Long overdue update

So, about two months ago, Matt, Amanda and I arrived back to Wollongong (after a treacherous drive down a mountain with very sharp turns in the dark while it was raining and foggy) where we were greeted by a small gathering of the people who also lived here last session and had come back for more. We spent a few hours regaling them with our tales of radiators replacement, beach house borrowing and koala encounters before we all went back to our new rooms and tried to settle in.

So this semester, I've been pretty broke, and so it hasn't been too eventful. Here is a quick run down of some of the major occurrences

• We went to a pool party where I almost gave Charlie concussion, but she was fine

• Noor made a surprise reappearance and announced that he'd be here for at least one more semester

• I've been going to the beach A LOT, but forgot to moisturise my forehead, so it peeled

• I decided to take on a research project that dominates the latter end of my week

• KB residents went on a pub crawl where everyone had to wear orange and I got kicked by a member of the bar staff in one of the pubs

• We had a formal dinner with a 50's theme

• I saw The Blanks (Ted from Scrubs' band!) at Unibar - they were awesome

• I got a job as a dish pig / kitchen hand. I regularly come home with blisters from over-chopping
• I had to use my first two weeks' wages paying for the fine I got for driving an unregistered vehicle...
• I have a new found love of my friends' band The Omissions 

• I became one of the members of the 4am club (where we stay up until 4am watching movies and being nuisances) but I may have to retire soon, it's making me late for all my classes
• We discovered the magic of 24 hour shops such as K-Mart and McDonnalds

• I've embarrassed myself singing along to Beyonce a lot of times
• We ate pancakes IN A FORT!

• I beat Amanda in a sumo wrestling challenge. She never even had a chance (I let her win one round so that we could have a longer go...)

That's all I can think of for now. Next week is the Easter break, but I don't have anything planned yet - maybe something exciting will happen, maybe not, but it all depends on when I'm working - hopefully a few days in Canberra/Sydney are on the cards :)

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!

Kangaroo Island

So at the end of the last blog entry, Amanda, Matt and I had just arrived back in Adelaide, and since Jenny had no room for us this time around, we decided to stay with Marion (the Buddhist hippy from last time). And then began our search for a car to get us back to Wollongong. Marion told us about a van she’d seen for just $500! We went to have a look at it, and the guy who was selling it told us outright that it was a piece of crap and that it was so cheap because he just wanted to get rid of it (he used to use it as a camper van but he’d just bought a $10,000 Winnebago). He clearly didn’t need the money, so we thought he might be legit. We took it for a test drive and it seemed mechanically sound, so we bought it, called it Reggie, and hoped that this deal wouldn't turn out to be too good to be true. He even threw in a tent, sleeping bag, road atlas, bottle of wine and some beer!

We couldn't see Jenny again until Sunday, since she was working nights, and her husband Mark was working days, but when we bought the Reggie, it was only Tuesday. We didn't really want to stay in Adelaide for all that time, because it's a tiny city compared to most, and we'd already seen a lot of it, so we decided to spend a few nights on the nearby Kangaroo Island. We booked our ferries and that night we were there! Arriving in the small town of Penneshaw (although for Kangaroo Island - KI - it was a big city) we saw that after sunset small penguins come to the beach after a day of catching fish. We stayed there hoping to see an army of penguins coming onto the sand, but sadly they didn't show up. Disappointed, we drove along the south coast looking for somewhere to stay. I was driving, but I'd left my glasses at Jenny's house so very nearly ran over half the island's population of kangaroos! It got to about midnight and I was too tired to drive any more, and too scared of hitting wildlife, so we pulled over near a B&B and slept in the van.

The next day we got up early and got away from the B&B before they noticed us and went for a walk next to a lagoon. We were hoping for a nice little swim, but it was a protected area, and the water didn't look that nice anyway. When we got back, we had a nice, healthy breakfast of doritos and tinned spaghetti before heading further along the coast. We found a café where we stopped to have tea when a galah wondered over to us and let us stroke it before biting my finger. A man with a strange beard came and picked it up, fed it some milkshake and told us about a raptor show that would start in about an hour. We thought we may as well go along since we had nothing better to do. It was really interesting learning about these birds of prey, how their habits differed and where we could see wild ones.

We'd picked up a leaflet with adventure activities, and if you're a regular follower of this blog, then you will know that this will have instantly appealed to me! That afternoon, we tried sand surfing for the first time in the island's "little Sahara" desert. At first, we were all pretty crap to be honest, but we soon got the hang of it. I was surprised I could do it, considering I can barely balance on a skateboard, and could only stand up for about half a second on a surf board, but I feel like by the time we had to hand the boards back, I was pretty good (as in, I could get down the dune without falling over...). The only bad thing about this experience was that we had to walk back up the dunes with the boards if we wanted to go again. I think this was the biggest workout I've had since I left Wollongong. We were too exhausted to do anything after climbing up the dunes so many times, so we found a nice little spot by the river and played cards until we couldn't see any more and went to bed.

