My Apartment is Infested With Koala Bears

Sy-de-ney!

2007-12-29T21:40:00.000+10:30

Sorry I haven't posted in a while; it's been really hectic with my parents and Emily here!

We have all been having an amazing time. I made it into Sydney on the 23rd after a 16-hour bus ride from Surfers Paradise and had a whole day to explore. Instead, I pretty much just enjoyed staying in a real hotel with a real bed and my own bathroom and no cockroaches (at least that I could see). I did go to Hyde Park and explored the shopping area, but other than that I wasn't really very exciting.

The next day I surprised my family at the airport, and after dropping the stuff off at the hotel we immediately headed out to see some of the city. It reminded me very much of New York, and it was definitely the biggest and most 'real' city of all the Australian cities I've been to. I apologise if this makes no sense; I am le tired.

We went to the shopping district I went to my first day, and then we walked to the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. The Opera House is so amazing to see and it never gets old. We went on a cruise around the harbour and saw some beautiful suburbs in North Sydney, and when we got back we went on a walk through the botanic gardens and saw heaps of cockatoos, lorikeets, and flying foxes.

The next day (Merry Christmas everyone!) we went to the Taronga Zoo and spent our time visiting all the Australian animals. We saw a keeper give a presentation on spiders and he was very funny and awesome. We also saw a platypus, which was very exciting because they are the cutest animals in the world. And as if they weren't cute enough, baby platypi (and echidnas) are called 'puggles'. Awwww!

The next three days are a bit of a blur. We crossed the Harbour Bridge and saw the yachts heading out of the harbour for the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, explored some beautiful suburbs, went to the Australian Museum, and lazed around Bondi Beach. Mom, Dad and I even saw a presentation of the Australian Symphony Orchestra inside the Opera House. It was a compilation of various operas and the singing and playing was fantastic. The concert hall was just gorgeous and the acoustics were incredible. Here are some pictures of the race; Bondi pictures (and an illegal picture of the inside of the Opera House) to be had tomorrow!

Today we left Sydney early to head to the Blue Mountains. We stopped off at a wildlife park where Mom, Dad, and Emily got to pet a koala and feed the kangaroos. We arrived here in Katoomba in the early afternoon, and after seeing the Three Sisters rock formation we had dinner (where Dad and Emily got to eat kangaroo) and now we are back at the hotel. The place we are staying in has a very 'Shining' feel to it, and I am not entirely sure how I feel about it.

Sorry this was so brief; a lot happened in the past week and I have been terrible at keeping this updated. I promise I will be better now that we are in the Blue Mountains and I have internet access in my room :P

Gold Coast

2007-12-21T09:36:00.000+10:30

Well, I am now in Surfers Paradise, an hour and a half south of Brisbane. I have actually been here for three days now, after an 18 1/2 hour bus ride from Airlie Beach.

Surfers Paradise reminds me of pictures I've seen of Miami Beach; the buildings and skyscrapers come right to the edge of the sand. I'm staying in a backpackers about 500 m from the city centre, and to get there I walk along the beach which is just down the street. The beach is amazing: the sand is soft and white, the water is warm, the waves are big and my hostel rents boogie boards for free. The weather has been a little cloudy, but this has not kept me off the beach.

The centre of the city is filled with shopping, most in the form of bikinis, board shorts, and surfboards, with a Tiffany's or Louis Vuitton popping up unexpectedly. There are also a LOT of restaurants to choose from, and I have had some really good Thai and Indian while here, but the little sandwich shops and cafes are good, too. No wonder I weigh 3000 pounds!

There is a big Christmas tree up in the centre of the pedestrian area, and it has seashells on it as well as more traditional ornaments. There are white faerie lights strung up everywhere, too, but it's weird to try and get into the holiday spirit when everyone is coming off the beach in their swimmers and heading straight for the air-conditioning.

Not to say that it's really hot here; it's actually been pleasantly hovering around the upper 70s lower 80s (I think... my Celsius to Fahrenheit conversions are still lacking, although I can pretty easily think in terms of Celsius at this point). This is awesome considering Cairns and Airlie Beach regularly reached into the 90s and had the added bonus of humidity.

So I have pretty much just been enjoying myself on the beach and shopping around here. No big tours, hikes, or adventurous activities for me. I *am* going to Dreamworld soon, one of the Gold Coast's many amusement parks. So I will end up getting my adrenaline in this trip, but afterwards I look forward to coming back and sitting in a chair at a local restaurant called 'Sushi Train', where the sushi actually comes to visit you on a conveyor belt and you choose which one you want. Sounds good to me.

Whitsunday Islands

2007-12-16T17:25:00.000+10:30

Sailing the Whitsundays was an awesome experience. I went out in the tall ship 'Romance', and the people were pretty fun. We started our first day slow and relaxed, heading out to anchor near Whitsunday Island. We saw a bunch of sea turtles on the surface, coming up for air.

When we woke up in the morning, our first stop was Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. We did a short hike to the top of a lookout to see the swirling silica sands. Super!

Then we were all hot and sweaty and just wanted to go in the water. We went down to the beach and the sand was so fine that it made a squeaky noise when you walked across it. Unfortunately there are deadly jellyfish in the water here, so before we went in we had to wear stinger suits (a full-body wetsuit, but lighter weight), hoods, and gloves. It was like we were ninjas on a secret mission in the ocean. The water was incredibly warm and beautiful, and it was one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen.

After the beach, it was time for our first dive! This is our ship from afar, the Romance. Its flag was a smiley face. Awww. Those nets at the front were my favourite place; I hung out there a LOT at night and when the boat was anchored.

Our first dive was pretty cool, but I didn't take my camera so unfortunately I have no pictures :( We saw a turtle eating a big jellyfish known as a 'Snotty' because they are squishy-looking and gross. Their sting is only mildly painful, as opposed to deadly, which kind of sucks because they are actually big enough to see and avoid, whereas the ones that will kill you dead in twenty minutes are the size of your pinky nail.

Anyway, the turtle was just floating there, taking lazy bites from the jellyfish, and occasionally lifting up a flipper to spin it around to a less-eaten area. It was really cool to see.

After our dives and snorkels we headed out again to where we were anchoring for the night. We all donned our ninja outfits and did some jumps off the mast, which was terrifying but a lot of fun. It was after this that I went on a night dive! It was awesome, especially because we saw big grouper (fish the size of me) hunting smaller fish, and when it ate them you could hear its jaws clamp shut. We also saw lots of crabs and prawns, and various big-eyed spiky night time fishies. We also sat on the sand, turned off our lights, and waved our hands in the black water. This agitated the phosphorescent plankton, who briefly lit up bright green. We were spelling things in the water with them, like sparklers.

The best thing about the night dive, though, was surfacing and seeing the sky completely full of stars.

Then, a party happened.

Later that night, we heard a big scuffle in the water and ran over to see a bunch of sharks swimming around in the moonlight. That morning we found lots of squid on our boat; they had jumped out of the water to try and escape and had landed on the deck by mistake. There was also squid ink all on the sides of the boat, as well.

This morning we went on our last dive, which I think was our best. The corals were really amazing and we went through what is called 'the maze', a passageway of channels and caves that housed amazing corals and awesome fish. I took some pictures this time! Sorry for the quality and size; the actual pictures look much better (especially the colours) and I accidentally resized them too small.

First of all, I can't post without showing you that I found some Nemos.

One of the channels we swam through (that's my buddy ahead of me, not wearing a hood and potentially being STUNG ON THE FACE by an irukandji).

Can you find the Nemo in this picture? He was a very dark, almost blood-red colour.

A Maori wrasse. This fish is as big as me!

Fish attack!

Empty giant clam shell.

Living (but small) giant clam! All of them were different colours, from this electric blue to deep, almost black purple.

Flat corals.

Batfish!
Parrot fish!
Well, that's it! I'm in Airlie Beach now for the evening, and tomorrow I am headed to Surfers Paradise, where I'm meeting up with a good friend and we will have many fun adventures, I hope. The end!

Sorry, Mom.

2007-12-13T13:59:00.001+10:30

Did a little more diving in Cairns...

My name is James Cook, and I will whine all around Australia.

2007-12-13T00:25:00.000+10:30

I spent the last two days up at Cape Tribulation, so called because Captain James Cook had a lot of trouble with his boat and basically went on a whinging spree down the coast. The area also contains Mt. Sorrow, Cape Fear, etc. He was so angry!

Anyway, Cape Tribulation is the home to the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest continuous rainforest in the world. We stopped at a wildlife sanctuary and got to see a cassowary. These are the largest land animals in Australia, and this one is only half as big as they get.

Cassowaries are rare in the wild, and their biggest threat is cars. There are speed bumps everywhere to keep cars slow. The drive up was beautiful, and when we got there I promptly fell asleep for two hours because apparently I have not slept enough.

I woke up that evening to go on a guided night forest walk. We saw lots of spiders and centipedes and katydids and crickets, as well as possums and treefrogs and mountain dragons (big lizards that sleep on trees).

Bufos! Unfortunately, Cane Toads are a huge pest and are found EVERYWHERE. They’re still cute, though.

This morning was very relaxing. I got up late (8:30!) and went on a walk along the beach and into the forest. You can’t even put your feet in the water because there are deadly jellyfish everywhere this time of year. You get to the beach through a mangrove forest filled with walking trees. These trees can move up to 3cm each year by stretching out their roots.

On the beach and through the mangroves there were lots of little crabs. My favourites are the ones that dig by making little balls of sand as they move downwards. When the tide is out, the sand is covered with them.

I saw two huge monitor lizards on the way back from my rainforest walk. They were so pretty, big lizards with giant claws and yellow spots.

The walking trees.

Afterwards, I just hung out by the pool until the bus came to take us back. We stopped for some exotic fruit ice cream, and then went on a boat cruise. This was one of the most awesome things I did in the Daintree. We saw a big croc under the water, and some little yearlings hanging out on the banks.

Apparently, fruit bats grow from trees?

White lipped tree frogs are the cutest things ever in the world. I know I say that a lot, but I’m serious this time.

Here are five in a row. Awww.

Then we just headed back to Cairns, and I met up with a bunch of people afterwards for a big barbecue on the Esplanade by the water. It was very nice and a great way to end the day.

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEF

2007-12-13T00:22:00.000+10:30

I have concluded that the worst place in the world to learn how to dive is the Great Barrier Reef.

This is because the second you descend underwater, you are surrounded by incredibly colourful fish and corals and you just want to look at everything, but instead you have to kneel in a stupid semi-circle underwater and take off your mask a lot. We still did manage to see heaps, though. These huge fish kept swimming around us to check us out and they loved our bubbles. They would lie on their sides and let the bubbles hit them; I think they liked the tickling. There was one particularly large one that would just sit in the middle of our circle, and the dive instructor had to keep pushing him away. If you have never seen someone try to push a fish, it is quite humorous.

We were also interrupted once by a sea turtle that came into our semi-circle and did the Turtle Dance, where they present their shell to you and look over their ‘shoulders’. He would not leave until we had all scratched his shell. HOW CUTE.

We also saw giant clams, sting rays, and lots and lots of incredibly colourful corals and anemones and, of course, clownfish. On the boat they don’t even call them clown fish anymore; we would get back on deck and they would ask us if we had seen any ‘Nemos’.

Living on the boat was a great experience. It was awesome being surrounded by the reef. We saw lots of dolphins and every once in a while someone would yell ‘TURTLE’ and we would all crowd on the side to see a sea turtle coming up for air. It was also amazing to get back on deck and hear people talk excitedly about their dives and what they saw and did. It is so easy to sleep on a boat, too. The stars were amazing out there.

The only thing that wasn’t so fun was a dive at 6 AM, but once we got into the water it didn’t matter that we had to wake up at 5:30 because we saw so much, plus the sunrise over the water was awesome. Puffer fish, angel fish, triggerfish, sharks, corals, anemones… it was just so cool. And now I am officially a certified diver! I plan on doing some more dives on the Reef when I go sailing the Whitsundays in a week.

School??

2007-12-08T18:32:00.000+10:30

I am now in Cairns, and although the first day I got here it was ridiculously hot and humid and I kept getting lost, the weather has cooled down some and now it is actually relatively pleasant, if still a bit warm.

I am staying right on the Esplanade, which is a boardwalk overlooking mud flats. Not too exciting, if you don't count the AMAZING BIRD LIFE. Lots of spoonbills, sandpipers of various sorts, egrets, herons, and gigantic Australian Pelicans (like the one in Finding Nemo). There is even a Jabiru (a huge stork taller than I am) wandering out there every once in a while. Sometimes, crocodiles show up. On the other side of the boardwalk are green lawns and a little further down is a huuuge public swimming area which is really nice. Tonight when I was having dinner there was a live band playing on the grass and a bunch of people sitting around on beach towels. Awww.

So I haven't written much because the past two days have just been spent in Scuba school, doing stupid theory and pool stuff that I've done twice now. I'm so ready to just get out on the reef and go diving, which I will be doing tomorrow!!! WOO!! I will post pictures when I get back.

Devils devils devils!

2007-12-05T10:52:00.000+10:30

Today we did a walking tour of Port Arthur in the daytime. Port Arthur is one of the most infamous prisons in Australia, but the tour to tell the truth was kind of boring. The best part was that the guide looked a little bit like Colonel Sanders in a beret. We had a lot of fun together as a group, though, especially on the harbour cruise.

After Port Arthur, we were all excited to go to a wildlife park to see the Tasmanian Devils. These guys are disappearing at a shocking rate in the wild due to Devil Facial Tumour Disease, which is like an infectious cancer that causes facial tumours and death. Their wild population has fallen by something like 90% in just ten years. Fortunately, these devils seem to have a gene that makes them resistant to the tumours, and there is a breeding program in place. This is awesome, because they are just SO CUTE ALL THE TIME.

But first we met Oscar, a Tawny Frogmouth. The reason for the name is fairly obvious, I think. Also: coolest face ever? Perhaps!

SO CUTE. Also, that is not a ferocious growl, but a yawn because devils are sleepy. Check out the size of their heads! Their jaw pressure is only slightly less than that of a crocodile.

Being a devil is hard work, you know.

Then they were fed a bit of wallaby. That crunching sound you hear is them chewing through the bones. They eat everything: bones, fur, hooves... you can also see that their ears are all red, which happens when they get excited.

There was also kangaroo and wallaby feeding, which is always fun. All the wallabies had little joeys too; awww! They would get spooked occasionally and hop away, and the babies would be stuck with like their head or an arm or leg hanging out of the pouch. No wonder kangaroos are so dumb; they probably suffer brain damage.

My eyes are closed because that is the most awesome way to take pictures.

