Cultural capital, country's capital and back to The Gong

At around six o'clock in the evening on a Thursday, we arrived at an empty shell of a house with missing floorboards, dust sheets up everywhere and a half complete circuit board.Why were we in this house, you might ask - were we squatting? No. We had, in fact, been invited to stay here.

Cast your mind back to the last time I was in Melbourne. A kind lady called Sara cooked dinner for Charlie and I, and told me to give her a call if I was ever in Melbourne again. Well, I gave her a call, but unfortunately her spare room was full. She tried her sister's house, but that was full as well. As a last resort, she said that we could stay in her son's house, which was being renovated (hence missing floorboards, etc.). So we arrived and settled ourselves in on the sofa beds in the dusty lounge rooms - but it was like heaven compared to sleeping in the van!

The next day, I left the other two to their own business, as I was on a mission to buy some nice clothes (everything I'd taken with me had been practically ruined over the month we'd been on the road). While I did this I took the time to look at some more of the street art, and sample the city's "best coffee" (it wasn't all that). That evening, we took the tram down to St Kilda, which had been advertised to us as one of Melbourne's trendy streets with some nice bars, but in reality it was actually the place where all the prostitutes hang out (I didn't actually notice any, I was too busy trying $5 mystery cocktails and shisha pipes).

On Saturday, we went to visit Sara (it was the least we could do since she did find us somewhere to stay). She told me that she'd be with a client in her home office (she's a big-shot lawyer) so we could just walk in, make ourselves at home and help ourselves to anything in the kitchen. Her house was big and full of leather bound books - Matt and I were very jealous. After guiltily gobbling down some cereal, we didn't really know what to do apart from sit there playing with the dog in hushed tones until Sara was finished with her client, after which she almost force fed us and drowned us in cups of tea. After we'd been speaking for a while, Sara popped out of the room and returned with a key dangling from her finger and said "by the way, we have a beach house about an hour south from here if you want to stay there for a few days?!" We were all taken aback and didn't really know what to say. Being the polite, British idiots that we are, all we could do was repeatedly say thank you over and over again. Not only did she give us access to her beach house, but she then went out and bought bags and bags of food for us to eat while we were there.

The plan for the next few days was to drive down to Philip island to see the penguin parade, then stay at the beach house in Mount Eliza for a couple of nights. We ended up leaving too late to make it to the penguin parade, so went straight to the beach house with the intention to see the penguins the following night. We never made it due to poor weather, and we just spent two days at Mount Eliza mainly playing jigsaw puzzles (Amanda and I had a race to see who could finish one first, but I did the gentlemanly thing and let her win ;) ), eating, reading and watching movies.

On our return to Melbourne, we took Sara's dog Bonnie for a walk to the war memorial, which was closed by the time we got there, but to be honest I didn't mind so much because I've really missed walking dogs!! It was also a big novelty to have a dog that fetches sticks instead of just chewing them and growling when you try to get it back. After one final night at David's house, we set off for the capital of Australia - Canberra.

It's a long drive from Melbourne to Canberra - especially when you take the long route. We did pass a cafe on the way that served excellent tea and scones, though. I'd say it made it worth it. Luckily, petrol prices had dropped by 10c per litre since we last drove anywhere. Unluckily, every time we needed to buy more petrol we were away from all civilisation, so petrol costed about 10c per litre more than everywhere else in Australia, so we ended up paying normal prices. It's still cheaper than England though. At around 11pm, we arrived at Katy's house in Canberra (I lived with Katy last semester in Wollongong) and after a quick catch up we all passed out.

In the morning, Katy took us on a whistle stop tour of the city which involved seeing old parliament house, new parliament house, the aboriginal embassy, the war memorial, and the memorial fountain (from afar). It was all very pretty, but it was a very strange city. Most cities are built as people start to live there, but I got the feeling that Canberra was built before anyone moved there. A lot of people say that it was purpose built to be the capital, and you can see why. A lot of people also hate Julia Gillard (the Australian prime minister), but when we went to see her in parliament she seemed nice enough and quite charismatic. She does keep trying to enforce silly policies though (for example, a huge carbon tax, even though one of Australia's biggest exports is coal).

The next day, we went to Questacon, the Australian science museum (come on, we do biology, chemistry and physics - we couldn't resist) where we found out that Matt has the taste buds of a non-taster but the habits of a super-taster, I have the taste buds of a super-taster and the habits of a non-taster, and Amanda was patronised by a member of staff while she assembled a model of the human body ("Do you know what the gall bladder does? Erm.. yeah I think that's right...").

