rental companies that were in the airport, but they all gave either the same or greater prices so we were left with no choice but to go with Hertz and pay the extra charges.  Darn fine print got us in a big way, but the lesson has definitely been learned!  Rather disgruntled, especially by the fact that we were not provided with the promised road map of Australia, but were only given a little piece of paper with the Brisbane city layout, we were directed to the parking lot to pick up our transport for the next 10 days. 

Our moods immediately improved when we walked outside and were greeted by sunshine and temperatures in the 20’s (70’s F)!  Even the sight of the pocket-sized, hatchback Toyota Yaris, into which we were expected to cram all of our stuff, along with ourselves, could not dampen our spirits.  That might have been partially due to the fact that we were all running on very little sleep and no food and by this point we were getting slightly slap happy, but it just made the situation all the more entertaining!  We extracted our shorts and t-shirts from our tightly packed bags and made a quick change before attacking the logistical issue of how exactly we were expected to pack everything into our itty bitty car.  After the realization that not even one of our packs could comfortably fit in the hatchback, we ended up buckling one in to the middle seat with another on the floor in front of it and the other two on Kathleen and Amanda’s laps in the backseat.  The smaller backpacks we managed to stuff into the hatch, but, needless to say, it was quite the full car.

My friend Blake lives in Brisbane and promised to take us to lunch at a pancake house which we actually managed to find without too much difficulty.  First Australian driving experience = success!  It was so good to see a friendly face when he arrived and we congratulated him on choosing one of the few places that was actually open.  We hadn’t counted on the fact that a lot of the restaurants and shops would be closed for Good Friday, which was especially disappointing when we sighted our first Target store in months only to find it closed for the holiday L The menu at the restaurant, named simply “Pancakes,” was overwhelming to our empty stomachs and sleep-deprived minds.  There were heaps of different options, most including ice cream along with some sort of fruit and nut combination.  I finally settled on the “Hot ‘n’ Tropo” which had buttermilk pancakes with chocolate ice cream, grilled bananas, walnuts, and chocolate sauce, yum!  While waiting for our food, Blake pulled out 4 chocolate Bilbys, which are the Australian’s special version of chocolate rabbits, which his mum had gotten for us as an Easter present!  What a great example of Australian hospitality J Apparently, the Bilby chocolates are going extinct, so we’re now part of the lucky few who’ve gotten to experience them!

When the pancakes (finally) arrived, I’m pretty sure all of our eyes actually popped out of our heads and our jaws dropped to the floor (imagine the cartoon-style animation upon seeing something extremely wonderful/surprising, Bugs Bunny style).  We now had huge plates of food in front of us to devour, which effectively stopped conversation for a good 10 minutes.  After our initial efforts, the pace began to slow as we reached that tricky state where you feel like one more bite might actually make you burst, but it’s just so good that you keep trying to take smaller and smaller bites to fit everything in.  I almost made it to the end of my plate, but finally realised that I might actually have to be rolled out if I took one more bite, so I ceded defeat and we all left feeling very full and much happier.

Blake was a great tour guide around the city, walking with us down to the river and across a huge bridge to an enormous Ferris wheel in the park.  We all declined a ride, as it was rather expensive and any sort of swaying motion did not seem like the best idea for our very full stomachs.  Next, he took us to an amazing market, which had so many beautiful things for sale, from dresses to jewellery to garden art to corn on the cob!  That was a surprise!  One of our few regrets from the trip is that we didn’t get more things in Brisbane, choosing instead to wait to buy our souvenirs in the other cities.  For one thing, most of the items were less expensive in Brisbane, and for another they were just plain cool.  Part of our tour took us through the “Lagoon” which is an outdoor, public swimming area which was completely decimated by all the flooding and only recently was able to open a very small section.  Too soon, it was time for Blake to catch his train for work and for us to hit the road with our newly purchased Lonely Planet guide to Australia’s east coast.  We said good bye with the promise of keeping in touch and many “thank you”s for the Bilbys and the wonderful day in the much welcome warm air and sunshine J 

One thing we noticed immediately about Australia is that the roads are not only much bigger than those in New Zealand, but they are also much more well-marked.  It was a relatively easy drive down the coast to Surfers Paradise, where we planned on spending the night and then exploring the next day.  We rolled into Surfers Paradise a little before sunset and made the rookie mistake of stopping to check out the beach before finding a campsite.  It was really pretty as the sun was starting to go down, but this left us trying to find a place to pitch our tents in the growing dark, with the added complication that everywhere in the city was completely full due to the Easter holiday.  Shoot.  We decided that the best plan would be to stop at a McDonald’s (or Macca’s, as they call them over there) to use their free internet to try to find a place to stay.  On the way, we stopped at a gas station where Sarah and I picked up a can of beans for dinner since we were still quite full from our pancakes.  We ended up eating these in the corner of the Macca’s outside seating area, feeling like homeless bums (probably because we kind of were at this point...), eating our beans out of the can with a collapsible mug and camping spork.  No camping was to be found, so we piled back in Yarrie (our pet name for our wee red vehicle) and started driving, hoping that something would present itself to us, perhaps a nice park?

We were getting rather desperate when we passed by a large church on the outskirts of town that had its outside lights on and was conveniently located next to a field, which at this point looked like the perfect camping spot.  One of our friends had camped at a church when he was travelling around the North Island, so we decided to give it a go and Kathleen and I went in to ask if we could use a small corner of their field for the night.  I’m thinking that we looked pretty desperate and sad by this point, having been travelling for quite a few hours and not having any clue what we’d gotten ourselves into, but this may have helped our case.  There was some sort of youth gathering that night, so a boy led us to the pastor who immediately consented to let us pitch our tents for the night and even offered the fenced in playground!  We were so relieved and giddy that when we got back out to Amanda and Sarah in the car we couldn’t spit out that we had a place to stay because we were laughing so hard at the ridiculousness of the whole situation.  Hauling our packs out of the car, we utilised Sarah’s headlamps and pitched our tents in a little grassy patch next to the playground equipment.  When Sarah and I crawled into our tent, we immediately realised that it was a wee bit too short when neither of us could stretch out without either our feet or heads hitting the sides.  Well, it could be worse, right? Right.  The tent could end up being a junior-sized tent from Wal-Mart which doesn’t have a cover and can’t handle the slightest amount of dew before it drips on you...  Let me just advise you: if you’ve ever considered buying a tent from Wal-Mart...don’t do it!!  However, when we were woken around 6am by the birds and full sun shining upon our little playground camp and were able to get out of our sleeping bags without freezing on the spot, we still agreed that it could definitely be worse...first full day in Oz, here we come! J