Drowning in the Desert

The main event of the past couple of weeks has been the weather. I know, I know, people generally talk about the weather when they have nothing else to say. But this weather definitely IS worth discussing.

Desert rain is always kind of cool. It sometimes sweeps in from nowhere, and when it’s off in the distance you can clearly see the bands coming down from the clouds. It’s quite pretty. I remember my first real experience with desert rain and flooding – back when my aunt & uncle still lived in California, we went on a little weekend trip out to a desert lake town to take the boat out. The weather wasn’t looking promising, but we went ahead anyway. I remember the rain coming down and the flash floods that we had to drive the truck and the boat and trailer through. I found it all extremely exciting. Driving through desert floods, woo hoo! The flooding here a couple of weeks back made that look like a puddle.

It started to rain the last day of February, and didn’t stop for DAYS. Massive amounts of rain. It just never freaking stopped. Naturally, that was the afternoon I decided that it would be a good time to do some laundry. After about 15 minutes of being up on the line to dry, the rain started and didn’t stop. A day later I finally gave up on drying my clothes the old fashioned way and nicely asked for permission to use the dryer due to natural disaster-esque circumstances. Anyway, the afternoon of February 29^th a few of us girls took a ride over to the road leading to Ormiston gorge, which is our neighbor gorge about a 10-15 minute drive away. We basically went to watch the water level rise. It had rained a bit before the 29^th, so the water levels were already on the rise. We stood in the road and watched as the water filled up the land on one side, before slowly starting to leak over the pavement. When we got to the Ormiston road the road was dry. By the time we left 20-25 minutes later, we had to drive the van back to Glen Helen over the start of a rushing river.

It poured all night long, and the next morning, March 1^st, all roads in our area were closed. Basically every road in the semi-populated part of Central Australia was shut tight due to flooding. That meant no one was legally allowed to come to Glen Helen, and no one here was allowed to leave. Luckily for us, the night that the rain really set in we didn’t have many people staying here at all. Only a couple of sets of campers, that’s it. It was a very quiet night, which was good. Had the place been packed, then we would have been trapped out here with a lot of cranky guests who couldn’t leave the property. But we were pretty much empty that night, so we didn’t have many guests to look after. The whole experience ended up being kind of fun. It was like having 3 snow days in a row! Only instead of being snowed in, we were flooded in.

The water level of the Finke river, which flows basically in the resort’s backyard, did rise considerably, but it didn’t come close to creeping up on the homestead building or anything. The water level of my bedroom, however, did unfortunately rise a bit. I found out the hard way that the hole in my wall where the air conditioner sits is not sealed to perfection. The first time I was woken up my droplets of water smacking me in the face I was a bit freaked out. Once I realized what was happening the creepy factor went away, but in the morning the top half of my bed, including the pillows, were soaked. There was also a puddle of water under my bed deep enough for a small goldfish to live happily in. Lucky for me other than the top of my bed, none of my important stuff was touched by the water.

I was hanging out in my room on the 1^st when I heard my next-door neighbor, who had been down at the homestead working, calling out for someone. I can’t remember if I just had the day off, or if I was home because there was no need for me at work. But anyway, I popped my head out of my door immediately to see what the ruckus was (I initially assumed someone had been bitten by a snake) and I found her walking up toward where all the staff members live with an aboriginal guy in his underwear. She was looking for the chef, since he has a big 4WD vehicle, as the guy in his underwear had been sent out by his friends to go look for help. Apparently they had gotten their car stuck in the rising floodwaters. So I hopped in the truck to go along for the ride as well, since I’d never seen a drowned car before. This is the sight we found:

Yes, it’s unfortunate, but it was also really funny. Why the hell would you even attempt to drive through a raging river like that??? They wanted to get to Alice Springs. For a football game. The roads were closed and there was a river raging across the road, but they attempted to conquer it – for a football game. Ugh, men. But anyway, the next 20 minutes consisted of the guys asking Dean to drive his truck into the river to pull out the drowned land cruiser, and Dean responding no, no, no, over and over again. The conversation literally went around in circles. Drive out half way and throw a rope? No. We’ll borrow a rope and throw it out? No. Drive out just a little and throw a rope? No. On and on it went until the 3 guys standing on (semi) dry land finally absorbed the fact that the land cruiser was going to have to stay in the river, and that their friend needed to abandon ship. It was just too dangerous to drive any sort of vehicle into the water at that point. It was just too deep and had too much power. It would have eaten the truck alive, and any ropes thrown would have just gotten washed downstream.