We were pretty keen to sample the night life in Canberra, but apparently because uni hadn't started yet, then it would have been rubbish. Maybe one day we'll be back, but for now, it was time to come back to Wollongong. I had a great three months travelling around and living out of a very small back pack. There were high points and low points, times when I was frustrated, but also moments that I never wanted to end. I met some amazingly generous, kind, interesting and funny people along the way, as well as a few weirdos, but I'd do it all again in an instant. Most of all, this summer has inspired me to try to be that person who takes in random travellers and treats them like royalty, as so many people have done for me. A huge thank you!

This will probably be the last blog for a while, until something interesting happens in my life.. for now it's just normal university life, so until next time, thanks for reading!

Adelaide to Melbourne

On our way to Melbourne, we decided to take our time and drive along the scenic route. When we were with Marion she told us to go and see the Murray Bridge. Apparently it's spectacular and the water is super clear. I had my suspicions though, since when we were in Wakerie, the water had a distinct brown hue. Sure enough, when we were crossing the bridge the water was muddy brown, and the bridge wasn't even that impressive, it was just a bit long...

We drove along the coast through the Coorong National Park where there were lots of big birds, most of which we could identify thanks to the birds of prey show on Kangaroo Island (I do wonder if we would have even noticed them at all if we hadn't been to that show?). The highlight was seeing a bird trying to take off but being swept aside by the very strong wind, it was like something from a cartoon. We stopped for the night in a small town called Kingston SE, where we rummaged through the Aldi bins to find flavoured rice and spicy biscuits, walked along the very long pier, and played cards on our new camping chairs.

The next day we drove to Mount Gambier, which is an extinct volcano with a very blue lake in its crater (the blue lakes I saw in NZ were much more spectacular in my opinion, but Matt and Amanda seemed to be impressed). After this we drove over from South Australia to Victoria. At the state border, there was a sign that read: "DANGER! Do not bring any potatoes or potato farming equipment into Victoria!" I really didn't know what to make of it, and decided that it would be best not to tell anyone about all the dirty potato farming equipment that we had in the back.

We stayed the night in a very windy town called Portland. There wasn't exactly a buzzing night scene in Portland. We couldn't even find anywhere to get a coffee past 6pm, so we spent our evening watching Beyonce videos in McDonald's until they started cleaning up around us, at which point we went to KFC where we got free cups of tea because the tea machine was broken (best thing that could ever happen to three English travellers).

Next stop was a small town called Port Fairy, which had a lovely little cove with rock pools FULL of starfish, and an island with picturesque beaches and a lighthouse. We stayed here for a while before moving on to Tower Hill (with some minor driving drama in between that involved Amanda doing a U-turn on a highway and Matt being very stressed, while I was in the back, cool as a cucumber, not really paying much attention). Tower Hill is actually a series of craters from another old volcano, we climbed to the top to see a quite frankly boring and beige coloured landscape - the same view that we'd had for the majority of the drive, but from higher up.

Amanda looking at the bleak view from atop Tower Hill

Soon after Tower Hill we were finally onto the Great Ocean Road (after Amanda and I had visited Cheese World and got a lot of free cheese tasters of course). I'm not going to lie, for me the first half of the great ocean road wasn't all that I'd expected. The roads were pretty straight and it was littered with rock formations like caves, arches and stacks, and I feel like because I learnt how they were formed in school, it now takes a lot for one to impress me - there were, however, some beautiful beaches and there was a pretty cracking sunset at the end of the day. I would also like to point out that just before dinner, Matt and Amanda revealed their skills as bird charmers and literally had birds eating out of the palms of their hands. It was very surreal for me to watch, and very disappointing when I discovered that I was not some kind of bird whisperer too...

The following morning, the "great ocean road" took us away from the ocean and into a rainforest. This is where the drive got interesting with winding roads and steep hills, though Matt and I both thought that the drive would have been much better if the van had a manual gear box. We saw a sign for a lighthouse, so thought we'd check it out. It turns out that it was a ridiculous amount of money to go and see it so we didn't bother, but it was SO, SO, SO worth taking that turn because we had our first close encounter with wild koalas! There were about eight koalas in this one tree, and one of them was about half a metre away from me when I stretched my arm out towards it! I could have stayed there watching it not do anything (all they do is eat and sleep) for hours, but alas we moved on - if we hadn't we wouldn't have seen the unsuccessful attempt of a man llama trying to mount a lady llama next to a goat that thought it was a llama. Poor little guy.