After the wildlife park it was back to Hobart. I went out for dinner with the people from the tour, and then we went out for a drink afterwards. I was sooo sad to say goodbye to them, but a few are going to be in Sydney when I'm there, so hopefully we'll be able to meet up again.

Now I'm off to Cairns tonight to finally get my diving certification. Woo!

Wineglass Bay

2007-12-05T10:43:00.000+10:30

Today was one of the best days I have ever had in Australia ever. We left Bicheno in the morning and headed to Wineglass Bay. A bunch of people from my group and I hiked up Mt. Amos, making this the second peak I climbed in three days. A lot of it was vertical scramble up rocks; my calves were killing me by the end. It was worth it, though: when we first reached the top the bay was covered in thick clouds, but after about ten minutes they cleared and the bay became visible. It was awesome. I will demonstrate with lots of pictures.

This is the beach we swam in at the end of the hike. The peak we were on is the one covered in clouds.

That evening a few friends and I went on a ghost tour of Port Arthur. It was a lot of fun, except when Matt kept scaring me and Anna on purpose, which was totally not funny at all. Afterwards we all got our 'I survived the ghost tour' certificates signed with names from Lord of the Rings, and the tour guide asked Gandalf if his name was spelled with a G, which kind of made our night because we are dorks.

Bay of Fires, or: More Penguins?

2007-12-05T10:35:00.000+10:30

Ah, a nice quiet day. It was great to relax after all our activity. We left Devonport that morning and headed across the state to Bay of Fires. Bay of Fires is a long curve of white sand broken up by granite rocks stretching into the turquoise water. Although the beach was lined with bluebottles and the water was cold, a few friends and I ran into the waves anyway.

After Bay of Fires we went to our beach house in Bicheno, a very small town on the water. That evening we went to go see little penguins. Now, I know I have seen little penguins twice before. But when you are offered the opportunity to go see little penguins, would you ever say no, thank you, I’ve already seen enough little penguins? No, because you can never see enough little penguins. It's not physically possible.

Cradle Mountain

2007-12-05T10:27:00.000+10:30

This is where I left off, I think. We woke up at 5:30 in the morning to go canoeing on the lake outside of the lodge. The water was very still and reflected the surrounding mountains and eucalypts almost perfectly. We didn’t see a platypus, though, which was a bit disappointing.

After breakfast we headed off to Cradle Mountain, one of the most famous peaks in Tassie. A group of the guys decided to climb the summit, and the rest of us opted for a guided hike around Dove Lake and through Twisted Lakes. This turned out to be a good thing, because the guys got to the peak and decided to get naked, because boys are dumb. We did get to hike our own peak, Hanson’s Peak, which was awesome because at one point we had to scramble up a vertical rock face using a chain. The views, of course, were awesome all around.

The peak conquered, we headed off around the lakes for an easy 6 km hike and ate overlooking the water.

All of us were exhausted after our hikes and were happy to reach Devonport that evening. The house we were staying in had great views of the river and a pool table downstairs. The night was a lot of fun and I loooove the people I'm with.

Tassie Tour Days 1 and 2

2007-12-01T22:58:00.000+10:30

Hey everyone,

I am currently in Devonport and stealing internet. I do not know how long I will have, so I will just post text of the past two days and pictures sometime later. I'm also not posting all the stuff I did today, either, even though it was awesome. I just don't have the time right now.

Day 1:

Well, today was the first day of my Tasmania tour. I was picked up at six in the morning from the hostel and after picking everyone up we headed for Strahan.

Along the way, we stopped for a quick hike through incredibly tall eucalyptus trees. There were small wallabies known as pademelons hopping around everywhere. After a short while we came to a small waterfall, and then followed the river until it dropped off dramatically. Hiking to the bottom, we found ourselves at the base of an incredible waterfall. It was beautiful and perfect.

We continued driving on and stopped off for another hike around part of Lake St. Clair along the very end of the Overland Track, a famous 80 km hike that begins at Cradle Mountain. When we got back from the hike, our guide had lunch waiting for us: a fantastic chicken in gravy with corn and bell pepper and vegies and other amazing things. Apparently, he loves to cook and has even written a book for travellers about cooking healthy on a budget. I am so happy about this trip.

After lunch we stopped at a lookout on the west coast and saw some of the vast wilderness that comprises Tasmania. There were mountains rising everywhere and forests covering everything. It reminded me a bit of Colorado, actually, especially when we passed through Queenstown. Queenstown is an old mining town in the mountains that at one point had 14,000 people, but now has about 1,000 after the mining stopped being profitable. Sounds very familiar, doesn’t it?

Anyway, from there we drove straight on to Strahan (pronounced ‘Strawn’). We are staying in a beautiful big home owned by Adventure Tours, and the rooms are so incredibly nice and the mattresses are really thick and the showers are fantastic and the views are spectacular overlooking the lake to one side and mountains on the other. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Day 2:

Wow, it was only the second day but I feel as if I’ve been here for weeks. In a good way, though. Everyone here is really friendly and wonderful and our guide is great. This morning we got up early for breakfast and then had an hour and a half to explore Strahan while the bus refuelled.

A little ways down from our house was a track that led to a waterfall, because you can’t walk two feet in Tassie without stumbling over one. The walk was nice but short, and the problem with Strahan is that there is pretty much nothing there. We were pretty bored by the time we finally took off.

This is how serious crime is in Strahan.

Our first stop of the day was Hell’s Gates, a tiny passage that has caused many a shipwreck. The awesome thing was that we were really at the end of the world: the next beach from here is in Argentina, some 14,000 km away. You couldn’t see Argentina today because it was too cloudy.

After lunch the next activity, which took the rest of the day, was a hike to Montezuma Falls. This is the tallest waterfall in Tasmania and the hike follows an old tram line. Occasionally the boards would be visible from under the dirt. Near the falls, an old horizontal mine led into the side of the mountain, and inside we saw glow worms, cave crickets, and some Tasmanian Cave Spiders.

Finally, we reached the waterfall. It was beautiful, set in the middle of the forest and reaching up 100 metres.

Now we are in a small lodge in Tullah, right on the lake. It is beautiful here and tomorrow morning we are getting up at 5:30 to go canoeing. I am really looking forward to it!

Let me in, I'm staaahving!

2007-11-28T19:44:00.000+10:30

Today I took a bus to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, and it was awesome. As soon as you stepped off the bus the air smelled like chocolate. The people going on the tour were herded into a room and told to remove all jewelry. I didn't want to take out my earring, and so the little old lady giving the tour snuck up behind me and put tape on it. In the process, she somehow managed to tape my glasses onto my ear. Then, she made us all wear hair nets. Thus decked out, we began our tour.

Everywhere you walked there were machines wrapping chocolate and chocolate riding on conveyer belts and fruit getting covered in chocolate. It was very busy! I can't say much more about it, because it was essentially just a factory.

Afterwards we ended up at the Cadbury bargain store, which was awful because they sold 'defect' chocolate that did not meet weight specifications (but was otherwise normal) for $6 for three blocks (one block is normally $2.95). I also got a huge bag of Freddo Frogs. Then I sent them all away as gifts, because I am the nicest person ever.

I met some incredibly nice people on the tour, and we all drove back to Hobart. They were very funny and I was so happy I met them! Meeting people is always good.

Other than that, today was pretty boring for you to hear about. I wandered along the waterfront, where there were floating fish and chip shops, and around Elizabeth Mall, an outdoor pedestrian mall with lots of shops. I bought shirts. I really didn't need more things, but there you go.

Starting tomorrow I am going to be travelling all around Tasmania with Adventure Tours Australia for six days. I will try my best to update, but I'm not sure how often that will be. It should be amazing, though. I will let you know all about it as soon as I can.

Kangaroo Island Day 2

2007-11-27T01:01:00.001+10:30

I was apparently so tired yesterday I forgot to mention that I went sandboarding on the white dunes on KI known as Little Sahara. So, I did that, also.

Onto day two of Kangaroo Island!

We got to sleep in a little bit, not leaving until 8:30. Our first stop was a patch of trees that the koalas liked, and we saw one with her joey. How sleepy.

After the exciting koalas, we went on to Admiral's Arch. It was very, very windy and we were afraid of blowing over into the ocean. Thankfully, this did not happen. What happened instead was that we saw the arch and a huge colony of New Zealand Fur Seals. Can you see them in the next two pictures? They are very dark and tend to look a lot like the rocks. They are cute, though; we saw them playing in the waves.

After Admiral's Arch we went on to the part I was most looking forward to: the Remarkable Rocks. They were, in fact, quite remarkable! I am now wishing I had different pictures up, but alas, I do not :( I can't add the pictures I like better, either, because now I am at a hostel and can't connect my computer up to the internet, so you will just have to live with these and see the rest when I come home. Harry Potter (er, Daniel Ratcliffe) recently filmed a movie on KI, which strongly features the Remarkable Rocks. So now if you see the movie, you can say, hey, I know of that place! Also: green jacket with oversized white t-shirt is always a good fashion choice.

The weather cleared up just as we left the rocks, just in time for our hike! We saw lots of kangaroos and sand goannas, which tried to kill you by digging many shallow holes right in the middle of the path, little buggers. The hike ran parallel to a river, and we stopped on the bank many times to look for a platypus, but alas, no such luck. They are apparently very, very shy. We did see platypus bubbles: air that is released from the fur as they are diving. That sentence is not grammatically correct, but I am too upset about not seeing a platypus to care.

We spent about an hour on the beach before hiking back out. Once again, no swimming because people are actually quite regularly eaten by sharks around the island. Sucks. After the hike we went back to the visitor centre to make lunch, and then quickly looked at a paleontological dig-in-progress that was uncovering giant marsupials similar to wombats except the size of cars. It was pretty neat. Then we drove all the way back across the island, caught the ferry, and headed back to Adelaide.

I had a fantastic night with my friends Soxi and Cindy, and Soxi gave me a small book with great photos of Australian wildlife because she is amazing. She and Cindy then drove me to the airport and came with me to my gate to say goodbye. It was very sad leaving Adelaide for good; I still feel like I'm just on a short vacation and then I'll be going back. At least I will see them again soon: they are planning a trip around the States for three months beginning in June!

So after a two hour flight I am now here in Hobart, Tasmania. I am quite far south; the sun juuust went away and it is 10 at night. I saw Hobart from the plane and sort of immediately knew I would love it. It is surrounded on one side by forested mountains and on the other by a river. It is small and quiet and hilly and green and full of old red brick and Victorian buildings. I cannot tell if I love it so much because it reminds me of Ponsonby, the neighbourhood I stayed in in Auckland which I adored, but that doesn't matter. I didn't get here until about 5, so I went out for a slice of pizza and then saw a dumb Ben Stiller movie. I have the whole day tomorrow to explore Hobart, which shouldn't take long because it's kind of small. I plan on going to the Cadbury Chocolate factory, where they take you on a guided tour and give you lots of free samples and then you end up in a bargain store and become fat. I will try my best not to fall into a chocolate river.

Kangaroo Island Day 1: The Pirates of Pinniped

2007-11-26T23:34:00.000+10:30

Blargh. A lot of stuff happened and it was a great trip but I'm just sooooo exhausted. So here are pictures and not a whole lot of exposition; I'm really sorry about that.

So I woke up at 6 in the morning to move out of my room and leave with a tour for Kangaroo Island. It was pretty awesome immediately because the tour guide was an ecotourism major at Flinders and so we could say a lot of scientific words about animals to each other. Also, we had the same taste in music. Also, he was cute.

Anyway, everyone else was really friendly and nice as well. We drove about an hour and a half to the ferry, and after a forty-five minute ride (during which we saw colourful Common Dolphins) we arrived at Kangaroo Island. We stopped for a picnic lunch and then walked to this beautiful beach that happened to be infested with sharks and so we couldn't swim. Boo.

Afterwards we went to Seal Bay, which houses a huge number of endangered Australian Sea Lions. It was the end of pupping season and there were lots and lots of babies waddling around. There is a mom with her flipper over her pup on the left side of this picture. Awww. Also, we saw males fighting and one actually flipped another over. Oooh. We got to walk along the beach with a guide and get pretty close to them.

After Seal Bay we went to our accommodation for the night. It was an old farmhouse close to Vivonne Bay. This is the view. In the evening, the field filled up with tons of kangaroos.

After the sun set we went to the beach to see the little penguins come ashore. Now, I know what you are thinking: how many times can I go see little penguins come ashore on this trip? The answer is: twice. We saw them coming up and shown a red light on them. The red light was supposed to not scare them, but nevertheless they became startled and tried running back to the water. One tripped and fell headfirst into a gap in the rocks. Only his little bum and his feet were sticking up, and they were wiggling and wiggling but he couldn't get out. Our guide had to run down to the beach and pull him out by his feet. It was quite the adventure. On our way back we saw that the kangaroos had been replaced by small Tammar wallabies; the fields were literally hopping with them.

At this point it was getting pretty late, and most of the group went to bed. I went out onto the porch with two other girls, and we were talking and having tea when this round furry blob came up onto the porch and waddled right past us to the grill. It was a brush-tailed possum, and it was BIG. It immediately stuck its head in a pot and started licking off the grease, eventually upturning it and becoming stuck. The possum was smarter than the penguin, however, and actually found its way out. It was not deterred and continued going through all of our things, completely unafraid of us. Eventually it waddled off into the night and we went to bed.

I am exhausted, and I am going to Tasmania tomorrow, but I promise that I'll finish writing about the trip as soon as I can! Hopefully this will be tomorrow evening.

Brisbane

2007-11-24T01:22:00.000+10:30

On our last day we took a bus to Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland. We went there without a plan or a place to stay and arrived around 1 in the afternoon. We eventually found a hostel in the heart of the city that was relatively clean. This took about an hour. It was then that we realised that Ashley had left her camera on the bus. Cue us spending most of the day around the Brisbane Transit Centre.

Despite this, we did manage to walk around the city a bit. It is centred around the Brisbane River. We walked along the river around sunset and then caught a water taxi to a part of the city with nice restaurants, and we ate along the riverfront. So despite the stress of the bulk of the day, we ended up having a nice time. Brisbane was very clean and pretty and was all decorated for Christmas. I cannot get over how all of the decorations include things like snowflakes when it is almost summer.

So now it is 24th November. I am moving out of the dorms today. I will be on Kangaroo Island for the 25th and 26th, and then I am off to Tasmania on the 27th. Yay for travelling, not so yay for leaving Adelaide and all of my friends :( :( :(

Australia Zoo

2007-11-24T00:51:00.001+10:30

We had a day in Noosa where we pretty much didn't do anything except lay on the beach and get pummeled by waves, so I'll skip that and go straight to writing about our trip to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo.