Once the 3 guys eventually got the point that there was going to be no happy ending, they started calling out to their friend to make a swim for it. The friend didn’t seem too keen on the idea. They kept calling out to him. They were yelling out in their native language, but you didn’t really need to understand the words to get the gist of it. They started laughing at him and kept calling out that he basically needed to give up and get his ass in the river to swim back to shore. Eventually he gave in, delicately removed his shoes, and got ready to make the leap:

As soon as he hit the water though he was instantly swept downstream, and his friends all burst out laughing. You can see his head here, bobbing as the water carried him away.

He eventually found shore though, and he was back at the truck in less than 10 minutes, so he didn’t get too washed away. Once all 4 were back at the homestead they got food and all cuddled up together under a pink blanket to get warm again. I wish I had a picture of that, it was quite entertaining to see grown men snuggling in pink.

Marina, the housekeeper, wrote a little article about the whole incident. She used one of the photos that Dean took of the guy stranded on the roof of the land cruiser, and she submitted it to the Centralian Advocate, which is a local newspaper for the region. Not only did her story get published – her first published piece of writing – the picture made the front page. We were all pretty pumped that our afternoon excitement made the front page of the newspaper.

The next morning some friends/family of the 4 stranded land cruiser guys (who ended up spending the night at Glen Helen in the backpacker bunkhouse) showed up to come and rescue them, even though the roads were all still closed. They left in the late morning, all piling into 2 cars to go and conquer the roads to try to get to wherever they were going again, but that wasn’t the last of them. Later that day, around sunset, we went for a little drive around the area to see how badly the roads were flooded, and we stumbled across the 2 cars. They hadn’t gotten more than 20 miles from the resort all day. Both cars were broken down, once had been drowned by another flooded section of the road and was being pushed along. So once again the 4 guys from the drowned land cruiser spent the night in the backpacker bunkhouse, only this time their friends/family/rescue party had to stay too. They didn’t seem to want to accept the fact that mother nature always wins.

The roads were closed for 3 days, so for 3 days we didn’t have a whole lot going on. There wasn’t much work to do since there were no guests. I can’t recall what on earth we did to amuse ourselves during those few days, but I don’t recall being bored either. Anyway, on Sunday the 4^th the roads started to re-open, and business as usual slowly started up again. It certainly was a good time though. I very much enjoyed being rained in. It was like a little adventure!

What else is new? The baby snakes are still around, only they seem to be weaseling their way into buildings now. Someone found one living in the safe in their bedroom. Another staff member found one sitting in the bar area, in a pink tray that we use sometimes for silverware. A guest in room 5 came into the homestead the other night in her bathrobe to report a baby snake hanging out in the doorway to her bathroom. Luckily all 3 indoor sightings have been the baby pythons, who we just pick up and cuddle before setting free in a better spot. Here’s me playing with one that we found outside the staff quarters a few nights ago:

The other recent excitement is that I went on my first helicopter ride. A couple of days ago I showed up for work and Ryan, who drives the chopper, came up and asked if I wanted to fly. He had a customer that wanted to do the longest, most expensive flight that Glen Helen offers, but he needs 2 passengers in order to fly. Staff gets a discount on flights, so he was trying to find 2 staff members to fly for half the discounted price. That way he’d get his 2 fares in that are required for the flight, but since the helicopter can seat 3 passengers, 2 of us could split the cost and both go at a much cheaper rate. I thought about it for a minute and then decided to go for it. I’ve never been in a helicopter before, and figured I might as well go up for my first ride with the only person I’ve ever met who flies helicopters. Plus I got out of an hour of work J

The flight was pretty cool. The main event was flying over to Gosse Bluff, which is a giant meteor impact crater that’s like almost 150 million years old. It’s one of the largest in the world, but it dwarfs in comparison to the size of the actual largest in the world, which I was told is somewhere in South Africa. I didn’t get too many good pictures of the crater itself unfortunately, since I spent most of the time filming it on another camera. Ryan wanted to get some video of the crater from the air for an updated promo video for the helicopter flights, so I did that instead. I did get some good pictures of Glen Helen gorge and the resort though!