Friday started with a four hour kayak session up and down the river, which was fun - especially when we fell out (trying to get back in was the best part, mainly for the amusement of the people still in their boats), and after this we went to the Kelly Hill caves, which is a very (geologically) young limestone cave, at a mere 2 million years old. Despite its young age, it still had hundreds of interesting cave formations like stalactites, stalagmites and apparently gravity defying helictites (one I'd never heard of before, and they are still an unexplained phenomenon). As we drove further along the coast, we saw a sign for a koala walk where we were "guaranteed to see koalas" so of course we had to go and do it. Sure enough, we saw a fair few of them, along with kangaroos and the rare KI echidna (an echidna is like a hedgehog crossed with a porcupine but with a long nose).

Even when we'd finished gawping at the adorable Australian fauna, there was still another three hours until sunset, so we drove further still along the south coast (this island is a lot bigger than we thought it would be) to the "Remarkable Rocks" - which did actually live up to their name, with an interesting story about their formation and the way they had been shaped by erosion. They were made better by the fact that it was so late and no one else was there.

Saturday, our last day on the island, started at the nearby Admiral's Arch, where a colony of New Zealand fur seals made their home. We watched for a while as they lazed on the rocks, and some of the males play-fought, and we spotted a pup that had either lost its mum or had been rejected. It was heart breaking to watch it go from female to female trying to get some attention, but there wasn't much we could really do, so we just left. We then went to seal bay to see some more seals - Australian fur seals this time. Amanda and I took the guided tour so that we could go onto the beach, get close up, and hear some facts from the guide. Here is one of the facts: once females mature, they are impregnated for eighteen months, and eight days later are impregnated again, so they are constantly pregnant and breast feeding. I feel like I know a few people like this from school.

To break up the drive back to the ferry port, we decided to stop off wherever sounded interesting. We ended up going to a sheep dairy farm to sample some sheep's milk cheese and yoghurt (actually quite nice) at a distillery and a winery where we sampled some posh spirits, wines and walnuts (laced with limoncello). When we got back to Penneshaw, we went for a dip in the crystal clear ocean while we waited for the ferry and reflected on the great few days that we'd had.

But then, on the drive back to Adelaide, disaster struck. The temperature gage suddenly kept getting higher and higher, forcing us to pull over at what I thought was a garage (it was actually a house) where three helpful men (real men, that knew about cars, not like Matt and me) gave us some water for the radiator and made us at ease by talking to us and telling us that they didn't think it would be too bad. After a while, we set off again, but not long after, the temp rose again. When we turned the engine off we could hear the water in the radiator boiling - it was REALLY hot. We stopped again to let it cool down and set off again. Reggie seemed to run fine and managed to get us back to the city, but when we turned the engine off this time, it kind of spluttered and coughed before it went silent and revealed plumes of smoke coming from the engine.

The next day, Reggie wouldn't start. Definitely bad times. We were stuck in Adelaide. Luckily we'd booked him in with the mechanic on Tuesday (the lazy sod didn't work Saturday, Sunday or Monday, but he was recommended to us by Marion). All we can do now is await his verdict. We hope you get better soon Reggie!

Santa Costume Wearing, Knife Making and Glacier Climbing

After my soggy accent to the top of Mt Doom, I stuck around the hostel for a while, playing board games, watching (aka, falling asleep in front of) films, and massaging my aching calf muscles before my bus departed from Turangi at 1.45AM. I got to the bus stop early so that I could look at the stars in the cloudless sky. They were just so beautiful because the level of light pollution was so low, and the air is so clear over here. A five hour bus journey then ensued which took me to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.

When I got there at 6.30AM, there was very little to do, so I resorted to having a McDonald's breakfast and falling asleep in the corner for an hour, after which, I went over to the Houses of Parliament. Oddly enough, there was a troop of people wearing Santa costumes. Confused as to what they were doing at this time, dressed in this way, I went over to ask what was going on. It turns out they were promoting a fun run (where you had to dress as Santa to take part. Much less exciting that I thought - I thought there would be some sort of protest) that was going to occur later in the day, and that the news team from Channel One was going to be there shortly. I was bored, and it was still two hours before anything in Wellington opened up, so I decided to ask if I could join in, and sure enough, there was a spare Santa outfit lying around. I put it on and tried my hardest to make myself look presentable for television after two weeks of living out of a backpack (although the only parts of me that were visible were my eyes and nose anyway). It's a good job smellavision hasn't been invented yet. Just saying.

When the news team arrived, we did a very cheesy Rocky-style running up and down the set of stairs outside parliament building, occasionally throwing a few punches into mid air while trying to hide our laughter with our fake beards. At the end of the clip, we all ran into the distance and for some reason we were told to stop and wiggle our bottoms every so often. And this is the start of my career as an international superstar, but I'm sure that will be a story for another day.