A free bus came to pick us up from Noosa Heads. You could tell it was going to be an awesome day because the bus said 'CRIKEY!!!' really big on the side. We got in and as the bus drove off they immediately began trying to make us cry by showing old Crocodile Hunter episodes. We quickly learned that attempting to make their patrons cry was a recurring theme of the zoo.

Everything in the zoo was very Steve Irwin centred, as he owned and operated the whole thing. There were tons of crocodile enclosures everywhere, and we got to see Aggro, one of the most famous crocs there.

The very first thing we did was feed the elephants! You stood in line and when you got to the front, there was a big Asian elephant. You picked up a piece of fruit from the bucket and held out your hand, and the elephant used its trunk to pick up the fruit directly out of your hand. Then they leave you a present of elephant snot. But it is very cool being up so close to them! I have a picture of myself doing this, but it was taken by the zoo and says PROOF in big letters over part of my face because I am too cheap to pay for a big picture. But you can see everything that's important, namely my faceless body feeding an elephant. All right!

There were also water dragons running around everywhere, and you could get pretty close to them. They were huge and very interested in people.

Water dragon posing for me!

There were also lots and lots of koala enclosures spread throughout the zoo. It seems as if they just fall asleep anywhere and slump into any position.

I wish I was a koala. Sleeping is their job.

D-dinosaur?

One of the highlights of the zoo was seeing the big Wildlife Warriors show, where they did a bunch of animal demonstrations with the main attraction being hand-feeding crocodiles. The guy who was doing the feeding was very cute and we were all glad he was not ingested. Before the show started, they had videos on the big screen of Steve Irwin, and some of Terri and his son and daughter with the various animals in the zoo. WHY, Australia Zoo?? Do you want to make us miserable??

The tigers were full of sleep, which was a little disappointing. We decided to come back later to see if they ever woke up.

Sometimes there were keepers walking our fellow countrymen American Alligators around on leashes. They would walk and walk and then just collapse onto the ground and not move (the alligators, not the keepers). This is when people (such as myself) would go over and pet them (the alligators, not the keepers). I have a picture, but it is a PROOF picture so you will have to wait to see it.

Oh man, can echidnas be ANY cuter??? I submit no! Look, this one is even waving! Aww, hello little echidna! How are you today? Are you enjoying being a monotreme? I embarrassed Ashley by saying these things to them when we reached their enclosure. In person, they waddle. Little waddling echidnas. I have the sincere hope that I see one in the wild, and I have a pretty good chance of seeing one on Kangaroo Island. I'm crossing my fingers!

There were plenty of walk-through kangaroo enclosures, and I never miss the opportunity to take ridiculous close-up pictures of Skippy. I can't help it; they're silly.

Little wombat, munching away. Actually, they're not that little, they're about the size of a beaver. But with a pouch. And that lives in subterranean tunnels.

After the wombats we went back to the tigers, who were awake this time because they were being fed milk by their keepers. They would stand up on their hind legs to reach it, and were way taller than the people feeding them. I was pretty sure I was going to see someone get eaten, which would definitely have been the highlight of the trip, but alas, no such thing.

The zoo was almost closing by that point, so we ran back to the courtesy bus and watched a video of Steve Irwin getting attacked by komodo dragons until we got back to Noosa. Oh, Australia Zoo. You fill me with conflicting emotions.

Fraser Island

2007-11-21T23:13:00.000+10:30

Sorry this has taken me so long to post! Things have been pretty hectic. I am moving out of the dorms 24th November, and then I'll just be travelling until I meet Mom, Dad, and Emily in a month, so I'm trying to get all packed and everything. Anyway, I will pick up where I left off and now tell you a bit about our trip to Fraser Island!

We got up at 6 AM to catch a day tour to the island, as it is impossible to traverse without a four wheel drive. We drove most of the way to the point on the beach, and passed by a sea turtle that was heading back to sea after laying her eggs. Before we reached the ferry, we stopped at a place called Rainbow Beach that had many different coloured sands.

We soon reached the ferry and drove for about forty-five minutes over the beach, and then we suddenly turned into the mainland. We were surrounded by rainforest on all sides but were driving over white beach sand; here the forest grows directly out of it. Our first stop was Lake McKenzie, which was totally AMAZING. The colours of the lake ran in a gradient from white to deep blue, and the water was incredibly warm. The lake was freshwater, so you could swim around with your eyes open and see the light filtering through. It was also slightly acidic, and our skin and hair were so soft after swimming in it for an hour. We never wanted to get out.

It was impossible to capture on camera, but this picture sort of shows how white the sand was. It was practically blinding in the full sun. I had to adjust the picture so you could even see the sand; the water begins where there is a sort of peachy-colour.

They were really keen on protecting your children from the dingoes. Be dingo-safe!

Apparently, in Australia, even pine cones can KILL YOU. We decided to take our lives in our hands and head into the rainforest anyway. It was totally worth it; the trees grew right out of the sand and there were prehistoric plants everywhere. We totally expected a dinosaur to come crashing through the bush any minute.

This fern is actually growing out of the middle of a stream. That sand you see is the bottom of the creek; that's how clear the water is.

This was going to be my new home, but instead we left the island :(

We got back to Noosa Heads in the early evening and had a nice dinner outside. I am way too tired to write another entry, but I promise that tomorrow I will try to add stuff about the Australia Zoo and Brisbane.

Noosa Heads

2007-11-15T18:02:00.000+10:30

I'm so behind on my blog! I had meant to post stuff about my last day in Melbourne, and then two friends and I went on a trip through the Adelaide hills, but now I'm in Noosa Heads, Queensland, and want to write about that instead! I will make retroactive posts about other things later.

So my friend Ashley and I have been planning this trip for a while to celebrate the end of the semester. Yesterday, however, we arrived at the airport to find that we had missed the check-in time for our flight by ten minutes, which sucked. We were panicking as we did not want to go back to the hall, and no other flights went directly to the Sunshine Coast. We ended up on an (expensive) flight to Brisbane and took a shuttle to Noosa Heads, where we are staying. It was stressful, but this place is very mellow and we were so happy to just be here.

Our hostel is a nice wooden bungalow-style house with a large common area, a restaurant, and friendly people. It is also located in the middle of two acres of rainforest. Last night we got in and they gave us a free glass of wine (which we were greatful for after the day we had), and then we went to explore the town.

There is pretty much one main street here that runs parallel to the beach with nice outdoor cafes, restaurants, and shopping. We found a Mexican restaurant (our first since getting to Australia!) and greatly enjoyed ourselves. This morning, we were woken up by the din of screeching parrots and lorikeets, which was not altogether pleasant. After a trip to the supermarket for sandwich supplies, we made ourselves a picnic and rented boogie boards from the hostel (which supplies them for free) and headed to the beach.

The beach is a two minute walk away and is awesome. It is soft white sand with warm blue-green water and awesome waves, surrounded by rainforest. The boogie boarding was amazing because the waves were pretty big, but not so big that you couldn't just go swimming without getting knocked over. I have pictures, but I can't post them for another few days because we have to use internet cafes. So we pretty much lounged on the beach all day, and now we are on the internet before heading back to the hostel to just hang out.

Here I am after failing to catch a wave. I got better, though!

There are lots of birds all around, and if you aren't careful with your breakfast, the lorikeets will come and try to take it from you. Especially if you use those little single-serving thingies of jam on your bread. They LOVE those.

Tomorrow is an early day; we are getting up at 6 AM to go with a tour to Fraser Island. It is a big sand island comprised entirely of national park, with rainforests and freshwater lakes that are supposed to be really good for swimming. There is also a large population of wild dingoes, and I'm hoping we see one (don't worry, Dad, I won't try to pet any). Then we have another day of beach, then we're going to the AUSTRALIA ZOO!!! This is actually what I am most excited for. Australia Zoo was Steve Irwin's zoo, and it's supposed to be amazing. We're so excited about it!

I will continue to update this as I can and I'll add pictures as soon as possible.

Melbourne Cup!

2007-11-06T21:24:00.000+10:30

Last night after I got off the internet, Soxi, Ashley and I went into the city to look around. It was such a change from Adelaide: places were open and there were people everywhere at 11 at night! Amazing! The architecture here is really fun and because Australia doesn't have Halloween and Thanksgiving as buffers, Christmas decorations are already lining the streets. We went to a small cafe by the river and had cake, tea, and iced chocolate until 1 or so in the morning. Every hour, the casino put on a fire show over the river. It was awesome and we all really enjoyed ourselves.

The three of us had a lot of fun today at the Cup. We woke up early to get dressed up all fancy, and we headed out with the throngs of other well-dressed, crazy-hatted people to Flemington Racetrack to see Australia's most famous horse race.

Me and Soxi on the train, ready for the races!

Most of the time between races was spent taking pictures of us posing, and it made me very happy, apparently.

The dresses and hats were insane, and Carson from Queer Eye was there judging people's outfits. Ashley got a close up shot of him with the zoom lens; she was able to get in close because people thought she was press. The zoom lens was magic this way. We were also able to get really close to the track by wielding it in a creative manner.

Some of the races! Go horses, go!

Musketeers having a swordfight while waiting for the next race to begin.

We loved taking secret pictures of outfits and hats. Zoom lens for the win!

I bet on some horses; overall I spent $17 and made back $16, so it wasn't too bad. This was our first bet we placed; both Soxi and my horses won! Go Sharkbite!

This is the winning horse of the big Cup race, Efficient. He had something like 40:1 odds, so whoever bet on him made a good deal of money. I put money on the favourite, and he didn't even place. Stupid horse.

This is my whole outfit! Unlike everything else I've worn this year, all of this belongs to me. Well, except for the thing in my hair, that's Soxi's.

When we got back to Melbourne we had a big, fancy dinner on the riverfront since we were all dressed up. It was wonderful, even though I got really burnt at the Cup. You can see it starting here. Ouch!

The Great Ocean Road

2007-11-05T21:53:00.000+10:30

I only have about fifteen minutes of internet left, so I will make this brief. Pictures will have to wait until I'm back in Adelaide, which should be the 8th.

Yesterday Ashley, Soxi, James, and I woke up at 7 to begin our road trip to Melbourne. The first leg of our drive took us through the Coorong, a wetland area near the ocean that had tons of birds, including many emus that looked like grass huts on the horizon.

On the way, we passed by a gigantic lobster and decided it was necessary to get out of the car and take a picture. His name is Larry. I hope you appreciate this, because as I was taking a picture of gigantic Larry the Lobster some people driving by mooned me. D:

A few hours outside of Adelaide, we hit Mt. Gambier, a small town near the Victoria border famous for its lakes. The most famous lake, Blue Lake, is an otherworldly shade of blue. Unfortunately it was cloudy when we were there, but the colour was still stunning. I can only imagine what it looks like in the sun.

Soon after Mt. Gambier we hit the Great Ocean Road. The drive was incredible; the small road winds along the craggy coastline, with a seemingly infinite number of places to pull off and just gawk at the cliffs jutting out into the ocean. We saw lots of kangaroos on this stretch, too.

We hit the Twelve Apostles right around sunset, but there was cloud cover so we didn't see the colour change that makes them really light up. They were still beautiful, though, and we were so happy that we made it. We ended up spending the night in a hostel on the beach in a tiny little beach town.

We woke up early the next day (today!) and hit the road again. The Great Ocean Road winds through Great Otway National Park, which happens to be a temperate rainforest. We pulled off for lunch and a quick hour hike to a waterfall.

On our way back a wallaby hopped right in front of us on the path and stopped, staring. The tiniest little joey head was peeking out of its pouch; it was SO adorable! The birds singing in the trees were really nice, too. As you can see below, it was prime platypus habitat, but alas, no platypi were to be found. Regardless, it was an awesome hike.

The rest of the drive was through beautiful rolling hills, punctuated with wide ocean vistas and thick eucalyptus forests, complete with heaps of wild koalas. Sometimes the trees looked like they had a disease which caused them to sprout furry grey protruberances, there were so many.

Okay, only four minutes left. We stopped at a surfing beach for a quick swim, dropped James off at the airport outside of Melbourne to catch a flight home, and then got lost in the city trying to find our hostel. We are staying in an old nunnery, and it is a very nice, clean place right across from the Melbourne museum. We are all looking forward to the races tomorrow, and then I'm going to spend a day looking at the sights while Ashley and Soxi shop (they have both been to Melbourne multiple times). Now we're all going out for a drink, plus I'm out of money here, so I have to go!

Partaking in Aussie Culture, or: Surfing!!!

2007-11-01T01:01:00.000+10:30

Last weekend, one of our hall tutors (like an RA) arranged a trip for surfing lessons. Of course I signed up, and it was AWESOME. We drove down to Victor Harbor, about a 45 minute trip from Adelaide. The day was cloudy and a little rainy, but in the 80s so it was pleasant. And we figured we'd be in the water anyway, so the rain wasn't an issue, either.

We arrived at the beach and suited up, and I was SO EXCITED.
Ashley and I demonstrating our surfing poses in our sexy yellow rashers.

Unfortunately, I don't really have any more pictures because we were in the water for the next two hours. We spent about 20 minutes jogging along the beach and stretching, then having a quick lesson on the sand teaching us how to stand up on the board. Then it was into the water! There were tons of huge waves and the most difficult part of the whole thing was getting far enough out to catch a wave in the first place. Getting on the wave was the easy part, and sometimes it was just so much fun that I forgot to try and stand up. Surfboards go much faster than boogie boards! However, I *did* manage to stand up a few times!!! Once, I stood relatively early on and was able to ride the wave in almost all the way, and at the end I just hopped off the board. It was an incredible feeling. After that, though, I wasn't so successful; I'd stand up for only a second or two before tumbling down. It was still a ton of fun, though, and sometimes I was just dumb about it: I'd stand up and be so excited that I'd literally jump off of the board. The two hours went by incredibly fast.

Our staff, who were amazing. They were extremely encouraging and seemed genuinely happy when you were able to stand or catch a wave. There were fifteen of us, and they gave each of us personal attention. Sometimes they would come over and tell us to get into the position to stand, and they would push our surfboards onto the waves for us.

Afterwards, celebrating the waves and showing off how chubby I have become! Also, I have started smuggling cantaloupes in my calves, apparently.

In other news, the end of school is fast approaching. This is the last week of classes, and then we have a week of study and two weeks for finals. I have two essays due this Friday, and an essay due on 14th November. I also have a final exam on the 13th and one on the 23rd. I also have a ridiculous amount of travel plans. Here is what they look like!

This Sunday me, Soxi, and Ashley are taking a road trip to Melbourne to see the Melbourne Cup, the most popular horse race in Australia. We'll have four days in Melbourne, and on the way we are going to stop by small towns and various sights, including Mt Gambier's blue lake.