After this, we stopped for lunch in a small beach town called Apollo bay, which had warm water but the sea was full of seaweed which made swimming difficult and unpleasant. From here, the view from the road really was amazing. The sky was bright blue, the ocean was even bluer, and it was right next to the meandering road. It was great fun to drive, going slightly too fast around the corners to see what the van could do (but mum and dad if you're reading this, I slowed right down, almost to a stop, for every corner). This brought us to the end of the great ocean road, and a couple of hours later we were in Melbourne!

Christmas down under

So, getting back into Australia was a little bit harder than I had anticipated. Customs and immigration in Australia are notoriously strict, so there were a couple of things that caused a slight delay after I got off the plane in Melbourne.

Firstly, Australian customs officers don't take kindly to passports that have been wet. Unfortunately, when I did the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, since the weather was so bad, the rain seeped into my bag and got everything wet. Including my passport. This caused important things like stamps, ink, and the photo to become slightly less clear. The woman in New Zealand said that it was fine because the electronic chip could still be read, but did warn me that "Australia won't like that..." She was right.

When I got to customs, I was subject to a lengthy interview where I was required to tell the interviewer exactly where I would be at all times for the rest of the duration of my stay. Since I don't have much of a fully formed plan, I obviously couldn't tell her and managed to fumble my way though by saying I will be in Wollongong between February and July studying. She then asked what subject codes I would be taking and which lecturers would take my classes - as if she would know who they were anyway!

After eventually clearing customs, I was made to then go and wait in line to be checked out by immigration since I was wearing my hiking boots. I decided, to avoid hassle and save time, to not tell them about my week shovelling shit at the Gubb's place, and said that my boots were only dirty because I'd been hiking. I realise that this is naughty, but I was not in the mood to be rejected entry into a country.

A full two and a half hours after landing, I escaped from the airport and was on the bus into Melbourne. After settling down into the hostel room, Charlie came to meet me, and we explored the city's shops to try and find Flic a Christmas present (she was having us over for Christmas day after all!). This proved to be more difficult than we expected - especially when we'd literally just bought her a DVD box set of Misfits (a British TV show) when Charlie received a text saying "I just downloaded all of Misfits! It's so good!" ... At least we knew we'd made a good choice, even if it did then have to be returned!

That evening, the wonderfully generous Sara and her son Dave had me over for tea. Sara lives in Melbourne, but met Charlie's dad while travelling through Peru a long time ago, and so Charlie was staying with her. As well as showering Charlie with gifts and affection, when Charlie mentioned that she had a friend (me) in town, Sara invited me over to enjoy a roast chicken with the three of them. It was delicious, and definitely a welcome break from the pasta and tuna diet I'd been surviving on in New Zealand!

The next day, Charlie got the train to Albury to go to Flic's house, but I stayed in Melbourne for a day longer so that I would have a chance to take in the sights and soak up the atmosphere. I really did enjoy it. I don't know if it's like this all year round, or if it was just because it was Christmas time but there was a really creative atmosphere in the city, with street performers or artists on every street corner. Everywhere I looked, I saw interesting architecture or a statue, and on top of this, everyone seemed friendly and willing to help. At one point, I was obviously looking lost, staring blankly at a map when a business man stopped, asked me where I was going, and even walked me most of the way to where I wanted to go while we had a full on chat about my travels (in the UK, businessmen are notoriously grumpy and in a rush, so I was a little taken aback by his kindness)! I usually say that I would never like to live in the middle of a city, but I think this is the exception to my rule.

After two days, that went by incredibly quickly, I was on my way to Albury to spend Christmas with Flic and the rest of the Treloar family. As I predicted, Flic and Charlie were late picking me up from the station (it turns out that they took a wrong turn and got lost in the bush) so I decided to sit and read my book. It was so hot, that even this was making me break out in a sweat! Eventually they arrived and we were soon back at her house which, thank God, has air conditioning. We lazed by the pool and were later provided with enough food to feed Africa for at least three days! This became a recurring theme for the days running up to Christmas day.

On Christmas, we exchanged gifts, drank beer, and ate enough food to keep us full for a good while, and then some more after that. It was pretty similar to my normal Christmas traditions, with added "shrimps on the barbie" - although whenever we called them shrimps, Nick shouted at us and told us to call them prawns (technically correct). The weather on Christmas day itself was not great - it rained all day - but it could have been a lot worse - I could have been in Stockport!

The next day, Nick drove us all back to Wollongong where, since then, I have been frantically trying to find a fruit picking job. Tomorrow morning I will arrive in Adelaide, regardless of whether or not I have found a job yet, and we shall see what happens from there! My instincts are telling me that this is not a good plan, but I'm sure it will work itself out - it usually does!