Here’s an aerial view of the gorge where we all go swim and play in sometimes:

And here’s a couple of shots of the resort itself from the air:

That’s all for now! Only one more month left up here before the monster trip begins. I am going to actually SEE Australia after I leave here, and it’s all going to happen over the course of only 2 and a half months. It’s going to be tiring. I’m trying to get in as much sleep as I can now…

Invasion of the Creepy Crawlers!

They’re taking over…

I was criticized last time for not being as normally detailed in my entry. I’ll admit, the last one was a bit all over the place. I suppose that’s worth mentioning unto itself though. When it’s time to sit down and write a new entry, when I look back on the last couple of weeks to figure out what to tell all of my adoring readers, I often find that the days sort of all just blend together. Take today for instance. I have absolutely NO idea what day of the week it is. It might be Monday. It might be Saturday. I really haven’t a clue. The only day of the week that really pokes its head out around here is Sunday, because that’s the one day a week when the locals from Alice Springs all drive out for a little weekend getaway and inundate me with requests for greek salads, Coopers Pale Ale and meat pies. Other than that, the days roll on by in a similar fashion. Now I don’t mean that in a bad way –I enjoy each day as it rolls by – but in terms of particularly exciting events to recap for you all, sometimes I sort of draw a blank.

That being said, I did title this blog for a reason. Lucky me, I’ve settled in Central Australia during a particularly horny season for the local critters out there. Babies are EVERYWHERE. Now at home that would mean little baby pigeons and squirrels. The local critters here though are a bit more worrisome that those of the New York City metropolitan area.

1)   Centipedes:

On a particularly busy Sunday, my coworker put her hands in the dishwater to wash up the plates, only to discover the hard way that an unhappy baby centipede had fallen into the water, and it stuck her with one of its venomous claws as a hello, good day madame. She did really well fighting off the pain and continuing to work. I think I would have cried. In fact, I’m sure I would have. Centipede “bites” aren’t fatal, but they can be extremely painful and can cause chills, fever, and even anaphylactic shock in people who have severe allergies to the centipede toxins. But the rotten critters are friggin’ everywhere! In addition to the bastard in the dishwater, I found one in the corner of the homestead by the coffee machine and one was putzing around by the outdoor couch that we all hang out on by our rooms. I’ve taken to catching grasshoppers to feed our pet bearded dragons – Crusty and Fiesty – and when I caught one today and put it in the lizard food jar, there was a caught centipede already in there that was literally the size of my face. It was so big that it actually made me uncomfortable just looking at it.

2)   Happy Snakes:

About a week ago someone found a baby Stimson’s python. Not poisonous, kind of cute, and actually not too unfriendly. I named the snake Flame, as someone happened to be wearing a Calgary Flames t-shirt that day. Flame lived in a bucket in the office, and we all had a rocking good time playing with him and handling him until he escaped. He’s probably still hiding in a warm spot in the office somewhere eating up the bugs, but no one has seen him since. We caught another baby Stimson’s python shortly thereafter, who was most likely one of Flame’s siblings. I named him Torch. We didn’t keep him around for too long though, Torch wasn’t as friendly.

3)   NOT Happy Snakes:

Australia is notorious for its deadly wildlife. The Box Jellyfish. The Great White Shark. The Funnel Web Spider. But of course, no list would be complete without poisonous snakes. I was walking past the kitchen the other day, and saw a yellow-colored very young baby snake wriggling towards the kitchen door. There was something about his movement that set off an alarm in my head that this was not a snake to make friends with. I sort of instinctively knew that he was the mean kind. I ran inside to go get a couple of other people to check out my discovery, and sure enough, he was a brown snake. If brown snakes bite you, you die. Or at the very least with immediate proper first aid followed by the critical medical attention, you’ll be extremely sick for days and will probably lose whatever limb the snake bit you on. Even the babies, and this guy was probably about a day old based on his size, can kill a full-grown human being. The fun thing about brown snakes is that they’re super aggressive too. If you piss them off, even accidentally, they will chase your ass down and go out of their way to nail you. We ended up shooing the baby snake away from the kitchen and into a pile of dead leaves, and there he stayed. But if there’s one newborn baby brown floating around, then there also must be siblings, and of course big mama…