In the ten day interval between my exams, Ashley and I are taking a trip to the Sunshine Coast for a week. We're going to Noosa, an area of Queensland where the rainforest meets the ocean. The water is supposed to be warm year-round and have great waves for surfing and boogie boarding, plus fantastic hiking in the rainforest areas. We are going to take a day trip to Fraser Island, and we may do sea kayaking as well.

After school, I plan on doing a two day trip to Kangaroo Island (this I am looking forward to greatly), and then my plan is as follows:

- Tasmania for a week or ten days, exploring the island and completing at least part of the Overland Track with a group (one of Australia's most famous hikes)
- Cairns, obtaining my open water license on a liveaboard on the Great Barrier Reef, including night dives!
- Townsville, home of some of the best Great Barrier Reef diving in Oz, with a famous wreck dive, including some inland Queensland for rainforest exploration
- Brisbane, including the city, Gold Coast, Surfer's Paradise, and Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo
- Down to Sydney for a day or two to explore on my own, then picking up my parents and Emily at the airport!!!

I figure this schedule will keep me busy for at least a month between school and meeting my family :)

I have more than three friends, I swear

2007-10-21T23:51:00.000+09:30

Wow, I haven't updated in a while! I've just been doing normal things, so this probably won't be too exciting. Mostly pictures of people you don't know, so I'm sorry if it's boring.

About two weeks ago Soxi took me and Ashley into the city to this dance club. They played awesome music and we had a great time. Ashley and I took pictures under the Central Market sign, and I was wearing the shiniest shirt in the world. The Central Market is really cool; there are so many stalls selling, among many other things, really cheap local produce. It's a lot of fun to spend a day walking around there.

Me, Ashley, and Soxi in a dance club that played Spice Girls and Hanson songs. What is not to love??

Last week was also the Uni Hall Pub Crawl. We had a fantastic time and a lot of the pubs were really nice. We got these huge yellow shirts to wear, and a few days before the event Cindy, Ashley, Soxi and I altered them and made them amazing. They had a picture of Borat on the front and said 'High Five', and a lot of people in the city were very clever and giving us high fives as we walked around. I didn't drink much, but I have been trying to be more outgoing and adventurous and was talked into riding a mechanical bull at a pub called the Woolshed. I stayed on the longest out of all the people who tried, and it was really hard and I turned very red. My legs were sore afterwards, and at one point I almost fell off by tumbling over the bull's head, but I stayed on! Also, the American flag blow up thingy to fall on? Awesome.

The weather in Adelaide is ridiculously moody. Since I returned from my trip, it had been pretty chilly (around 16 degrees celcius), so when it hit 20 C/70 F, I insisted that we go to the beach. We've been for the past two weeks, and the last time we went it was very windy. I was not happy about this or the fact that my picture was being taken.

We did go swimming despite the chilliness, and afterwards James and I decided we needed to bury Soxi in the sand. Then, we made her into a bodybuilding mermaid.

Adorable ladies at the beach!

Yesterday was Hall Ball. This is like a huge prom that the Hall puts on for us Hallies. It was a fun excuse to get dressed up. I borrowed a dress from Ashley because we are the same size. I was a little apprehensive about wearing it, mostly because of cleavage, but I got over it. The day started with a champagne, strawberry, and pancake breakfast in the morning, and the actual event was held in the Adelaide Convention Centre. There was about an hour of mingling and champagne, and then a three course dinner and dancing.

Um, yeah. I have other pictures from the night, but they're mostly silly. After the dinner and dancing we went to a bar for even more dancing, and we left around 2:00 AM. When we got back to the hall, the weather was gorgeous: 75 degrees with a slight breeze, half a moon giving just enough light to see but not so much that it blocked all the stars. Soxi said that it was too bad we couldn't go to the beach, but then we decided: why couldn't we go? So we were at the beach until four in the morning, and there were lots of cartwheels.

When we got to the beach, we took off our flip-flops and left them by the stairs that led down to the sand. When we returned, our shoes were hidden among the rocks! We suspect the myriad of other people that were for some reason on the beach at 3 in the morning. Anyway, we were able to find Soxi's and Ashley's shoes without issue, but I lost hide-and-seek against my shoes. At least they were only a $2.50 pair of flip-flops.

We didn't get home from the beach until 4 in the morning, and when I went to bed at 5 the sun was coming up. I slept until 1, and then tonight went to a Wayang kulit performance, which is Javanese Shadow Theatre. The puppets were incredibly detailed, and the music was pretty cool, and it was outside and the weather was beautiful. The end, for now! Two more weeks of classes left. Next weekend I have two birthday parties in the city and surfing lessons, hooray!

Last Days of Vacation

2007-10-03T00:00:00.000+09:30

I’m writing this after a few days, and I’m going to try and remember as much as possible but I may forget some things.

My checkout time at the hostel was 10, but my train didn’t depart Alice Springs until 3, so I had the whole morning to wander around. I left my backpack at the hostel and went into town, where I passed by a sign I hadn’t seen before for something called the Baby Kangaroo Rescue Centre. Well, I couldn’t pass this up, so I walked in. The centre rescues joeys whose mothers have been killed, often by cars. Because they would spend most of their time in the pouch, the centre has volunteers who carry the joeys around in pillowcases close to their bodies so they feel the warmth and breathing. And if you walk in, you can be one of the volunteers! I got there around feeding time, so I saw the joeys be hand fed and then go for a hop around. They were SO CUTE and little!

When they wanted to go back into their pillowcases, which was after only about five minutes, they scratched at your leg and you held the pillowcase down, wherein they dove in headfirst and did a sort of somersault to get comfortable. I was given Nikki to hold, and she was so adorable, but she napped the whole time and had little kangaroo dreams wherein she kind of kicked me in the boob. But I forgave her because of her cuteness, and also I felt kind of bad about eating her elders. I had a picture taken of me with her, but she was so sleepy that just her ears were sticking out. I may as well have been holding a giant rabbit. Here is the picture of me holding a bag of giant ears, and please excuse the incredible squintiness and general frightening-ness of my face. I have no idea why I looked this terrible.

Reluctantly I left the rescue centre to get some lunch, and then it was off to the train station.

I was sitting in the cheapest car, where you only get a seat to yourself, but the seats were really big and I was lucky enough to get a window seat. There was a bit of confusion where someone was sitting in my seat when I got there, but luckily we got that sorted out without any problems. The seats were bigger than airplane seats and much more comfortable. We pulled out of the station and within half an hour we had peeled away from the road and there were no signs of civilisation for miles around, just desert scenery stretching far in every direction, with flocks of galahs occasionally rising from the scrub and cattle scattered on the plains. I took pictures every once in a while to show the changes, but you really had to be there to see it.

After being on the train for three hours I ventured off through the lounge to the dining car to get some dinner. By this time the sun was setting over the desert, and the train would flush kangaroos that would go bounding across the scene. It was incredible to see. After dinner, I went back to my seat to read and fell asleep. I woke up in the middle of the night to see a huge, red moon just coming up over the horizon.

I got up around 8 in the morning to find that we were passing through Port Augusta, close to the water and somehow passed from desert to farm country. I got breakfast and passed the time reading and watching the scenery pass by until we arrived in Adelaide at 12:30, ahead of schedule!

I was very happy to be back, and as I was waiting for the bus in the city I ran into a friend of mine. We decided to go out and have dinner in Glenelg since it was such a nice day (after I showered and did a wash, of course). So to cap off a wonderful trip, I went out to dinner with a friend and then we sat on the beach in the late afternoon, occasionally wading into the water which I was happy to find out was warm, so I plan on spending my weekend there. We watched the sun set, where I saw the green flash for the first time EVER and which induced much arm-flailing, and then we got ice cream and headed back to Flinders.

It was so wonderful to have my own bed in my own room with wonderful clean sheets and not having to wake up until 7:45 the next morning. I had the best night’s sleep I’ve had in ages.

And this morning was good too, because my hot teaching assistant who I have a minor crush on gave a great lecture in my Fiction for Young Readers class on fantasy and speculative fiction, which I love. I also got my first assignment back, 25% of my grade, and I got a D (for Distinction), which I am assured is difficult to achieve and is about equivalent to a low A, although that’s kind of nebulous. So hurrah!

Now that I am not travelling this won’t update as regularly, but if anything exciting happens in my life I will be sure to write about it. I plan on getting my official open water certification this month (finally) and I’m going to Kangaroo Island on 26^th October, so you can look forward to that!

Palm Valley

2007-09-30T09:12:00.000+09:30

I spent my last vacation day on a trip to Palm Valley, about 2 hours outside of Alice Springs. On our way, we stopped at Hermannsburg, which was a German missionary for Aboriginal people. It was dusty and small and pretty old.

We then drove some more and went on a short walk to a lookout. I love the desert scenery.

Then it was time for lunch and onto palm valley. These palms are called red cabbage palms and are found nowhere else in the world other than in this valley. They are also Australia's only native palm. The hike through the valley and up onto the rim was incredible, although the only wildlife we saw was a few lizards. This is probably because there hasn't been any rain in a long time, so the animals are spending more of their day sleeping and have been moving elsewhere in search of water.

So yes, great way to spend my last day in Alice Springs. Now I'm going to check out of my hostel and later this afternoon I am catching a train that will take me back to Adelaide, where it is FINALLY warming up!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMILY!!!!!!

Alice Springs

2007-09-28T20:13:00.000+09:30

I am now back in Alice Springs after my Uluru trip. I have two days here, and so I decided to spend today wandering around, and tomorrow I have booked a day trip to the Western MacDonnell mountain ranges. I really like Alice; when I step outside of my hostel the surrounding environment is nice and familiar, even if it does have black-footed wallabies in the rocky hills.

I woke up a little late and decided to go to the Alice Springs Reptile Centre, which I had heard good things about. I absolutely LOVED it. The setups were great, and I really enjoyed a lot of the signs.

This is a black-headed python. It is believed that their head is black so they can warm themselves up quickly by simply sticking their head out of their burrow. The black colour helps the brain warm up very fast, and so they don't need much time to bask to become active.

And this is the world's most venomous snake, the Inland Taipan. It is found in central Australia. Note that there are no flashy colours, no rattles, nothing. Just a simple black/brown snake that can KILL YOU. Its fangs are only millimeters long, though, so jeans are enough to thwart it. Take that, Inland Taipan.

Since I didn't get any pictures of them in Kakadu, here are two young frilled lizards. These are the same size as the ones we saw, and I found out today that they are just juveniles. You can see where the frill opens up.

Okay, so these guys are my absolute favourites and I have tons of pictures of them. I didn't see any in the wild, which sucks. But anyway, these are awesome animals. It's like nature said, "Hey, Australia, we have this niche we'd like you to fill for an animal living in a hot, dry climate whose entire diet is comprised solely of small ants. It should preferably be round-ish and have spikes." And Australia said, "All right!" and totally went overboard with the spike thing.

These are thorny devils, who have the awesome Latin name of Moloch horridus even though they are really sweet and don't deserve it. When they walk it is slow and jerky and they hold their tails up really high in the air. SO CUTE.

In the back of the thorny devil enclosure was an adult frilled lizard. This thing was HUGE. It wasn't as long as an iguana, but the head was definitely the same size. Just imagine that thing getting angry and suddenly hissing at you with its frill wide open. Oh no!

After the Reptile Centre I went to go book my tour for tomorrow, which I did in town. Mom asked for some pictures of the pedestrian mall area, so here are some!

After that I went to the Alice Springs Desert Park, which is like a really, really small Desert Museum. It was very nice, though. They had tons of birds flying around and a fantastic nocturnal house with a lot of animals on display that you would never see otherwise. I got this great shot of a galah as I was walking; you can't see in this small version but it's looking up in a very cute manner.

Also, there were wildflowers on the path.

I got back to the hostel around 4:30, and I took a shower and just hung out wishing I could watch the new Office episode for an hour, then decided to get some dinner. I was walking around the town area when I saw a sign for Keller's Swiss, Indian, and Australian Restaurant. The fact that all of these foods had been brought together was intriguing, but I was certainly not dressed well enough and was not quite willing to pay over $20 for something on a menu that contained kangaroo vindaloo (although it does have a nice sound to it), and got something cheap at a small cafe instead.

Tomorrow I am off to see the rare Palm Cabbage, or something. This gorge I'm going to is famous for having this plant that is only found in that gorge and nowhere else in the world, so I hope it's interesting.

Uluru, day 2

2007-09-27T22:06:00.000+09:30

It is ridiculous, I think, to wake up at 4:30 in the morning for any reason, but today it was worth it. I got up and dressed in anticipation for my morning hike in the desert, and then ended up watching the sunrise half freezing to death. It was COLD, and I thought I might die. The moon was huge and orange on one horizon, though, and the sunrise was just as spectacular as the sunset, which made me not regret waking up at an insane hour to become a Popsicle.

I began my hike at the cultural centre, two km from the actual base of Uluru, and I am ashamed to admit that I did not necessarily go to increase my cultural awareness of the Aboriginal people but rather because I refused to hike until it was a decent temperature outside. Around 8 I finally decided to just go for it, despite the fact it was still not a decent temperature. The day was beautiful, with a clear, blue, cloudless sky and a slight breeze that kept the flies at bay.

You technically can climb Uluru, which surprised me as I hadn’t even considered it before arriving. The local Anangu people really, REALLY dislike this, as Uluru is a very sacred place to them. However, it is good for tourism, as almost all tourists come to see a sunset and climb the rock, and the government keeps the climb open. As I approached, I could see the line of people climbing up, and they looked like little ants. Either way, it was a straight climb up sandstone and back down again, and so I opted to do the 10 km hike around the base.

I am so glad that I did. The dimples and grooves that you see from afar turn out to be huge gorges and caves up close. As you turn each corner, the rock face changes and the scenery around it changes as well. One minute you will be walking through red dunes and there will be nothing but sand, and the next there will be green trees and savannah grasses. I could see goannas (large monitor lizards) in the distance and the birds were awesome.

After the hike I headed back to the resort for some quality pool time. I had a ring of red dirt on my legs, and so I thought it was just dirt, but it turns out that some of the color remained after I scrubbed and now I have a crazy farmer’s tan. D:

So that was nice and relaxing. The stars are really brilliant out here, and I had dinner on a picnic bench underneath them. I’m headed back to Alice Springs tomorrow afternoon, and I have two days there. I’m thinking of spending a day in the town, and then doing a day trip to the Western MacDonnell Ranges, some of Australia’s oldest mountains.

Sunset at Uluru

2007-09-27T21:57:00.001+09:30

Wow.