After this I headed over to New Zealand's biggest museum - Te papa (Mauri for 'our place'). It was actually a really good museum, with lots of interactive installments so that children (and child-like people like me) don't get bored, and they did a good job of explaining Mauri culture and the science behind the earthquake in Christchurch. Shortly after this I went to catch a ferry over to the South Island. Strangely enough, I ran into a man called Kevin. I met Kevin the day before on the shuttle bus to the start of the Alpine crossing, so we spent most of the ferry journey contemplating travel plans for the south, and exchanging stories of travels so far. We decided that we'd part ways when we the boat landed in Picton, but exchanged details because it looked like we'd have pretty similar plans after a few days. A nearby girl called Julia overheard our conversation and decided to come and talk to us, she said she was going to try and hitch hike around for a while but she was nervous because she'd never done it before. Since we were heading the same way, I said I'd go with her - and so, I had a new travel companion, Julia from Wellington.

Julia and I with a hippy lady that gave us a lift

Even though we didn't start until 5pm, it was still surprisingly easy to get a lift! We got picked up three times and were in Nelson that night. There wasn't a lot there. I think it's just a place to stop off on the way to the west coast or to the Abel-Tasman reserve (which I was gutted that I didn't have time to visit). Julia had a friend in Nelson, who was supposed to hook us both up with free accommodation for the night, but the parents are super strict Christians and were opposed to a boy sleeping in the house, so Julia and I parted ways, after a shot but sweet four hours of companionship.

I reluctantly stayed in a hostel that night after the offer of a free place to stay was cruelly snatched from right in front of my face, but its a good job I did, because one of the guys I got chatting to said that he'd hired a car and was heading over to the west coast, so kindly offered to take me to Westport - the top of the west coast of New Zealand's South Island. On all of the maps, Westport looks like a major city with heaps of things to see in do. In reality there is one road with shops on it, and a beach which takes 45 minutes to get to where the water is too cold to swim.

It didn't take long to get bored of Westport, and so the next day, I hitched a lift out of there, and began my journey down the coast. I'd heard that the drive between Westport and Greymouth was meant to be amazing, with beautiful scenery and winding roads. This was enhanced by the guy who picked me up. A retired English man who has fallen in love with New Zealand and just can't stop coming back, called John. I had a great time in John's car - mainly because he seemed fascinated by everything I said. We talked about science, and he was keen to ask me lots of questions about the chemistry and geology of the world. I did my best to answer his questions accurately, but remembering those geology lessons from five years ago was a bit of a struggle, so I must admit that some of my answers were slightly on the fictional side. I think I got away with it though. Since he was a tourist as well, we stopped off at the pancake rocks (rocks that look like stacks of thick pancakes) and he even bought me a pot of tea and some chips. When we got to my next destination of Barrytown, I discovered that the hostel there had been closed down, so John even offered to take me to the nearest hostel, which involved going back on ourselves. It was a shame to part company with John, since he was such a kind, generous and interesting man, but I suppose that is the way of a hitch hiker!

That night I stayed in the Punakaiki Beach hostel. Obviously I'm not going to bore you all with the details of every hostel I stay in, but this one was just great. It sits right on a a quiet beach where you can just walk up and down collecting jade stone and with a backdrop of the southern Alpine mountain range. That evening, I sat and watched the sun set over the sea, and it was the most vibrantly red sunset I'd ever seen. Everything about this place was beautiful, and I kind of didn't want to leave, but the next day I set off, back to Barrytown, where I spent the day making a knife. From scratch. And by coincidence, Kevin was there too!

We started with a piece of steel, a plank of wood, some brass and a length of metal. Steven, the man who took the course, showed us some of the finished products, and we all thought the same thing: how on earth are we going to turn these things into one of those?! It was a long day of hammering, grinding, sanding and and sawing, but sure enough, at the end of the day, we all ended up with beautiful knives! We finished the day with a glass of Barrypagne (boxed wine from Barry passed through a soda stream), and Kevin and I continued down the west coast towards the Franz-Joseph glacier. The west coast is very sparsely populated, so there was very little traffic. We managed to get 20km away from the glacier that night, but ended up having to sleep in Kevin's tent on the side of the road because the sun had set and we were both exhausted from walking 10km from our last drop off point. Luckily, when we woke up the next morning at about 6.30, I managed to hitch us a lift in the first car that passed us! We went to drop off our bags in a hostel, and spent the rest of the day hiking up the Franz-Joseph glacier, apparently the world's steepest and fastest flowing commercially guided glacier.

It was a sunny day for the most part, which really made the blue ice on the glacier stand out. I'm aware that I overuse these words a lot in these blogs, but it looked amazing and beautiful. The pictures don't really capture it, but they never do... Sadly, the ice is melting at such a fast rate that they think that pretty soon the glacier won't be there, so if you want to have a look for yourself, then I'd do it in the next few years! After the eight hour glacier walk, Kevin and I went to the local hot pools (included in the price of the glacier walk - result!) and stayed long enough to sooth our aching muscles and wrinkle our skin.

The next morning, we got up early to try and hitch a ride to the infamous adventure capital of New Zealand - Queenstown. We stood on the side of the road for about half an hour, but only two or three cars even drove past... It was a hopeless cause, so we just got on the Intercity bus and paid our way there. Finally I was here. This is the place I'd been most looking forward to for my entire trip. Adventure ensued.