About 10 minutes later, on my way to the dish room, I found one of the siblings. This one was already on his way into the kitchen. I ran to get Dean, the chef, to go and defend his territory. He swept the thing out of the kitchen with a broom and into a bucket, but it was an epic battle. The baby snake did NOT give up without a fight. I’ve never seen anything that young be so instinctively vicious. The snake wanted that broom to die. Luckily we were able to get him into the bucket (and by we I mean I supervised the process from a safe distance away…), which we covered with cling wrap so we could observe the little demon safely. Every time someone stuck their face over the bucket though, the snake went a little nuts and tried to strike. Colin, one of the owners, eventually drove into town with the snake to take him to a reptile expert to see exactly which type of brown snake he was.

A couple of days ago, Colin showed up at the homestead with another bucket, containing yet another poisonous baby snake, only this one was a different species. This time we had ourselves a Death Adder. He was found hanging out in the grass in from of motel room #2. He’s also the kind of snake that if he bites you then you die, but Death Adders are less aggressive than the brown snakes. So yeah, the resort is basically crawling with deadly baby snakes at the moment. The parents you can at least see coming since they’re large, but the babies can squeeze into ANYTHING and seem to be EVERYWHERE. Every time we walk outside we have to be mindful of where we step – any unturned leaf can have a deadly baby waiting to kill. Talk about a fun commute to and from work every day!!!

What else is new? My mother’s care package arrived, so I was restocked with double stuff oreos, skippy peanut butter, and cool ranch Doritos. I was very pleased with that. I also finally went into town for the first time last week. It was weird. The traffic! The stores! Having to pay money for food! All such bizarre concepts. I went in with the chef, the helicopter pilot, and the housekeeper. It was a nice day out on the town. Alice Springs isn’t exactly the sexiest place on the planet, but it has mobile phone reception (although stupid me forgot to top up my sim card, so I sent 3 text messages before I ran out of credit) and friggin Hungry Jack’s, so I was happy.  In other news, we’ve had insane amounts of rain recently. There have been crazy thunderstorms for the past 3 days, and the streak looks to continue until the end of the week. A lot of the roads are flooded, and people are getting stuck left and right. It’s kinda fun though! Just as long as the flood waters stay out of my room, along with the snakes and centipedes…. Apparently the creepy crawlers have been quite horny this season L

Life at Glen Helen

So I’ve been at Glen Helen for about 3 and a half weeks thus far. Still haven’t gone stir crazy yet!

I’ve finally gotten the hang of things here (or at least I think I have). I’ve made quite a few mixed drinks, and I now know all the beers we serve and where to find them in the fridge. I’ve even picked up some of the slang words for some of the beers. Australians shorten everything, even the names of beverages. I’ve also gotten really good at heating up meat pies in the microwave and restocking the refrigerators. I really enjoy restocking. I have no idea why. As soon as someone buys a drink, I have to fight the obsessive need to immediately replace it.

I’m not the world’s best gas pumper (I swear, the thing doesn’t like me and gets stuck specifically when I try and use it), but I’ve slowly gotten the hang of the whole waitressing thing. I’ve even done it en français!  It took me a while to work up the balls to do it, but there was one day at the bar where the guy was having trouble understanding the price of something, so I just switched into French. He looked so happy to not have to struggle to work out what I was saying in English. There was even one night in the restaurant where I waitressed 2 of the tables entirely in French. Explaining honeydew melon in French was not easy though. I really want to brush up on my language skills. On the few occasions where I’ve shown people to there rooms in French, there has been a lot of me pointing and gesticulating and referring to places/buildings as “things” because I can’t friggin remember the vocabulary words. It’s slightly annoying. But it’s been good fun!

I got my very first bee sting! Ironically, it happened the day after I was having a conversation with someone describing how I’d never been stung by anything, and felt that I was kind of due for it. I was down at the Glen Helen gorge with the housekeeper and the helicopter pilot, laying on my towel in the sand trying to get some color. I rolled over, and a bee must have been underneath, and I got jabbed right in the bikini line. It stung a bit at first, but then when I pulled the stinger out I winced in pain for the next half hour. But at least I now know that I’m not allergic to bee stings! Found out the hard way on that one J

I’ve also seen my first wild dingo. I didn’t quite believe anyone that they actually existed at first, since everyone else seemed to see them and I never did, but I saw one by the water hole 10 days ago or so. A dead one was also found down by the gorge yesterday. Not sure what happened to the poor little guy.

