Stayin Alive

Sunday June 28th

Our first day in the car and we didn't run anyone over, drive off the road, or hit anything (significant)- a success! The driving actually wasn't quite as bad as we were thinking, but it is still really strange. The turn signals are on the right hand side, and we both reached for the seatbelt over the wrong shoulder when we got in. Caitlin made us a sign reminding us to stay to the left, and the rental car company has one stuck on the dash as well. It was pretty bad driving conditions today, too. It was pouring rain, and when a semitruck passed the opposite direction (both of us going 100km/hr and only a few feet apart) we were hit with a giant WHOOSH of water and wind and a bit of screaming ensued. Overall though, it wasn't too bad:)

We made the 6 hour trip north from Wellington and are in Rotorua for the night. It is an area of high geothermal activity, and the whole place smells like rotten eggs. Delicious. Actually, Tiffany and I both kind of wanted deviled eggs while we were driving in. We are gross.

We have an adventure packed day planned for tomorrow. See some bubbling mud, exploding geysers, a bit of Maori culture, hot springs and a spa, and roll down the hill in a giant hamster ball (aka zorbing). Rotorua should be a good place!

Helloooo New Zealand!

Caitlin and I finally made it into Wellington at 7:30am on Thursday. Luckily the people at the hostel were nice and didn't make us pay for the night we missed and also let us check in right away. We dumped our stuff and met Tiffany! It was an excellent reunion- I haven't seen her since Christmas, which is the longest separation we've had in 6 years. So there was a lot of catching up to do!

Our hostel is right down town and only a few blocks away from the Te Papa museum. After breakfast we spent pretty much the whole day wandering around, and there were still entire floors we didn't see! I was particularly excited by the giant moas they had on display- one of my favorite extinct animals. They also had an immense set of Irish Elk antlers- another of my favorites. We found the grocery store, did some trip planning, and called it a night- after a long flight out from the states and nearly 48 hours without sleep, we were all ready for bed.

On Friday morning we were rudely awakened by a fire alarm. Our room was on the 6th floor, so we trucked downstairs and outside in our pajamas, waited for the firemen to do their thing, then trucked back up the stairs and went back to sleep. We had another low key day of wandering around the city and the waterfront, went back to the museum for a while (it really is that good!) and made a delicious dinner. Caitlin came down with a cold- probably from sitting in the airport for ages, so she went to bed while Tiffany and I explored the Wellington night life a bit. We decided it is definitely a good city.

Today (Saturday) we took the cable car up a big hill to the botanical gardens and spent the afternoon running around with all the plants. We found an excellent playground and kicked the kids off a zip line so we could have a go (actually, we waited in line patiently like our parents taught us). We are going to a bar later to watch the All Blacks rugby match, which is the national passion. Tomorrow we pick up our rental car and drive north to Rotorua. I am slightly terrified to be driving on the opposite side of the road, but we have 10 hours tomorrow to get used to it!

Goodbye Australia!!!!

Phew- finally caught up! Caitlin and I checked out of Dreamtime this morning and headed down to the airport for our flight to Wellington, New Zealand. We had a 3 hr layover in Brisbane, which has turned into a 7 hour layover. Airports around here have curfews so after a certain point flights can't take off because they can't land between midnight and 6am or something stupid like that, so we are in the airport until 12:45am. Ouch. Luckily Virgin Blue gave us food vouchers that work at the bar, and the State of Origin rugby game was on between New South Wales and Queensland (Queensland had a resounding victory, the second of 3, meaning they are the champs and have beat NSW an unprecedented 4 years in a row). So it ended up being an entertaining evening.

We meet up with Tiffany tomorrow morning- she arrived in Wellington this afternoon, and thus begins the second half of my trip! Tiff will be blogging on here as well now, so you will get a new point of view sometimes! I'm really excited to see her- we haven't spent nearly enough time together after being roommates and joined at the hip for 4 years, but I am really sad to be leaving Australia. I am trying to figure out a way to just stay longer at the end of our trip!

(photos of everything hopefully to come soon!)