Today I got up at 6:30 to catch a bus for the five-hour trip from Alice Springs to Uluru-Kata-Tjuta National Park. There is only one place to stay close to the park, a collection of hotels and resorts called Yulara. I got in at around 1 in the afternoon and booked a shuttle to the park for 3:30 to see the domes of Kata-Tjuta and see the sunset at Uluru itself. Kata-Tjuta is comprised of huge rock domes that rise straight from the ground.

The weather didn’t seem great when I got there; it was really cloudy and windy. I had wanted to do this hike that is supposed to be fantastic at Kata-Tjuta, but unfortunately I got there too late and it was closed. Instead I did a quick walk between two of the tallest domes and headed to the sunset lookout spot for Uluru.

It turns out that the weather made for a perfect sunset. The dark and moody clouds behind the rock provided a perfect contrast for the colors. The sun started out behind clouds, but as it dropped lower and started to hit Uluru, it gained this amazing orange color that looked like it was glowing from the inside. As the sun got lower, the colors changed from blazing orange to deep scarlet. I put together this little sequence of pictures so you can get some idea, but you really had to be there. Sorry there are an odd number.

Tomorrow I am planning to see the sunrise and go on a hike around the base. I’m so excited!

Mmmm, camel.

2007-09-24T21:36:00.000+09:30

So here I am in Alice Springs, in the Red Centre of Australia. I am so glad that all of my airplane flights for this trip are now finished, hooray!!

I had a window seat for the flight, and it was awesome to see the scenery change below us. It really put into perspective just how much of Australia is untouched. As the landscape changed to vast, open red spaces, pretty much all signs of civilisation died away. Occasionally there would be a long, straight dirt road stretching off into the distance, and the dirt on these was so red it gave the impression of veins crossing the desert. Coming up to Alice Springs was a shock; all of a sudden there were paved roads and buildings coming up from the middle of nowhere.

When I stepped off the plane, the hot, dry air hit me in the face, and I almost cried because it reminded me so much of getting off the plane in Arizona. The dirt around here is all red, dotted with eucalyptus trees and shrubs. There are little skinks and lots of parrots everywhere. My hostel is a five minute walk from the city centre, and because someone decided to stay an extra night at the last minute, I have a single room for tonight! It's awesome after staying in dorm accommodation for the past ten days, although I'm going to dorms tomorrow and I'll be in the dorms here when I get back.

Anyway, a lot of people don't like Alice Springs much, saying it's essentially a big shopping mall in the middle of the desert. I kind of liked the pedestrian mall area, it had a lot of art galleries and little outlet stores that reminded me of Santa Fe. The sunset here was incredible and all of the surrounding rocks and even the dirt changed all different colours.

I decided to have dinner in town rather than cook at my hostel. There is a lot of catering to tourists here, so the menus have a lot of bush meat on them. I decided to be adventurous and ordered a 'Bushman's Plate', which was a small dish with crocodile, emu, camel, and kangaroo meat, as well as various vegetables and spreads with pita bread. Out of the four meats, I liked the emu the best. It was smoked and I liked the flavour. The crocodile was kind of strange, and the camel tasted a little bit like when you have beef the next day after sticking it in the refrigerator. That's the best way I can describe it, anyway.

So now I am here, and tomorrow morning I am getting up very early and catching a Greyhound bus to Yulara, the closest place to Uluru. I am very excited!

Kakadu Day 2

2007-09-23T09:32:00.000+09:30

So to continue from yesterday...

We woke up around 6:30 with the birds and had a light breakfast around the fire. We then headed on a 4WD road for about 45 minutes to Twin Falls, which was not exactly a pleasant experience. There was a lot of bumping and jarring and a point where we drove the vehicle through a river.

We were told that if your car or truck breaks down in a river, you have to climb out onto the roof until someone comes along who can help you out. This is because it is dangerous to go into the water due to the crocodiles. Sounds like fun.

Finally we made it to Twin Falls, and after a short hike we were at the plunge pool. The rock walls rose up all around us and the falls were actually running. It was an amazing area, and we spent a good amount of time just hanging around.

Afterward, we headed back to camp to pick up our stuff and drove to an area with Aboriginal rock art. The art there has been dated at about 60,000 years old, which is just incredible. While we were there we also saw a frilled lizard, which was awesome, and a black wallaroo with her joey. This was an incredible sighting because these animals are very rare and shy.

We stopped for lunch at a billabong, filled with all sorts of incredible waterbirds and a fantastic assortment of flies. It was so hot that when we sliced the cheese for the sandwiches, it actually started melting into the plates. The birdlife was wonderful, though, and we saw a Jabiru, which is a gigantic stork that towered over the other birds.

Afterwards it was time to return to Darwin. On our way back we stopped to see one of the termite mounds that were all over the place up close. These things were incredibly tall (over 12 feet) and are aligned with magnetic North. They also have air conditioning! The termites create an opening in the bottom and one in the top of the mound to create cross-circulation of air that keeps the mound a nice cool temperature. Their building materials include poop and spit, though, so how advanced can they really be?

When we got back to Darwin, we didn't quite want to part ways just yet, so our group decided to meet for dinner at a bar in town. I didn't eat or drink anything, because it was after sundown, but we had a great time anyway. The bar had lots of games going on, including limbo and paper airplane races, which were a lot of fun. Our guide even joined us for a little bit. After the bar we went out for ice cream and exchanged e-mails. I am so glad that I was with a good, fun group.

So this brings us to yesterday, where I essentially just sat by the pool and got weird sunburns on my knees. Yesterday evening I went to the Deckchair Cinema, an open-air movie theatre on the water. They set up lounge chairs that are exceedingly comfortable and have a bar selling beer, wine, soda, salads, and curries, and many people bring their own picnics. The screen is the same size as in a normal theatre, and the weather is just perfect at night. The moon and the stars were shining, there were fireflies, and you could see the silhouettes of the flying foxes and they crossed overhead. I really enjoyed myself and even found my way back to the hostel.

Today I plan to go to the Mindil Beach sunset market, and tomorrow I am off to Alice Springs. I have less than a week of vacation left, and then it's back to school :(

Kakadu Day 1

2007-09-22T12:16:00.000+09:30

Happy Yom Kippur, everyone! I am being good and fasting today, despite the 92 degree heat + humidity. I have secured myself an enviable chair by the pool, so I'm just going to give you a quick summary of my time in Kakadu. It will be more awesome when I can post pictures, anyway. Here is the first day; I will post the second day tomorrow (or later tonight if I feel like it).

At 7:00 AM I met the rest of my group and the tour guide, and we began our journey in a 4WD truck with no air con into Kakadu National Park. We drove through eucalyptus savannah and dry floodplains (it is, after all, the dry season; below is a picture), and ended up at the Adelaide River, where we were to go on a 'jumping croc cruise'.
Essentially this cruise is on a small boat that travels out onto the river and then dangles meat over the edge, enticing the saltwater crocodiles to jump out of the water. The biggest one we saw was 6 metres (18 feet) long! Although the jumping crocodiles was a little touristy, it was awesome to see them in their natural habitat, basking on the edge of the river or making their way slowly through the water. The one in the first picture is one of the smallest crocs we saw.

They can jump their entire body length straight into the air, which was awesome to see. The best part was once we were dangling the meat over the edge, and a sea eagle came in a dive out of the sky and grabbed it. It was an amazing bird; about the size of a bald eagle if not a little bigger, and all grey and white. There were also mudskippers on the edge of the water, and although I was excited to see them they didn't seem that interesting to anyone else. As we left, we were followed by kites, small birds of prey that swooped and dove past us.

After the cruise, we continued into the park, stopping along the way at billabongs filled with incredible birds. Our camp was beautiful, surrounded by ridiculously tall rock faces.

After we left our trailer at the campsite, we drove for fifteen minutes over a crazy dirt road filled with bumps and potholes and deep water and sharp turns to reach the Jim Jim Falls hike. There were signs everywhere warning not to swim because of crocodiles.

As we hiked (in the incredible heat), the scenery changed from relatively sparse eucalyptus to lush, rainforest-like foliage, with huge, huge, HUGE rock cliffs rising all around us. We followed an incredibly clear river and occasionally spotted small freshies (freshwater crocodiles, smaller, and not quite as dangerous) along the banks. After a long scramble up rocks, we came to a white-sand beach at the plunge pool of the dried-up-for-the-season Jim Jim Falls.

It was incredible to see, and the sheer height of the rocks surrounding us made you feel very insignificant. Apparently, this pool was also safe for swimming, as it was cut off from the main river by the rocks we had climbed to reach it.

The water was amazing and wonderful after the hike, but I still had a hard time relaxing *completely* after seeing all those crocs. There were these little frogs on the banks who, when they were scared, would actually hop on top of the water. On the way back, we stopped at an outcropping of rocks and watched the cliffs change color in the sunset.

After our hike, we headed back to camp and made a big fire. We wrapped potatoes in foil and put them in the coals to cook. As we waited, we grilled sausages, kangaroo, and made a big stir fry. After dinner, our guide taught us a bit about playing the didgeridoo and passed one around. It is HARD, but we had a lot of fun. I really liked all the people I was with, and I will tell you more about them and the rest of the trip when I do my post on the second day tomorrow.

Now, I'm going to go back to laying by the pool.

In Darwin

2007-09-19T18:14:00.000+09:30

EDIT: I have added an awesome wildlife sighting to the bottom of this post!!!

This morning, after a scare wherein the airport shuttle literally forgot about me, I managed to get to the airport with plenty of time to spare and actually slept through the three hour flight from Perth to Darwin. I am now up in the northern part of Australia, where there is no winter. Today it was around 90 degrees, and it is a little humid, although I have heard that it is nothing compared to the Wet, where it is not only 95+, but rains pretty much every day and the humidity soars.

I am so happy to be in the warmth. I stepped off the plane and the sky was blue and the sun shining. I had no issue getting to my hostel, which is right in the middle of the city (not like Darwin is much of one, but eh). There is a tank with a young crocodile in the lobby, and at nights they take him out and let people hold him. The hostel also has a huge pool and deck, with a bar and restaurant. As soon as I checked in and purchased sunscreen from the drugstore, I ran to the pool and just lay out there for a good two hours. It was really nice, although I won't even go into the kind of complex I am currently having about the way I look (see: HUGE).

Tomorrow I am going on a two day excursion into Kakadu National Park. My greatest wildlife wish for this trip is to see a frilled lizard; we are going to be hiking right in their habitat. I am SO excited to be going! Unfortunately it will be another early day, and I am exhausted, so I'm going to head to my room soon after this.

Sadly, this hostel doesn't have any facilities that let me hook up my laptop to the internet, so you will have to wait until I'm in Alice Springs to see the pictures I'll be taking. I'll still keep you updated, though! Assuming I don't get eaten by a crocodile.

I also wanted to point out that I have now been to three of the eight Australian states: South Australia, Western Australia, and Northern Territory. Exciting! I can already tell that it will be a total (and unpleasant) shock to go back to school after all of this.

-------

So after I wrote that, I decided to get a drink on the patio, as the sun was just going down, it was pleasantly cool, and the deck looks over the ocean. I was reading my book and ended up in a conversation with a really nice guy who is in the New Zealand army and is on a break from a six-month peacekeeping mission in Timor. ANYWAY, there is a big tree that has a spotlight on it next to the deck, and as we were talking I kept seeing these huge black birds flying past the light. I assumed they were crows or ravens; they were GIGANTIC and had a huge wingspan. At a lull in the conversation I actually looked over at the swooping figures, and noticed something really... odd about the wings. They weren't big and feathered, they were leathery and had fingers running down the legnth of them.

"Wait... that's a BAT!!!" I said, once again flailing and appearing twelve years old.
"Holy *&$@, that's a BAT!!!" the guy I was talking to yelled, and ran off the deck. I do not know exactly if this says anything about NZ soldiers.

So I saw my first flying foxes. They apparently are all over the place here. If you don't know what a flying fox is, look up a picture of one. They are really, really cute, with doglike faces, and they eat fruit. They are, however, ridiculously huge. Like, however big you think they are, they are MUCH bigger when they are flying around your head. Amazing animals. I am so excited about them.

Okay, now back to finally get some sleep on my girls only floor, which I am very grateful for after sharing my last dorm room with three Irish blokes. Then, tomorrow, rainforest!

Western Australian Outback

2007-09-18T22:37:00.000+09:30

Today I woke up at 6:30 to meet my 7 AM ride to the Pinnacles and a very tiny portion of the Western Australian outback. I am so glad I went; I saw a ton of great wildlife, including kangaroos, tons of parrots including white-tailed black cockatoos, and a special lizard friend. About an hour into the trip we stopped by Yanchep National Park to see their koala colony. I particularly enjoyed this one since it seemed he had fallen asleep and slumped forward to faceplant into the tree. You can even see his arm just dangling there. Awwwww.

After driving for only an hour and a half we wound up in the outback (yes, the outback does technically include the coast; it's not confined to the desert). I had to take the obligatory picture of the red dirt road stretching to nowhere, or else it's not a true outback picture.

It's the beginning of wildflower season, so we stopped to get out and look for the flowers. There were tons of them and they were all so different and interesting. This one is a poisonous pea. Once again, I took lots and lots of pictures, and these are only a few.

Not long after the wildflower stop we arrived in Nambung National Park, home of the Pinnacles. These are limestone rocks that jut straight up from the sand. It was incredible to see them. Some were over 4 m (12 ft) tall. On most of them you could see fossilized tree roots, and some seemed to form various shapes. We got to walk through them, and sometimes you can find emu and kangaroo wandering among them as well. I can only imagine how awesome they must look at sunset.

I took tons and tons of pictures; here are a few.

This is me pretending to be a Pinnacle. It started raining a little here, so my camera got a smudge on it :(

After the Pinnacles, the guy who had been sitting up front asked me if I wanted to for a while. Since I was sick of being shoved in the back of the bus, I agreed. It turns out that our guide was incredibly nice and we got along really, really well. As we were driving I saw something crossing the road, and I couldn't believe my luck. I started flailing my arms around, shouting 'SHINGLEBACK!!!' when the guide looked at me, I said 'Bobtail, sleepy lizard!!' to get the point across, still flailing. Then (I can't believe I did this) I asked him if he could stop the bus so I could get out and bother the lizard. To my surprise, he actually DID. So behold: my first wild blue-tongue shingleback. Needless to say, it was very unhappy that I ran up to it and stuck a camera in its face.

Soon afterwards we arrived in Lancelin, a tiny fishing town known pretty much for its dunes. Apparently in the summer these are really crowded, but today there was almost nobody there. They were absolutely beautiful; bone white with perfect ripples, and they overlooked the Indian Ocean in one direction and the Australian bush in the other.