I’ve also gotten accustomed to cleaning bathrooms. I mean my own is a damn disaster, but I can make the campground, bunkhouse, and homestead bathrooms look spic and span. It’s not so bad really. You just put on the rubber gloves and scrub away!

I figured up here I’d spend most of free time reading and writing and watching all 6 seasons of Lost. But I’ve yet to open a book, and my DVDs are still in their shrink wrap. Sometimes I wonder what the hell I do with all of my time, but it does seem to go rather quickly. Heck, I even went over 2 weeks in between blog entries! I spend a lot of time with my coworkers. What we do with our time is a great question, but the time does seem to pass quite quickly. It’s the slowest time of the year up here, so there aren’t that many of us working up here at the moment. There’s the housekeeper, the currently helicopter-less helicopter pilot (the helicopter doesn’t get here till next month, so he has a lot of free time on his hands), two other girls who basically do the same job I do, the two owners, and their son who is usually a manager but is currently the interim chef, since apparently 2 days before I got here the regular chef sliced his figure and had a psychotic meltdown and ran away. Very small group, so you almost have to go out of your way to not be friends with people. Mid-day trips to the gorge for swimming and nighttimes on the outdoor couch with a drink or two seem to be quite commonplace. But I’m really enjoying it all so far. Everyone gets along pretty well (for the most part J) and it’s a cool experience. It’s almost like living in a plastic bubble though. We work together, eat together, hang out together, and have nowhere else to go. Isolation doesn’t even begin to describe it! I really don’t mind it all though. I rarely find myself bored.

Here are a few more pictures of my new little world. Here’s the outside of home sweet home:

And here is a photo of the front of the homestead. This is what you see when you turn off the main road and head into the driveway:

This is the inside of the homestead:

That’s where I work, watch tv, go “out” (sometimes we take over the bar at night for a little night out on the town…), eat my meals and vege on the couch.

Let’s see… what else is there? I was fortunate enough to be able to watch the Giants win the Super Bowl! The game was on Monday morning, so instead of Super Bowl Sunday I had Super Bowl Monday. The guy I basically replaced, a Patriots fan from Connecticut, was still here then, so I got to watch the game with a fellow American who was rooting for the other team. It was a fun morning.  We didn’t get the commercials though. Instead we were treated to random images of Australian landscapes.

And I must mention my pet! Yes, I have a pet in Australia. His name is Toilet Frog. I named him that because he’s a frog who lives in my toilet bowl. I usually see him at night. One evening one of the guys fished him out of the bowl and set him loose, but about a week later toilet frog re-appeared! I’m convinced that he’s gotten attached to me, and I’m really happy that he found his way back, even after he was given the choice of freedom.

I’m slowly getting used to the bugs here. They are everywhere. You just kind of have to embrace them. The wasps are especially fascinating. They’re quite pretty, but they’re huge. Not terribly aggressive, but their size makes them a bit intimidating. Sometimes the guys catch them and then stick them in cups in the freezer so that they can tie strings to them. Then once the wasp wakes up from its freezer coma, it flies around with a piece of string attached to it. We sure do know how to entertain ourselves out here!

 I’ve also completely planned out my journey around Australia, and am now just in the process of booking everything to secure my place. It’s going to be quite the whirlwind tour, but I’ll get to see most of what I wanted to. It’s kind of funny how with a whole year to see all of Australia, in the end I’ll be cramming 90% of my sightseeing into 2 and a half months. Time sure does fly!

That’s all for now. It’s only about 100 degrees here today…practically sweater weather!

I'm a Bartender in the Outback

Greetings from Glen Helen Resort, 135km west of Alice Springs, NT!