Uncle Brian's

Tuesday June 23
After our long day on the reef, Caitlin and I fell asleep before 9 o'clock. Party animals! We had to be up early yet again, because today we went on a tour of the Atherton Tablelands, the tropical rain forests of the far north. We went with a group recommended to me by my friend Clare, and it turned out to be awesome.
There were about 20 of us on "Gus the Wonder Bus" with our tour guide Cousin Rohan (sounds like Roe'n). It was a little cheesy, but everyone in the group got pretty into it so it ended up being a lot of fun.

We headed north out of Cairns and made a stop in Balina which has the "golden gum boot" award for being

the wettest town in Queensland, with an average rainfall of 3.5-4 meters a year! We went on a short hike to the Devil's Pool and saw some lovely but treacherous waterfalls and heard the Dreamtime story of lost lovers and a siren calling young men in and drowning them. In the last 17 years they've been keeping track, 18 guys have drowned in the river, so there may be something to that.After visiting Balina we headed to Josephine Falls which has a natural water slide where the water comes down over a smooth rock. You can climb to the top and slide down any which way and get dumped into a clear pool below. It was beautiful and very "refreshing" aka freezing. Not everyone was brave enough to get in, but it was well worth it!

We had lunch at the Falls Tea House with Mr. and Mrs. Lunch and heard stories

about Gus' love affairs with an ambulance named Vanessa and a milk truck called Volveena. Like I said, cheesy but funny. Rohan told us about Millaa Millaa falls, our next stop. It is famous for some cheesy pop singer's video back drop (I didn't know who he was, but I guess he just split up with the model Jordan?) and how it is the setting for the Timotei shampoo adverts- I think Herbal Essence in the States- with the woman flipping her hair and a rainbow arc of water coming off. So Rohan gave us tips on how to get the full Timotei look.

The falls were stunning. You could swim behind them and sit on rocks and look back through them and up to the top. It was sunny out, but the water was Very Refreshing aka super freezing. We all did the Timotei hair, even the guys, and Rohan took expert pictures. Even after all the waterfalls I've seen out here, this one was still very impressive.

We stopped at a lake about 20min away called Eachum. It is one of two volcanic craters or Marrs, and in aerial photos you can really tell- they kind of look like moon craters. The water was very still and the sun was low enough to make it look like glass and reflect the trees and sky into it really clearly. It was lovely, and the water was warmer than the other places, but still pretty cold. We saw some saw shelled turtles which have the distinction of being able to breathe out of their bottoms which is very weird and pretty cool. We had afternoon tea (what a great tradition) and then headed up to the river to look for platypus.

Rohan gave us some good info on the platypus, which is one of the most unusual animals. It is an egg laying mammal, and one of two species of monotreme (the other being the echidna). Monotreme means "one hole" so it pees, poos, and reproduces with the same hole. Weird. The platypus in Queensland are very small- they only get to be about a foot long, and are very shy. We watched for a while with no success, and just as we were getting ready to leave I spotted one below the bridge! It came up a couple of times and we had a good view of it- much better than the glimpses I got near the Jenolan Caves. It was very small and very cute. Apparently 93% of Australians have never seen platypus, so we were pretty lucky.On the ride back we all sang songs and danced around the bus. It was ridiculous but really good fun. Uncle Brian's was a good way to go!

Passions of Paradise

Monday June 23

Scuba Diving! Today we went out on the boat Passions of Paradise which is a souped up catamaran that also has a sail- pretty cool. It was a one day reef trip that took us a couple hours out of Cairns and onto some smaller reefs and quays/cays. A couple of other people from our hostel were on the boat, and there were about 100 people total, which is a relatively small group for day trips on the reef.

It was sunny but a bit windy out on the water. The skipper said it was a pretty average winter day, and we were lucky it wasn't raining! The water was 25 degrees C which is pretty warm, but once you get out you are freezing! A whole lot better than Massachusetts/Alaska/New York though, where I've done all my other water activities!

Our first stop was Paradise Reef. There were 6 certified divers, and this was the first time I've been diving for fun since getting certified a year ago. It was quite a change from laying down barrier over milfoil! The Great Barrier Reef is incredible- we saw all sorts of corals and anemones, lots of fish and giant sea cucumbers. The visibility was pretty good, and we went down to 11 meters (close to 33 feet) which got a bit chilly. There was a lot to see, but it took me a little while to adjust to being underwater again after so long! A couple of the people had just finished 5 day live-aboard trips that take you much further out on the reef to spots that are rarely visited, and they said it was incredible compared to this. Now I just have something else to add to my list of things to do when I come back to Australia:)

Caitlin tried out scuba diving for the first time with an introductory dive. There were 4 divers per instructor and they got a basic lesson on mask clearing, regulator recovery, and a bit on buoyancy and navigation. They did a short, shallow dive but she enjoyed it more than snorkeling and found it less scary.