After driving around the sand dunes, it was time to go sandboarding! You essentially sit on a small board and slide down gigantic hills. I even tried going on my stomach (I will probably never get all the sand out of my hair) and standing up, but I wasn't really supposed to stand so don't tell anyone. You can sort of see the hill I went down in this picture, but I eventually upgraded to an even bigger, steeper one :D

On the ride home we saw lots of emu and a few kangaroos. We got back to Perth around 7, I said goodbye to the guides, and headed off for some delicious pizza. Now I will probably go to bed soon after I finish writing this, as I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow in order to catch my flight to Darwin. I am really sad to leave Perth, but I am also looking forward to spending some time in the Australian rainforest. After this chilly weather and patchy rain, I'm off to the 90+ degree temperatures and ridiculous humidity of the Top End. Also, beaches where you can't swim because there are crocodiles. Woo!

Rottnest Island

2007-09-17T21:29:00.000+09:30

Today I went to Rottnest Island, a place I've wanted to go ever since I heard about it. The weather was supposed to be good today, so I left on the 8:45 ferry and arrived at the island at 10:30. The water both on the way and at the island itself was just the most incredible color, I couldn't believe it at all. I'm sure that Emily is used to it and has probably seen better, but I just couldn't get over it. The beaches are supposed to be fantastic for swimming and snorkeling, and there are lots of shipwrecks around that make for great diving. I had wanted to snorkel, but it was just too cold today.

As soon as I got to the island I rented a bike. Tour buses and government vehicles are the only cars allowed, and all of the development is in a very small stretch of beach. As you bike you come across amazing bays, coves, beaches, rock formations, dunes, and even woodlands, swamps, and lakes. The birds were incredible. The only issue was that it was a little windy, which isn't that great for biking, and it was very hilly. I am proud to say that I did not walk my bike once, I pushed my way up all the hills. Unfortunately, the only time I ever seemed to see tour buses was when I was struggling up a hill. I completed the whole island, over 30 km total. Here are just a few of the many pictures I took on my ride.

One of the most exciting things for me about this island is that it is the home of the world's smallest wallabies, known as quokkas. Not only is their name fantastic, but they are just so incredibly cute you don't even believe they are real when you see them. The island is called 'Rottnest' because the Dutch explorers who came across it mistook the quokkas for giant rats. I had been biking for an hour, keeping my eyes peeled, and finally, FINALLY I saw one. I would be lying if I said that I didn't throw my bike to the ground and run up to it and started talking to it and taking pictures. It was incredibly exciting, and made me feel a little dumb when it turned out there were tons around the restaurant area. However, I saw one in its natural habitat, which is heaps better, anyway.

Eventually I decided I should get back on my bike if I was going to finish my circuit around the island. I was so proud of myself for making it to the top of this hill where the lighthouse was that I took a picture of myself. This is harder than it seems when you're doing it with an SLR camera.

Here is one of the many swamps/inland lakes on the island.

This is Green Island, and the last picture I managed to take before it suddenly started POURING rain. I was completely soaked by the time I made it back. It's a good thing I was wearing my bathing suit under my clothes!

When I got back to the settlement, the rain had let up a bit and there were lots of quokka running around. It is now my pleasure to show you lots of pictures of them and their ridiculous cuteness. I mean, look at those PAWS. There were also two chasing each other around with these little hops and it was so adorable.

So it's the time of year when the quokka joeys leave the pouch and begin to strike out on their own. I was lucky enough to run into a small family near the restaurant. There was just TOO MUCH CUTE.

I thought this would be a cute family shot, but Mom's eyes turned out red so she just looks evil.

Just so you can see how small these guys really are, here is an adult wandering around one of the restaurant decks.

On the ferry home I sat across from a man who was a volunteer tour guide on the island. He told me all about its history and kept pointing out things as we were headed back to Perth. It was such an incredible day, and I can't believe that tomorrow I'm going to the Pinnacles!!!

And now I will leave you with this picture of mom and baby quokka bums. Hooray!

I was in jail today!

2007-09-15T22:41:00.000+09:30

So today, after much confusion with attempting to buy a train ticket, I found myself heading to Fremantle, a 30 minute trip outside of Perth. I wish the day had been nicer, because Freo has a very nice atmosphere and is supposed to have a lot of great beaches. It was cloudy and rainy today, however, so I contented myself with exploring what the town had to offer.

I am really glad that I went on a weekend, because the Fremantle Markets were open. They reminded me very much of the market we visited in Barcelona; lots of open stands selling pretty much everything all under a big roof (Adelaide has a market very similar to this as well, although it is much bigger). It was a lot of fun to look around and all of the fruit stalls were giving out free samples, which was tasty and awesome. There were lots of art stalls, too, and I found this artist who does great cartoonish paintings of Australian wildlife and has published a children's book. That was my favourite stall.

Afterwards I was getting a bit hungry, so I went down to the boat docks in search of fresh fish, which is one of the things that Fremantle is known for. All along the dock were restaurants proclaiming that they had the Number 1 Fish and Chips!!!, and it was hard to choose because all of their fish selections looked great. I eventually settled on one based on its awesome garbage cans.

I got my fish grilled, which I suppose isn't real fish and chips, but it is also probably (marginally) healthier. It was really fresh and tasted fantastic, which made me happy.

So, being an intellectual person who is interested in intellectual things, I figured that the best way to learn about and experience European history in Australia was to visit a prison. Fremantle has one of the best known, especially because it was used to house dangerous and violent criminals rather than the essentially harmless convicts sent to Australia as punishment for stealing bread and cheese, although it did have some of those, too. The tour was surprisingly fun and incredibly interesting. We not only toured the facilities but learned about escape attempts, famous riots, and superstitions about hauntings there. Apparently the only reason that the prison is open as a tourist attraction is because in the 1980s, there was a riot where the roof was set on fire. Tons of money was spent to fix it, and then the prison shut down in 1991 when a newer facility was built elsewhere. To help make up for the cost, they opened it to tourists. Before they moved the prisoners out, they had some of them paint murals on the walls for the tourists. This one was done by an Aboriginal prisoner; it was his idea of freedom. I like the fact that it depicts the Australian bush.

I was also amused by the 'Exit' signs.

Seriously, though, this place was scary. We saw cells, including the solitary confinement areas, and the gallows. There were even floggings here until the 1940s as punishment. The rooms were tiny and there was only one small window in each one; you couldn't even see the walkway from your room. There was also no real plumbing, only buckets. The prison was built in the early 1800s by the prisoners themselves, and I guess it would have been too much money to install newfangled things like real toilets.

In the early 1800s, when the prison was first built, the cells were incredibly tiny. A commission into the prison in 1890 resulted in them expanding the rooms, so the wall you see to the right was knocked out, increasing the size from 4' x 7' to a whopping 4' x 14'!! That's almost as big as our dorm rooms in Graham-Greenlee, which apparently also houses dangerous convicts. The similarities are striking!

After prison I was getting hungry again, so I went to Little Creatures, a brewery recommended by pretty much everybody who had ever been to Fremantle ever (three people I had spoken to at Flinders). The atmosphere was fantastic; it was well lit, which is a huge plus in my book, especially when it comes to breweries, and while I was waiting for my table they made me wear a sparkly green hat so they could find me again. I had a small glass of their beer with my dinner (open faced sandwich with avocado and portobello mushroom on grilled bread), and it was one of the best I have ever had. I haven't really had much beer, though, so who knows how good it really was. I enjoyed it, that's all that mattered! Also, I just realised that I really like describing my food to you through my blog. I can't help it; you must know every detail.

After Little Creatures I pretty much rolled around Fremantle until I happened upon the train station, and it was an uneventful train ride back to Perth. So much for going to Australia and coming back all buff and tan. Right now I am pasty and so full of food I may burst. It's just such a pleasant change after the peanut butter and jelly and bland cafeteria stuff at the Hall to have real food!!!

So there are some great natural formations in the areas surrounding Perth that can be seen on a day trip. I only have the time and budget for one. I can't decide between wave rock (the first picture) or the Pinnacles (the second). I am leaning toward the Pinnacles, because they just look so *weird*, plus you get to go sand surfing, but wave rock also looks awesome and you get to visit a cave as well. Hmmm. Anyone have any suggestions?

Travelling again!

2007-09-14T21:14:00.000+09:30

Hello all!

I am currently in Perth, after a flight that would have been uneventful if not for the fact that while I was attempting to sleep the two people on either side of me were engaging in a loud conversation with each other (I was in the middle seat) and gesticulating such that I kept getting hit.

Anyway, I am excited to be here. The weather isn't supposed to be great, but there seems to be a lot to do even when it's not that sunny. I will have at least one sunny day, during which I hope to go to Rottnest Island.

Well, it's only eight but I'm pretty tired. I'm going to wake up early tomorrow and head to Fremantle, which is supposed to be awesome. Since I am now travelling around, I should be updating my blog more often, so check back!

THANK YOU!!!

2007-09-03T14:00:00.000+09:30

Thank you everyone for your wonderful birthday wishes!!! I truly appreciate it and it is wonderful to hear from so many people even though I am far away :)

I am posting some videos that you may enjoy. The first should make Emily happy, as it is essentially what she was telling me about before I came here. The second makes me incredibly happy, because I am an obsessive fangirl. :D

Everyday Adventures

2007-08-27T21:00:00.000+09:30

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while! It's just that school is in full swing and I haven't really had much of a chance to travel around, although that doesn't mean I've just been sitting in my room doing nothing! I am very involved in the activities that Uni Hall puts on, and I typically go out on the weekends and I am working hard in school. Today we went out to survey a possible site for studying garden skinks in my research class, and it is a beautiful area that I will share pictures of at a later date. As it stands, I haven't been posting much because most of my pictures are simply of me and a bunch of people that none of you know, and in a lot of them I'm not looking, well, my best.

The above picture was taken on a pub crawl for all of the Adelaide universities. The Hall has its own pub crawl in October. It was a lot of fun, there was much dancing, and we got to see some of North Adelaide. The picture below was taken before our first formal dinner, which had an 'International' theme. I had nothing to wear, so one of my friends came over and dressed me up. I had no real nationality, I suppose I could have said I was 'beachy'?

ANYWAY, you are probably more interested in Australia itself than in my social life. I don't have too many pictures of the city of Adelaide, which I hope to remedy this week. My classes end at 12 on Tuesday and at 11 on Wednesday, and I have no classes on Monday or Friday. This makes going to the beach or to the city very easy, and I have been to both many times now. Adelaide is a great city; it's not too busy but it has a lot of charm. There are parks everywhere, and although I haven't been yet, the botanic gardens are supposed to be amazing. I plan on going this Friday (they have free tours at 10 AM and I haven't been bothered to get up that early on a Friday yet). So plan on having more pictures from the city soon!

The main street, King William Street, starts at Victoria Square. Unfortunately, this street is currently under a lot of construction which can make it a pain coming in by bus sometimes.

The big shopping street is known as Rundle Mall. This is a pedestrian zone lined with shops and booths. One of the best things about Rundle is the bronze pig statues. I can't help but become five years old whenever I see them. All of the pigs have names. I forget the name of this one, but there is one named Olivia who is eating out of a trash can.

This pig that me and my friend So Xi are riding is named Truffles! So Xi (pronounced 'Suzie') is helping me feel better about my tendency to act like a small child.

Travel ten minutes from Flinders campus and you end up in Glenelg, a fun little beachside suburb and palindrome. I went last Friday, as the weather is finally starting to warm up! This is Jetty Street, the main street. There are shops all up and down and it definitely has a real laid-back and beachy vibe to it.

This fountain randomly shoots water up to different heights at random times. It reminded me very much of Aspen! Also, you can see the Dublin in the background. As the ad suggests, they have live music every Sunday. They also have pretty good food for a pub, and it's not too expensive. I have a friend who likes to go there every weekend and sit on the balcony. You can listen to the music and look out at the ocean while having dinner.

And here is the jetty for which Jetty Street is named!

Although it is still technically winter, the water was warm enough that some people were swimming. I cannot WAIT for the summer! There are miles and miles of beach that are similar to this; as you move around you can find beaches that are also good for boogy boarding or surfing.

I see some pretty amazing sunsets from my window, but I haven't been able to get too many pictures of them. Hopefully this will change in the future now that I am more settled in. I liked this one because in the areas where it was raining the clouds had turned bright pink.

Here you can see the city of Adelaide as I see it from my window.

So that's pretty much it. I've been very busy, going out and having dinner with friends, going to the movies, dancing, doing schoolwork, going to sports events for our Hall (we are the Flinders Uni Hall Sharks, and I included a picture of the girl's soccer team playing last Sunday. We won and were awesome. It was also a gorgeous day, and was made better by the fact that we were sitting in the sun watching our friends play soccer and there were parrots flying around. How crazy and awesome is that?) I will post more pictures of the city itself and spare you the details of my social life soon. This ended up being longer than I intended!

Flinders Ranges

2007-08-06T13:31:00.000+09:30

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been updating, but I have literally just been going to classes and sitting around my room. This past weekend, though, I went on a camping trip with the International Student Services Unit into the Flinders Ranges, at the edge of the Outback. This map shows where we went; on our way back we passed through the Clare Valley.

We left Adelaide at 6:30 in the morning and headed to Quorn, a fantastically named little town that seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere until we traveled further and saw what the middle of nowhere actually was. On our way we passed by the Spencer Gulf, home of Australia's longest wooden jetty. There was also this, which we couldn't quite figure out.

We stopped for lunch in a small town, where we saw some Kookaburra! Every time we would try to get close enough to take a picture, they would fly away and make a very loud call that sounded remarkably like a laugh.

Finally, after driving for a ridiculously long time, we arrived at Alligator Gorge, where we did our first hike. There were lots of wild kangaroos around and the gorge itself was beautiful.

Finally, we arrived in Quorn, put our stuff in the hostel, and went on our first real hike, up Devil's Peak. I don't have too many pictures of the way up, as I was having difficulty breathing, but I finally reached the top. The views were incredible, and the haze you see comes from the oils in the eucalyptus leaves.It was very windy, and I was trying my best not to die in this picture. There is a sheer drop all around the top of Devil's Peak.

We all wanted to see the incredible sunset, which unfortunately resulted in us having to run down the mountain before it got dark. Some people saw an echidna, and I was very jealous.

That night we had an amazing stir fry and relaxed in the hostel. We got up bright and early the next morning, spent about ten minutes wandering around the train station, and then headed up to Wilpena Pound, the "gateway" to the Flinders Ranges. This is the train station in Quorn. It was pretty much the only thing there.

On our way up, we stopped to see some Aboriginal cave drawings.

