Great Ocean Road, AUS - The Australian PCH

Its been a while since my last update - thanks for all the emails! I am still alive, just having a lot of fun. After I left Newcastle I jumped on a three-day bus tour from Sydney to Melbourne, passing from New South Wales into Victoria. We made a quick stop in the capital city of Canberra where I learned that the kangaroo and the emu are Australia's mascots because they are two animals that can only move forward, never backward. I witnessed the House of Representatives in action at the Parliament House. I couldn't decide if all the yelling, cheering and booing was comical or really frightening. Did some hiking in Kosciuszko National Park and visited a beautiful beach in Wilson's Promontory NP, or The Prom as they call it here. The water was cold but crystal clear and irrestible.
Melbourne was a bit crazy due to the Grand Prix that was in town (LOTS of drunk English, I mean car enthusiasts). I was only there two days but I enjoyed the cafes and tree-lined streets. I did not enjoy the drunk guy in my dorm room who peed on the floor and all over another girl's stuff... The tour of the famed Melbourne Cricket Ground was interesting. Basically the tour guide would say something and all the English people around me would laugh at whatever fantastic cricket pun he made. Oh, cricket.
From Melbourne I hit the road again for a three-day trek east to Adelaide. We took the famed Great Ocean Road, a coastal route that reminds me a lot of the best parts of PCH back home. Millions of years of erosion have created fantastic rock formations such as the famous Twelve Apostles (although only seven or eight still stand). Our tour group stayed in the lovely coastal villages of Apollo Bay, Port Fairy, and Robe. This southern coast of Victoria and South Australia is dotted with small towns, lighthouses, and hundreds of shipwrecks. Basically, everything a girl with a good imagination needs! I would have loved to stay in this picturesque area much longer. (How many places have I said that about?) In the Tower Hill Reserve I saw wild koalas and emus roaming around. I fell a little bit in love with the koalas - very chill, cool animals. Near our hostel the second night I saw several wallabees bouncing around near the beach. The wildlife here is so distinct and fascinating.
For most of our trip the weather was around 40 C (104 F). It felt like hard work just standing and staring at the beautiful coastline. Adelaide was experiencing its longest heat wave in history. Luckily it cooled off by the time I got there.

In Adelaide I met up with some local girls who I had met in Fiji back in January. It was wonderful to see familiar faces and catch up. The best part of traveling has been making great friends with people from all over the world. I seem to get along really well with Australians in particular. In general they have very practical, straightforward attitudes. Also, anytime they can take the piss out of you they will! My english is becoming a strange mix of American, British, and Australian english. Phrases that I used to laugh at I now use on a regular basis: "Mate" and "How you going?" and "That was full-on" and "She's a spot-on old bird." Actually no, I still laugh at that last one. People laugh at me for saying "totally" a lot.

Well, mates, so far this trip has been totally full-on.

Newcastle, AUS - No worries, mate

G'day mates. Made the jump from little Australia, I mean NZ, to Australia proper (ha! its kind of like the Canada/US thing). My plane from Christchurch to Sydney was delayed several hours, but I ended up hanging out in the airport with an English guy who I met in Fiji whose plane was also delayed. Its amazing how many familiar faces I keep bumping into throughout my trek. Sydney is beautiful, but I was a little ovewhelmed after spending the previous few weeks in the sparsely populated landscapes of New Zealand. The Sydney Opera house is spectacular - I've never been so moved by a building. I realized it encapsulates so many things that I love: engineering, opera, theater, and water. Pictures don't capture the beauty of the building. To escape the crowds I headed inland to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, an area named for the landscape's blueish tinge created by a fine mist emitted by the eucalyptus trees. I only planned on staying two nights there but really enjoyed it so I stayed almost a week! Spent several days hiking and visited the nearby Janolan Caves. These limestone caves are incredible. In some of the larger caves they hold music concerts. Unfortunately, there were no concerts while I was there. Fortunately, the day after I went to the caves I met Lester, a park ranger/Didjeridu player. Lester is in a Didjeridu band that has the occasional concert in the caves(http://www.didjeridudingo.com). When I met him Lester didn't happen to have his Didjeridu in his car, but he did have his Kawasaki 900 exhaust manifold pipes that he played instead. I caught it on video, shown below, but it doesn't seem to be posting well.