We were served a big lunch and then went to our second spot, Michalmans Cay for 2 hours. I was the only certified diver who wanted to go again- everyone else was too cold/tired, so just Dicky the dive master and I went out. It was a pretty shallow dive because I wanted to see if we could find any turtles, but the water was clear and there were some beautiful if smallish fish. I took out the underwater digital camera Caitlin and I had rented for the day and a bunch of shots of everything. About 10 min into the dive Dicky tapped his tank to get my attention and made the sign for "shark!" I looked over and HOLY CRAP! There was a black tipped reef shark not that far away. And I looked over to my right and HOLY CRAP there was another one! I got some quick pictures, but without a frame of reference it is hard to tell how big they are and how close they were. All I can say is, they were plenty big and pretty darn close- at least as big as me, and close enough Dicky could see they were both males. They were just chilling, and swam away after a couple of minutes. Diving with sharks on the Great Barrier Reef though... check that one off my life list of things to do! Momentarily terrifying, but totally awesome!

Dicky's a biologist and told me when we got out of the water that we were really lucky to see any sharks, they are getting pretty rare in the area which is really sad.

After the dive I got to snorkel for a while, and got to see sea turtles after all! One was resting on the bottom, then I saw a couple swimming later on. A bunch of people chased them to touch their shells, which you really aren't supposed to do, so I got a few photos and let them be. If I was a turtle I wouldn't want a horde of crazy snorkelers trying to catch up to me!

Around the boat there were a bunch of HUGE fish- turns out they throw bits of fish off the boat once everyone gets out of the water to give people a chance to see them from the surface. These fish know what is going on, and probably hang around the boat every day. One of these fish was twice the size of me, and got close enough to touch. Kinda freaky.

They hoisted the sail on the way back to Cairns, and one of the guys on the crew knew some crazy card tricks and entertained us for a while. All in all it was an incredible day.

Arriving in Cairns

Sunday June 21
Caitlin and I arrived in Cairns (pronounced "Cans") Sunday morning and it was waaarm and sunny and felt so tropical (which it should, seeing as it is in the very far north of Queensland and the continent). Our hostel was a lovely little place called Dreamtime which was very homey and had lots of plants and a comfy kitchen and a very helpful guy called Chris who worked tirelessly at the front desk. 

The town/city of Cairns is pretty small and easy to navigate. We had Mexican food for lunch- the first time in 2 months! It was tasty but nothing by California standards. We did happen upon an excellent fresh foods market that is open on weekends. There were endless stalls of brilliant produce. We bought avocados, papaya, cantaloupe, basil, tomatoes, bananas, bread, and limes for about $10- and it was all delicious! We had to stop ourselves from getting more, because there really is only so much you can eat in 3 days.Since it was warm and sunny we went down to the lagoon, the man made swimming structure next to the beach. The city is right on the ocean, but because of sharks, jellyfish, and salt water crocodiles swimming in the sea really isn't an option. There was a little bit of sand, some grass, and a ton of people around the lagoon sunning themselves. There was a bike race and a fun run going on, so the whole town seemed to be out. 
After lazing around for a while we walked up and down pretty much every street in the downtown area (all 4 of them) had a gelato and looked at all the boats on the water. It was a very nice and relaxed day, and we were soaking up as much warm weather as we could, knowing that New Zealand would be freezing in a few days!

Australia Zoo and Saying Goodbye

Friday June 19- Saturday June 20

Friday morning we were bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7am to go to the zoo, home of Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter! Cori and her friend Stephen were going as well, and picked us up to make the trip together. We got to listen to some quality Aussie music and one of Stephen's own rap tracks. The zoo was awesome! We listened to a talk on giant tortoises, got to feed some Asian elephants, and went to a show with birds flying all around and crocodiles! The crocs were not totally cooperative and didn't jump and lunge as much as the trainer would have liked, and the crazy guy kept getting closer and leaning in further. We reckoned the croc would have preferred one of his legs to the bit of chicken he was dangling, but couldn't really be bothered. What a loony job!