Finally, we reached Wilpena Pound and began the hike to St. Mary's Peak. Right away, we spotted a kangaroo with its older joey. They were both very cute, but wild kangaroos are very flighty and it was hard to get close enough to take pictures. A lot of them are also very large and intimidating.

Does this scenery look familiar? I was reminded very much of hiking around Arizona while we were climbing the trail. For a lot of the hike, we had to actually scale the rocks so I got to use some of my rock climbing skills.

At the saddle before the peak, we had a beautiful view of the mountain ranges. Australia's mountains are extremely old, and these are some of the oldest. The person in the picture is Anthony, our guide/driver.

More views from the top.

At the end of the hike we found this gigantic eucalyptus and had some people stand inside of it for size comparison purposes.

After the hike, we were all extremely tired and sweaty, and we headed straight to our campsite. It was evening, and we had to drive very slowly over the dirt road because there were TONS of kangaroos and wallabies eating by the side of the road. Sometimes they would hop alongside the bus for a while. We also had to wait for a camel to make its way across the road, which was unusual. That night we had a barbecue, and it was amazing. We cooked vegetables, steak, sausages, and kangaroo meat. The kangaroo was very lean and had a sweet taste; I really liked it. That night we sat around a fire and played games. When the generators turned off, the stars were incredibly clear. You could very easily see the milky way and the sheer number of stars was incredible.

The next morning Anthony made us all pancakes, then we rented bikes and went for an 8 km bike ride down a dirt road that passed through a gorge. Once again, lots of kangaroos and great scenery. As with the hiking, I somehow found myself at the front of the group (perhaps I inherited the 'hiking really fast and leaving everyone behind' from Dad?), and so I was able to take pictures of everyone coming in. Once you hit the top of this hill, the outback just stretched out forever. There were cockatoos flying overhead, and in the distance you could see the silhouettes of emus walking around; they looked like dinosaurs.

A flock of cockatoos at the station where we dropped off our bikes.

On our way back, there was a sign for a motel that cooked roadkill. Mmm.

We stopped at two wineries in the Clare Valley on our way back to Adelaide. Both were in very beautiful places and the wines were good, although I don't know anything about wine so that doesn't mean much. At the Sevenhills Winery, there was a cat named Frontignac who was my favorite part.

So that was my trip. I'm sorry that I didn't write too much; I really am not feeling very creative or inclined to write right now, but I figured that since I haven't updated this in a while I probably should.

Cleland Park and Granite Island

2007-07-22T22:58:00.001+09:30

Today was amazing! I signed up for a trip through the International Student Services Unit to go to Mt. Lofty, Cleland Wildlife Park, and Granite Island. I've become friendly with a girl from California and a bunch of other students (mostly from Sweden and Norway, but a few from South Korea and Indonesia as well) and they came on the trip too, which made it even better. First we went up to Mt. Lofty, which isn't really a mountain, but is still the highest point in the Adelaide region. From the top we had fantastic views of the city and the ocean, and the drive took us through eucalyptus forests where we saw lots of wild koalas just hanging out in the trees. It was very exciting because we passed by a sign that said "Koala crossing next 35 km" and had a picture of a koala walking on FOUR LEGS, because that's how koalas walk, Rick. We only spent twenty minutes there, and afterwards we headed to Cleland Wildlife Park, which I think is the coolest place EVER.

This wildlife park only has animals from South Australia. You enter and they give you this big bag of food and tell you that you can feed any free-roaming animal. The enclosures are really just huuuge grassy pastures with lots of eucalyptus trees and animals lounging around. The first area we went to had tons of grey and red kangaroos, all of whom looked very relaxed.

As you approach the kangaroos, they sort of reluctantly heft themselves up and hop over to you, expecting food. They were like big rabbits and were incredibly, unbelievably soft. I want one. After they finished whatever was in your hand, they would become very interested in the bag. I also got a few tugs on my jacket sleeve. This little guy also put his front paws on my leg and stuck his face in mine while I was busy trying to get another handful of food out.

Me petting one of the smaller red kangaroos. There were some really big guys, but I didn't really feel like seeing what it would be like to bother one. There was a funny moment where a little kid, maybe five or six, ran past us, chasing a big red kangaroo who was hopping away as if this happened all the time.

These shaggy-haired kangaroos are found only on Kangaroo Island. They were much shier than the other roos. I can't wait to go to KI and see them in the wild!

There were also wallabies around, but they were very flighty. They are way too cute not to include here, though!

The waterbirds were incredible, and I really like the way this one's neck is curved around.

And the highlight of the park: I got to hold a koala!!! His name was Osmond. He was very heavy and fluffly and soft, and in order to keep him placated, the woman kept feeding him leaves. For a few minutes he was chewing them very loudly right in my face and wouldn't look at the camera, and I got a faceful of eucalyptus leaves. Eventually we got him to look at the camera. I considered attempting to run out the door while he was in my arms, but that probably wouldn't have gone over well. So I have apprehended a koala, fed it a leaf, and pet it on the back of its head. It was awesome. The picture is much better in real life, but I don't have a scanner here so I had to take a picture of the picture.

Some of the enclosures had emus wandering around, which I appreciated. I liked this one's hair. After I took this picture one of my friends tried to touch it and it sort of reared up really high and ran away, which was terrifying.

There were also dingoes!! They pretty much look like the most beautiful dogs ever. I want one of these, too.

After the park, we drove to Victor Harbor, which I would love to visit in the summer. The drive was absolutely gorgeous, through eucalyptus forests (more koala sightings there) and hills dotted with gum trees. The sun was setting and we kept getting glimpses of the ocean as the sky turned all sorts of colors and the hills turned deep orange. It was amazing. Victor Harbor was a very cute little town, too, with lots of restaurants and pubs situated on the waterfront. We walked across a long bridge to Granite Island, where the smallest penguins in the world, Little Blue Penguins, come ashore at night. There we met up with a tour guide who took us around the island. We saw tons of penguins!! They are SO cute, and they really are blue. White light bothers them, so I had to take pictures using the red light of the flashlight, so they turned out really badly. I can't believe I saw penguins in the wild.

Now it's late and I'm getting ready to go to sleep. I want to read more Harry Potter, though! I am woefully behind.

BIRDS.

2007-07-18T13:04:00.000+09:30

It's a beautiful day today, and this morning I took the zoom lens out to take some pictures of birds. I couldn't find any Galahs or Cockatoos, and the Rainbow lorikeets were hidden in the leaves, but I did get some pictures of another type of lorikeet, the Eastern Rosella. I'm kind of proud of these pictures, even if they are a bit dark. The normal-looking birds are Crested Pigeons, which always look as if they're surprised, the black and white bird is an Australian Magpie, and I have no idea what the flying bird is; I was just happy I got the shot.

The first three pictures are fantails from New Zealand. I loved these birds and these are my favorite pictures. I particularly like the second one, where you can see the insect the bird is chasing.

(I have signed up for my classes, too, but I will write more on that later. Now that I am at school, there aren't as many exciting things happening.)

Look at these in full size!!

I love Ron

2007-07-14T17:50:00.001+09:30

Today I explored campus. I will admit that the buildings are really ugly, but the campus itself is beautiful. It takes me about five minutes to walk to the main campus from the dorms, but it is through eucalyptus forest that turns into pine forest and across a bridge with fantastic views of the ocean. There are also hiking trails that wind all around the forested areas of campus; I think they would be good for running in the mornings and I am excited to explore them.

There is also a lake in the middle of campus that has ducks and this large, blue water bird with a red beak and forehead (click here to see one). There are also parrots everywhere!! Aside from the lorikeets that live outside my window (and pretty much everywhere else), there are also Galahs , my favorite, and even Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos !! It's crazy that these birds are just flying around everywhere. They are very loud.

So... after wandering around a very empty campus (it is still winter break here), I decided to go to the mall. There is a big one about a five minute bus ride away, and I had a very good time. In the bookstore, one of the employees had the same taste in books as me and recommended a ton of things. I bought two of the books she recommended that looked good, and now I have a list of even more that I need to read. I got a card for the store so I get very good discounts on certain days of the week. Also, it gives me a place to buy Harry Potter when it comes out!

Speaking of Harry Potter, I also saw the movie while I was at the mall. Movies are expensive here, but I get a decent student discount and on Tuesdays the movies are like $5. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It probably helped that this was the only book that I only read once, and I don't really remember it because it was all in one sitting on an airplane, so I didn't notice anything missing. I am in love with Ron. And Fred and George.

I am going to go make myself dinner now. Here are some pictures of campus! The first is the view when I step out of my dorm, and you get two pictures of lorikeets because they are pretty and I like them.

ALSO! If you want my address or phone number, let me know!!

In Australia!

2007-07-14T08:06:00.000+09:30

I am finally in Australia! You can tell by the change in flag.

There really isn't much to say. My dorm is all right; I have my own room, which is bigger than my shared room at Graham-Greenlee was. It is connected to a hallway with six other rooms, and we have a shared bathroom, lounge area, and kitchen. In the lounge is a Christmas tree with empty bottles of vodka and beer strung from it, so I'm not quite sure what to think.

There is only one other person here right now, a very nice guy from Singapore. Everyone else is away and probably won't come back until school starts in a week.

I haven't explored the main campus yet (I will do that today), but we do have a beautiful view from the dorms. The Hall is situated on a hill that looks out over the city to one side and the ocean to the other. From my desk I can see the water, which is a nice change. There is also a huge gum tree outside my window, and in it right now is a huge flock of lorikeets. It is amazing to see these parrots just flying around! Between the lorikeets and the eucalyptus, I might as well be in San Diego. When we were driving in, we saw rosy cockatoos just wandering around on someone's lawn. It was very cool.

Although I am happy to be here, I do have to say that I am pretty lonely. I hope that things will get better as more people arrive. I miss everyone so much!

I am in love

2007-07-12T15:03:00.000+09:30

I am totally in love with New Zealand (En Zed) and may never, ever want to leave. I am actually sad that I am leaving for Australia tomorrow!

Today I went canyoning and it was completely incredible. I was picked up at the Sky Tower by our wonderfully nice guide named Cam, and we also picked up a girl a few years older than me from Manchester; her name is Elizabeth. We had a lot in common and exchanged e-mails; she told me about this pub that has live music and is right on the harbor, so I am going there after I write this to have dinner.

We drove to Piha, this little community right on the Tasman Sea in the Waitakere mountain ranges, about forty minutes west of Auckland. There we joined up with an Australian couple from Melbourne who also came on our tour. The beach was incredibly beautiful black sand and after our adventure Cam let Elizabeth and I just explore.

After we got suited up in our wetsuits, we drove to the trailhead and began our hike. After a steep, long climb (on the way stopped to rest and got juice and chocolate, so it wasn't that grueling), we ended up at the top of a waterfall that we rappelled (they call it abseiling, which is ridiculous) down in three parts. Here is me rappelling and all of us at the bottom after the third stretch.

We had lunch at the bottom, then hiked a bit through the canyon and rappelled not just down a waterfall, but IN a waterfall. That was extremely intense, but very fun. Cam told us that "if you feel you can't breathe, just tilt your head down and there will be a pocket of air!" I think he was lying, because I never discovered this mysterious air pocket.

That was the last of our rappelling. Afterwards we scrambled through the canyon, squeezing ourselves through caves and jumping off cliffs (sorry Mom!). The canyon was lush and green, the sun was shining (this was incredible luck; it had been raining here for the past few days), and I never wanted to leave. By the way, the thing that looks like a red diaper is actually my harness. No making fun of me.

Now I am back in the city and I love it. I am having the best time and can't believe I have to leave tomorrow. I'm headed out to a bar where everything is made from ice, and then I'm going to have dinner and then come back and pack. I need to be ready to go by 5 in the morning tomorrow!!!

Back in Auckland

2007-07-11T17:26:00.001+09:30

I'm back in Auckland! I'm canyoning tomorrow, and then the day after I am off to Australia. It will be nice to have a real place to stay for an extended period of time. Anyway, as you can see, I have added all of the pictures from as far back as the Waitomo caves. Sorry there are so many.

You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them! Practice with this map showing our route around North Island:

Rotorua!

2007-07-11T17:02:00.000+09:30

I hope you liked the geothermal stuff! Not only do you have pictures from Wai-O-Tapu yesterday, now you have pictures from Craters of the Moon, an area near Taupo that is pockmarked with steaming craters. It felt like we were on a different planet, if different planets have steam everywhere. And ducks. There was hissing everywhere and I was afraid that something was going to explode while we were there.

Afterwards, we headed to Rotorua and saw bubbling mud pools (I loved these) and a geyser, and then we went and saw MORE bubbling geothermal areas at Hell’s Gate. All of these thermal pools have names referring to the devil and/or hell, which I think is kind of predictable.

At Hell’s Gate, we had the opportunity to do some Maori carving, which involves chiseling wood. I made a silver fern (this is NZ’s official emblem, not the kiwi, although this should be changed) and I was very proud of my sad-looking result.

After Hell’s Gate we were pretty tired of seeing how New Zealand was always on the verge of blowing up. On our way out of Rotorua, I made Barbara stop so that I could throw out my parent’s money by placing myself in a giant hamster ball (with a bucket of warm water for good measure) and rolling down a hill. That’s right, I went Zorbing!! It was very exciting. I was given a little wetsuit that said “Zorbonaut” on the back, was placed in a giant inflatable ball with some warm water, and pushed down a hill. I opted for the Zig-Zag Zorb, where I got to go down the hill in a zig-zag pattern instead of straight down (look to the right of the big hill in the pictures). It was SO MUCH FUN!!! I tried to run all the way down, but it was nearly impossible to stand up. I give hamsters a lot of credit. Instead I would try to stand and then I just got sloshed around a lot, but it was great. You can do a Zorb with up to three people in a ball at once. Who wants to come to New Zealand and Zorb with me?

Now we are in a hostel in Hamilton, and it is very nice. We are headed back to Auckland tomorrow. I’m going to do some Auckland activities tomorrow, and then I’m canyoning on Thursday, and then I’m off to Australia!

Huka Falls and Wai-O-Tapu

2007-07-11T16:50:00.000+09:30

Today we went to Taupo, and we saw some incredible things!! The first was Huka Falls, where a river forces itself through this small chute and so it rushes really, really fast and finally spills out into a larger area. There is A LOT of water, and it is all this incredible light blue color. I have been told that the color is even nicer in the summer/when it is sunny out, but I do not believe it.

After Huka Falls we went to Wai-O-Tapu, an incredible geothermal area. It smells like a fart, but it’s so incredible that it makes up for this easily*. The colors were so intense and amazing and my stupid camera didn’t really capture them. There was this one pool called Devil’s Bath which was a bright, neon-green color that my camera refused to duplicate. Oh well, here are some bad pictures.