Left Katoomba and took the train to Newcastle to visit Jim, Jo-Jo the Enforcer's college roommate. Staying with Jim felt like a holiday from my holiday. After about two months on the road I needed a few days to crash and do very little besides watch TV, lie on the beach, and catch up on laundry. I lived it up by having my own room, not locking my stuff up every time I left the room, and not having to wear flip-flops in the shower. An added bonus was that Jim has a spectacular apartment right on the beach. Luckily I didn't get stung by any bluebottle jellyfish, many of which were washed up on the beach, while swimming. (Its strange going from NZ, where nothing will harm you, to AUS, where it seems everything is out to get you.) We went wine tasting in the Hunter Valley, an area known for its Shiraz production. Jim was an incredible host and, most importantly, makes a killer guacamole.

I feel recharged and ready for the road...does the outback have roads?

Christchurch, NZ - Dear Universe...

Just finished up NZ with a grueling yet very rewarding 10 day safari with an organization called "Hiking NZ." (I really recommend this company if anyone is interested in a NZ holiday.) Six of us and a guide hiked locations in the south island from Queenstown to Christchurch. We hit the must-see destinations such as Fiordland National Park, the Catlins, Mt Cook, and kayaking in Milford Sound. Also did a lot of neat side trip such as visiting a hatching ground of the extremely rare yellow-eyed penguin and walking through a petrified forest. The hiking was intense but actually my biggest fear was cooking for the group! We all pitched in for meals and rotated cooking and cleaning. I didn't want to be the person who burned the only food available as we camped deep in the bush! It all went well though. The great thing about hiking all day is that any food tastes good. Despite being shower and toilet deprived the group got along really well. There were two crazy French (redundant?) guys who quickly wormed their way into my heart by carrying 2 liter boxes of wine in their already-ridiculously heavy packs on some of our overnight trips. Our last night we slept in a park hut and while we were asleep they decorated the hut with balloons (which we packed out of course.) One night we slept in a sheep paddock and in the middle of the night as I stumbled out of my tent to find the outhouse I heard a noise to my left. I looked over and saw dozens of yellow sheep eyes reflected in my headlamp, floating in dark. That image will stay with me for a while!

In Mount Cook we stayed at a mountaineering hut where I met Baz, a 50ish grizzly biker dude from Australia. Clad in tie-dye thermals Baz explained to me the wisdom of sending poems out to the universe. (My guide later asked me, "I didn't want to sound stupid, but did he actually post them?") Apparently for several years Baz offered poems to the universe and finally the universe replied. One dark and stormy night at a mountaineering hut in Nepal the door burst open and a lone woman walked into the hut. Baz and she have been together for the past ten years. I had the pleasure of reading one of his poems and despite being printed on blue paper adorned with rainbows, the poem was quite good.

Some general observations:
-Don't order Mexican food in NZ.
-Try to avoid traveling when the $NZ is at a 23-year-high to the $US
-Try not to have a violent reaction if someone mentions the word "facebook" again
-Black sheep really do exist (and I thought Jeff was one of a kind!)
-If you eat enough Muesli bars they start to taste good
-NZ has more helicopters per capita than any other country. They are used for such things deer hunting, tourism, and the two airlift rescues that I personally witnessed. Watching someone have a severe allergic reaction and struggle to breathe while hours from help is a scary thing. So is someone handing you an EpiPen and saying "You know how to use this, right?"
-In response to reader comments, to the best of my knowledge I do not have a genetic mutation that prevents me from tanning. Being pasty is cool, gosh darn it.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to go finish my letter to the universe.