We saw more koalas and kangaroos, took pictures with the golden statues of the Irwin family (kind of weird) and watched tons more animals. Caitlin, Hannah, and I got the train back to the city later in the afternoon, did a quick turn around, and my sister and I went out to meet up with my friend Cassi who was also doing a study abroad in England with me and now lives in Brisbane. We met her and a few of her friends at the Exchange Hotel which has a rooftop bar that was very cool, surrounded by the city center. We checked out one other place and got the VIP treatment and a bottle of wine, which is always excellent! Everyone was pretty tired from a day at the zoo/week at work, and it was a nice low key night, and fun to see a friend from ages ago!

Saturday we finally got to sleep in a bit (and the trains weren't running as often!) and took a long walk to Fortitude Valley for the weekend markets. As Hannah and I already realized, markets are a dangerous place and we all spent plenty of money but got some cool, artsy things. The Valley is full of lots of cool shops and we wandered around all afternoon.

We walked across the Story Bridge which is the big one in Brisbane that you can pay lots of money to climb over kind of like the Harbour Bridge in Sydney. There is a hotel and bar under it on one side, and we met Cori for a few pints and watched a bit of rugby which is hugely popular here. We went back to Stephen's place that is just around the corner and met his roommates and a few friends. It was strange not being the only American!

Hannah and I had planned on having a nice meal together on our last night, and luckily found a nice place that was open late (it was after 10 by the time we actually made it out!) and had a lovely meal with wine and dessert and really classed it up for a night. It was around midnight when we finished, and luckily we were too full to go to any of the bars that were around there- going out before an early morning is never a good idea!

Caitlin and I were up at 4:30 am to catch our flight to Cairns and I had to say goodbye to my English traveling mate. It was sad that almost half my trip had finished- and really unbelievable. We've had some good times together, me and Hannah :(

Brisbane Time

Wednesday June 17- Thursday June 18

Arriving in Brisbane was a shock to the system after spending the last few weeks in sleepy coastal towns. There were so many cars and traffic and lights and people! Our hostel was brand new, which would have been great except it wasn't quite done and there was more jack hammering going on at 6 am under our window than I normally appreciate. That and it was right next to the transit center so the trains ran by at all hours. However, the rooftop pool with a view of the city almost made up for that.My sister Caitlin arrived early Wednesday and the three of us went out to explore the city. We got distracted by lunch, then went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on the outskirts of the city. We had heard good things but it really exceeded expectations! We got to cuddle a koala (who's name was Kakadu- perfect) and got our pictures taken. We also got to feed a bunch of very friendly kangaroos that let us pet them. There were wombats and Tasmanian Devils and all sorts of birds- we were fully entertained until it got dark at 5pm as it does around here. Darn winter.

Thursday we spent the morning walking down the Queen Street Mall, where if you had tons of money you

 could spend it all, and poked around some souvenir shops. We walked through the city's botanical gardens and across one of the many bridges over the Brisbane River and into South Bank that has a lovely boardwalk and promenade. This is also where all of the museums and things are. We spent a few hours in the museum of modern art with an excellent exhibit on China with a number of Chinese-Australian artists and immigrant's work featured. Hannah is not so down with the modern art scene, but seemed to enjoy it in spite of herself. Coffee and cake followed at the library shop, and we walked through more gardens and saw the Nepalese Peace Pagoda that had been built and brought over for the 1988 Worlds Fair.

Thurs night we checked out the night life, which is apparently non existent during the week in Brisbane. We found a few backpacker places, though, and managed to entertain ourselves without too much trouble:)

On to Queensland

Tuesday June 16

I'm going to keep more up to date, I promise! Or at least I'll try!

The last day in Byron was brilliant- warm and sunny and Hannah and I lay on the beach all day and ate fish and chips and French pastries. Hannah actually went a little lobster, but it was worth it (for me anyway). We collected some of our housmates and finally made the hike up to the lighthouse for sunset. The walk is beautiful, through forest and along the beach and we got to see some surfers catch really nice waves.