*Emily, take note.

Te Urewera Hike

2007-07-11T16:21:00.000+09:30

The hike was beautiful and incredible. I have been writing too much in each of my blogs; I think this one will be just pictures. Although it was a beautiful day, the melting snow made it seem as if it was raining for most of the hike, but it was amazing anyway. The first lake is Lake Waikaremoana, which we drove around, and the second is Lake Waikareiti, which we hiked to. It was so incredibly clear and the color was intense. Anyway, here are your pictures.

PS. I discovered how to make panoramic pictures!

Sheepskins and Kiwis

2007-07-08T05:53:00.000+09:30

Our days in Napier were pretty good. The weather wasn't great, but fortunately there were things to do indoors, including a kiwi house! I got to see kiwis snuffling about, which was awesome. They are very cute and can be forgiven for thinking they are mammals. We also saw tuatara, which I have to say has added to my life greatly. It was hard to get pictures of the kiwis, since it was dark, they are nocturnal, and flash frightens them, but I got some pictures of brown furry blobs, which pretty much sums them up anyway.

We then toured Classic Sheepskins, which was quite terrifying but also provided us with the opportunity to buy cheap wool. I got some socks which have served me very well, considering it is FREEZING!! Also, I found out I suffer from Roundface.
On a side note, we have had pretty bad weather, but it thankfully is clearing for the next three days. The reason it is clearing, however, is because there is a front of air directly from Antarctica that is blowing over New Zealand. So yes, it is cold.

Yesterday morning we got up early and did a behind-the-scenes tour at Marineland, which was awesome because we got to feed and play with the dolphins and sea lions and it was ridiculously cheap. We then drove up to a lookout and got amazing views of Hawke's Bay, which I can't wait to share with you. Then it was nonstop driving through more beautiful countryside to Wairoa, which is where we are now.

We are planning on a hike in the Te Urewera wilderness, which is supposed to afford fantastic views of various lakes. Unfortunately, Barbora accidentally locked the keys in the trunk (or boot, as I must now learn to call it). Roadside assistance came with the car, so now we are just waiting for them to show up, then we will be on our way!

Crossing Kiwi -a-Gogo Land

2007-07-06T06:23:00.000+09:30

After we left the caves at Waitomo, we traveled south to Mt. Taranaki, a huge mountain that rises from nowhere next to the ocean. Unfortunately, we had terrible weather. The mountain was completely covered in clouds and it was raining the whole time. We drove up as far as we could, however, and were rewarded with amazing rainforest and signs warning us to be quiet because there were kiwi around. We were a little disappointed that we didn't get to see the mountain, but we were staying in a nice lodge near the base with a lot of nice people, so it wasn't a total loss.

On our way out the next morning (this would be yesterday), it had cleared up, but the mountain was still shrouded. Barbora told me to keep an eye out, but I wasn't very hopeful that we would get to see it. As we were driving away, however, a small part of the peak became visible and there was a mad dash to pull the car over and take pictures. It was beautiful sight, made all the more interesting by the fact that there weren't any other mountains around; it just shot straight up from level ground. These are my two favorite pictures.

As we drove through Taranaki, there were signs all over that said in big letters: "Talk about it! Taranaki lifeline (phone number)" I guess you call the number if you are bored and want to talk about it?

The rest of the day was spent driving. We had really been in the middle of nowhere in rural New Zealand, and there was beautiful scenery as we drove of pastures and snow covered peaks. At one point, as we crossed from the west to the east, we passed through a mountain gorge with rainforest on all sides.

Do you like sheep? Come to New Zealand!

Now we are in Napier, which counts in New Zealand as a city, although it's more of a small town. It was destroyed in a nearthquake in the 1930s, and was rebuilt in an art deco style. It's fun to walk around, but there really isn't much to it. Our hostel is a five minutes walk from th etown center and gorgeous views of Hawke's Bay. We are spending a day here, and tomorrow we are headed to Te Urewera national park to do some hiking.

Here is a map of where he have been so far. We are covering a lot of the North Island! I miss you all very much!

Waitomo Caves

2007-07-04T12:00:00.000+09:30

Whoo! I am writing this in my bed at a hostel in Waitomo. The hostel is a converted farmhouse, and we are surrounded by rolling green hills dotted with sheep. When you approach the main building, there is a pen with a few cows and a very fat, very happy pig. I am SO happy I had the opportunity to come here.

Today was mostly driving. Barbara and I left The Brown Kiwi and rented a car, which we drove pretty much nonstop to Waitomo through amazing countryside. Much of it looks like Europe, with soft green hills undulating* across the landscape. Unlike Europe, however, there are occasionally sharp rises of hills with prehistoric-looking foliage (think of ferns that tower over you and that are larger than most trees). It’s beautiful and we passed some incredible scenery. It rained on us on and off, which is apparently the norm in the winter here, and we saw five rainbows, which added to the scenery nicely.

We left Auckland around 11:30 and arrived in Waitomo at 2, an hour before the last blackwater rafting trip left. We signed up for it, saw this hostel across the street, and found that it had vacancies tonight. I am really surprising myself; you know that I always like to have things planned out ahead of time. Yet I get here, on a whim go on a road trip across the North Island, and go off to places where I am not sure if I will be able to find a place to sleep. Thankfully, this is New Zealand’s off season for travelers, since it’s winter.
ANYWAY, so we barely had time to put all of our stuff in our room before going black water rafting. It was INCREDIBLE. Essentially, you go into these gigantic, ridiculously deep (69m below the ground!) caves, strap a light to your head that only allows you to see an inch in front of you, and ride down the rapids inside in an inner tube. It was thrilling and amazing and everything else you can think of. At one point, we held the tubes around our middles and jumped off a waterfall. The caves were flooded since it has been raining so much, and the rapids were fast and exciting; we didn’t have to do a lot of trekking through the cave. This was good, because when we did, the current kept making me fall down and look like an idiot.

Barbara and I were the only ones on our trip, and we had three really nice guides. We had a chance to stop occasionally in the cave and look at the ceiling, where glow worms were strung like Christmas lights along the ceiling. They looked like stars against the black ceiling. It was surreal and beautiful, and you can see them in this picture (enlarge it), and now I must ruin it for you. Glow worms are fly larva. They spin silk around themselves to anchor to the ceilings of caves, then poop onto a bit of silk and dangle it down. This poop is what is luminescent and glows, and so insects are attracted to it and get stuck in the silk. So the beautiful glow worms are simply maggots who fish for food using shiny shit. Hooray!

Despite this, however, huge clusters of them are quite amazing. Near the end of the cave, one of our guides told us, “Now we like to play a game. It’s called ‘turn off your light and find your own way out of the cave’.” I thought she was kidding, but apparently not! We were told to follow the glow worms, which we did, and we floated slowly out of the cave, emerging into the New Zealand rainforest, and drifted downriver back to our starting point. There was a dock there where we had practiced jumping for the waterfall jump, and so now we jumped off or fun a few times. This is me in all of the pictures :)

Afterwards we had hot showers and tomato soup, which was a perfect end. Okay, now I’m going to go to sleep, and I am sorry this turned out to be SO LONG!!! I will try to be a lot more concise in future installments.

*I already used the word “rolling”.

HUGE Change of Plans!!!

2007-07-02T18:38:00.000+09:30

SO

While I was writing that last post, I was speaking with this girl, Barbara, who is finishing up a five month exchange program. She is from the Czech Republic and is studying genetics and molecular biology and is currently doing work with horse DNA and West Nile Virus. Anyway, we started talking and really hit it off, and it turns out we are both going to Waitomo tomorrow to visit the glow worm caves.

From there, however, she is going all around the North Island for the next eight days, and invited me to go with her. I am SO excited! I thought I would be stuck in Auckland for 11 days, and trust me, that would get VERY boring very fast.

And so I bumped my canyoning trip to July 12th and I'm headed out tomorrow! I suppose I have to take all of my food with me, but the hostel is holding all of my unnecessary luggage so I'm just taking my backpack. Here are some of the places we will visit:

Glow worm caves in Waitomo
Napier overlooking Hawke's Bay
Hiking in a national park whose name escapes me at the moment
Geothermal pools in Rotorua

This is really, really exciting for me, and I am very much looking forward to it. I am going to get a chance to see some of the natural beauty of New Zealand that I would not have been able to see otherwise. Barbara has been to all but one of these places, too, so she knows what she wants to see and where to go.

Whee!

First Days and Time Travel

2007-07-02T16:17:00.000+09:30

Today was unnecessarily long, and so this post will be unnecessarily long, as it will encompass my plane flight and my first day in New Zealand.

The flight did not seem too bad, although the plane seemed as if it was too large to ever possibly take off. The ride was very smooth and we had almost no turbulence. There were a lot of movies and tv episodes to keep us entertained, the seats were a decent size, and I had an aisle seat near the front of the plane. The guy in the seat next to me was a very friendly Aucklander who spoke to me a lot, but thankfully ended up falling asleep and not keeping me awake. I was pretty sure that I had only slept three hours, but considering that the flight didn’t feel like it took very long I’m sure I drifted off for longer than that.

Also, I ceased to exist for July 1^st. It was very interesting that we were traveling to the west, so we left during the night and kept following the sunset and were in the dark the entire time.

I felt very accomplished when we finally arrived, even though I did little actual work to get here. It's just that it's so far away, and then things are even crazier when you get here and it's kind of like Europe. So that was my uneventful plane ride. Waiting to get my passport stamped took a while, and then I had to show customs my hiking boots for some reason, but everything went smoothly. On the shuttle to the hostel I sat behind a couple from Adelaide, and they kept trying to talk to me about it, but although at first I was feeling very alert I found myself nodding off.

The hostel is very nice. There are a lot of people here. I ended up in this four person room currently occupied by another girl whom I haven’t met yet and two guys from Austria who are finishing up a trip around the world. One of them is unnaturally tall. We have bunk beds, and he can just arrange stuff on his top bed without climbing up there or standing on his toes or anything. They are leaving tomorrow, though, so I will have new roommates probably by the time you read this.

The owner is sweet, as well, although apparently I have to cook dinner for the hostel on Wednesday night. I told him that that may be a problem for anyone who has to eat whatever I make. Does anyone have any ideas for something that is easy/cheap to throw together? I can make angel hair pasta with chicken and basil and tomatoes, and that is pretty much it.

It was raining when the plane landed and I was awake, so I figured I would go to the Auckland Museum today. However, by the time we got to the hostel, the sun was out and so I decided to check out downtown Auckland.

Auckland reminds me both of New York and downtown San Diego at the same time. Also, Europe. It is very busy (although I concede not on the scale of NY), but it has the harbor that you can see from pretty much anywhere. It also has the Sky Tower, which is apparently the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere? I don’t know if that’s true, but it is really tall. It is so tall, in fact, and so in the middle of the city that you would think I would be able to not lose it. You would be wrong. I looked up at the skyline and suddenly couldn’t find it anywhere. Eventually, I did find it again, and it turns out that I had been below it the whole time. I went up to the top, where I found out you could actually bungee jump off the very top, which is ridiculous. I opted not to, as I only have one good pair of pants and I would prefer them stay in good condition, but it turns out that the people who bungee jump fall right past the observation window, which is almost as bad.

ALSO, the floor was made of glass. It was terribly frightening. I was also not encouraged by the bullseye that someone had hilariously thought to put down below us.

Regardless, I got some nice pictures. Auckland is a nice city; it has a lot of parks, a beautiful harbor, and lots of surrounding volcanoes and islands. Sorry for the quality; it was taken through glass.

It feels much later than it actually is. Apparently it’s only 3 in the afternoon, but I feel like it’s very late in the evening. I have done very well by not sleeping, although I did have a scary moment where I nodded off on the bus and almost missed my stop. I may give in and take a nap, wake up to have dinner, and go back to sleep. That sounds like a good idea for today.

Tomorrow I will either go to the zoo or the Auckland Museum, and I am going to try and fit in day trips to Rangitoto and Tiritiri islands, one of which is a hike on a dormant volcano (with side paths to lava caves) and the other a bird sanctuary, I have canyoning on Saturday, and I want to try and make it south to the glowworm caves and east to Rotorua and the LotR set. I may turn this into a two day trip. Even with that, I still have like four days left (my flight leaves July 13 at 8 in the morning). I have no idea how I’m going to fill them. I may look into going to Devonport and this other island as well (that’s two more days), and I may also do whale watching/a day visiting the Auckland Art Gallery and One Tree Hill. Hmmmm.

You don't know that time has passed, but it has! I slept for about two hours and now I'm not all that sleepy, oops. It's only 7, but it started raining again so I'm not sure I'm going to leave again tonight.

So anyway I woke up at around five and decided it would be a really good idea to go shopping. The supermarket is about a ten minute walk down a hill, and at the top there is a really good view of the Auckland skyline. I have to say that the Sky Tower (I keep wanting to type the Space Needle) is quite impressive and futuristic looking all lit up. When I left, the night was very clear and cool and wonderful. Speaking of which, the temperature has been nice and cool, but not too cold, except near the harbor, where it is windy.

The supermarket had a lot of weird things in it, most notably about fifty varieties of yams. Apparently the Maoris really like yams.

OKAY something really exciting just happened so I'm going to cut this boring play-by-play of me buying groceries short and tell you about it in the next post!

At the airport!

2007-07-01T09:28:00.000+09:30

Greetings everyone! I am here in LAX awaiting my flight to New Zealand, where I will be spending 11 days before heading to Adelaide. My flight leaves in five hours, and this terminal is painfully small. There are two restaurants and a Starbucks, all of which I plan on visiting while here.

So a little over a year ago I was waiting in this same terminal (at this same gate!) for the flight to Costa Rica. In fact, if I were to just sit around here until 2:25 AM, I could potentially just go to CR instead. It *is* tempting, but would probably not work out too well.

While waiting in the security line (which went much faster than expected, considering it was wrapped all around to the other set of gates), I met a group of four guys who will be on my flight. They are heading to the South Island to go heli-skiing pretty much when they disembark the plane. It sounded very exciting, but I will probably be going straight to sleep instead of jumping out of helicopters with skis when I arrive. I kept accidentally knocking them around with my gigantic, unwieldy backpack and I don't think they were impressed.

I don't feel like I am really leaving, and especially not for six months. I wonder when it will finally kick in. I am not looking forward to 13 hours on an airplane.

I am very uninspired. Can you tell? I wanted at least one post here before I sent out the address. I hope future posts will be more interesting.

Oh, and just in case you are curious, here is where I will be in New Zealand:

And just in case you are Emily and think NZ is located in Europe, here is New Zealand:

Good bye for now!