The lighthouse itself is up a set of steep hills (I know, that really should not be surprising) and it felt good to get some exercise after being a beach bum all day. We went to the most easterly point of continental Australia and watched for whales. We made it to the top of the hill just before the sun went down and had a great view. I don't think I could ever get tired of Australian sunsets! The walk back was pretty dark, but well worth it.

Hannah and I had to catch our bus- the last one of our trip together!- at 8 pm and I was really sad to leave Byron and our home at the Middle Reef and all the wonderful people. Our bus was on schedule for the first time ever and we really did have to leave:(

Byronnnnn

Friday June 12-Monday June 15

Byron Baaaay! One of the "cruiseiest" places in Oz and a big spot for backpackers. People sit around and play the bongos at sunset- that's the kind of place it is. I'd heard from a few people that the place was overrated but I think they were sadly mistaken- it is totally amazing! It is yet another town along the beach but it is a fantastic beach- soft white sand, clear turquoise water, it looks exactly like the postcards!

Making the place even better is the accommodation we've landed in. Going on the recommendation of a couple of girls we met in Sydney, Hannah and I check into the Middle Reef which is a converted house instead of a big youth hostel. It has a great kitchen (with an oven! Yay!) and a beautiful deck that gets lots of morning sun. I've met some really nice people and as usual it's a big European mix- and with my friend Cori from university out for the weekend we represented the US all the way!

Life in Byron centers around the ocean and what better way to check it out than actually get in the water?! With minimal convincing I got both Cori and Hannah to take a surfing lesson with me on Saturday. It was so Australian it was unbelievable- we went out with Mojo surf company with an instructor called Wapu or Wapsy. They piled us into a van and drove is about 15 min south to a place called Lennox Head where the surf has been better and we got a lesson on ocean safety and rips and waves (good stuff to know before careening into the water) then after going over a few techniques we were pretty much set free! It was a total rush- I was able to catch a good number of waves on my own (we were on huge beginner longboards) and had some pretty good falls and crashes. I don't think I've ever had so much salt water up my nose! I went out a second time on Saturday and got to try a slightly smaller board which was tougher but still a lot of fun. There were pelicans on the beach and dolphins further our in the water! I kept thinking about the turtle from Finding Nemo- "Righteous! Righteous!"

Cori stayed with us for two nights and we had a lot of fun checking out the local spots and met all sorts of characters. It's been lovely and warm during the day but freezing at night! Today was rainy but I an hoping tomorrow it will clear up enough so I can lay on the beach all day and work on my tan before heading north to Brisbane where I'll meet up with a few more friends. Tough day I know:)

Yamba Ramba

Thursday June 11

After exhausting the scenery at Coffs we took a late bus to Yamba, a town that supposedly has the best climate in Australia (Redwood City's rival) and was a sleepy surf town. The Yamba tourism website says "Yamba. It has the x factor" which we thought was pretty lame, but when we rocked up at 9:30 at night it was pretty hopping! The one hostel in town was just built and opened in November. It was incredible- more like staying in a nice hotel with bunk beds. The family that runs it were probably some of the nicest people I've met. They clearly think they have the best jobs in the world, and I reckon they're right.

I guess Yamba is a great surf spot and the guy that started the surf company Billabong is from right down the road and a friend of one of the brothers that owns the hostel.

On our full day Hannah, myself, and 2 English guts went to the coastline and followed a path through a nature reserve to Shelly Beach. The scenery was incredible with dramatic coastline on one side and big scrubby hills on the other. There were signs along the track telling you what emu poo looks like so you can identify it. Unfortunately there were no emu sightings for us.
After our walk we went with one of the guys, Dave, up to the pub on top of a massive hill for lunch. I got a prawn entrée (apparently prawns are a big deal in Yamba) and it was lovely but unfortunately I learned that an entrée here is what we would call an appetizer or starter (their main dish is called a "main", funnily enough) and I was still pretty starving after we ate.

We checked out the lighthouse and sat on a cliff watching the ocean. There were a couple of dolphins hanging around and while we were sitting there we watched one surf a wave in and before the wave broke on the rocks the dolphin jumped and flipped all the way out of the water! It was so cool.

Dave left to go surfing and Hannah and I walked out on the breakers and watched the suffers and the sunset. I was a little cut up over leaving, but at least the thought of heading to Byron Bay was a comfort.