I’m employed again! While I certainly have not missed the whole “working” thing, it is nice knowing that every day that passes is now adding to my rapidly dwindling bank account, instead of subtracting from it. I’ve worked a few shifts so far, and am slowly (emphasis on slowly) getting the hang of it. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve worked with a cash register, and the whole waitressing/bartending/working in a hotel thing is entirely brand new. Yup, that’s right, I’m a waitress/bartender at an outback pub. I wonder what I would have thought if someone had told me that a year ago…

So here’s the website for the place that I work at:

http://www.glenhelen.com.au/

It’s a small, family-run place. It’s currently the off-season, so there are only like 9 staff members here, which includes the two owners and their son – so we’re quite a small bunch! Their main season is North American summer, which is when it’s a bit cooler here, and also all of the European tourists come for their summer holidays. From what I’ve seen so far, the resort’s main source of business comes from local Alice Springs people going for weekend getaways, tour busses passing through, the local Aboriginal people needing snacks/gas and European self-drivers. From what Shelagh, one of the owners, told me, Australia’s red center is very strongly marketed in Western European countries, and it’s also very popular for Western European tourists to rent cars and drive themselves around here. I’ve heard a lot of French so far. One day I’ll work up the courage to try speaking it.  So far all I’ve said is “au revoir” to someone.

This is my first time out of New South Wales, which is exciting for me. I’m in an entirely different part of the country now, about a 3 hour airplane ride away from Sydney. If you look at a map of Australia, Alice Springs is the town that’s essentially right smack in the middle.  When you zoom out, you’ll see vast arrays of nothing stretching for hundreds of miles. The next closest town is Darwin, which is over 900 miles north of Alice Springs. The Northern Territory is kind of like Australia’s wild west. Sparsely inhabited, untamed desert with it’s own local rules and laws. Apparently it’s not even technically an Australian state. It operates like one, but it’s name still has the “Territory” in it because it’s still exactly that – a territory.

As I’ve already touched on, the job is basically working in the Homestead, which is where the bar, common room, reception area, souvenir shop, and formal restaurant are located. So pretty much wherever there’s a person waiting, that’s where you go. I’ve checked in a few people so far at the reception desk. It doesn’t seem too hard, I just have to get used to their systems. I’ve tackled some waitressing too. I’m a bit shit at it still (I forgot to take the menus away the other night from a giant table) but it’s certainly not rocket science, and I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it and get a bit better. I hate it when people ask me questions about the menu though. I’m like, dude I have no friggin idea. Just pick something. You’re in the middle of the damn outback, just be happy that there even IS a restaurant to feed you dinner.  Bartending has been the scariest so far. I’m not exactly an alcohol connoisseur, so I feel a bit lost sometimes back there. I’ve made a couple of mixed drinks so far, but it’s mostly beer that we sell. Lucky for me the tap is currently broken, so I don’t have to worry about whether or not people mean give me a beer from the tap or from the bottle. All we got is bottles - bottles that I can’t open. Most are twist tops, but I tried on my first day to twist, and I sliced my hand up. So now I use a bottle opener for everything, I don’t care if the cap says in big, block print “Twist Me.” Heck, I think I even bled yesterday when using the stupid bottle opener!

There’s also the less glamorous cleaning aspect. We have to sweep and mop, plus wash dishes. They don’t have a dishwasher here, so all dishes need to get washed by hand. Good times! All of the glasses and silverware also need to get polished by hand after each wash, since the water here has a lot of calcium in it, so there are always water marks left after being washed. There’s also no bus boy, so we clear and clean up tables as well. We also have to make sure that the bar is always stocked too. Plus we pump gas! Yes, I am also now a gas pumper at a remote outback petrol station! Pretty cool stuff I think. It’s a long day, being on your feet non-stop. I bought some new black flats for here, only to find out once I got up here that I can just wear my damn sneakers. The uniform is basically the Glen Helen button down shirt, and then I wear jean shorts and socks and sneakers. Pretty comfy, which helps make the day less painful. Those sneakers are gonna get worn out though.

So where am I living then, you ask? Great question! The staff members are housed in what is basically a block of mobile homes. I really like the room though, I got attached to it very quickly and made it my own. It’s the first time I’ve been in one place and not living out of a bag since I left Enmore in early November. This will also be the last time I have a “home” in Australia. Once I leave here, it’ll be 4 and 1/2 months of living like a nomad again. Here’s a picture of my room:

It’s certainly not glamorous. It’s an old mobile home. But it’s all MINE. Yes, my own room! This is the first time since I left home back in June that I have my OWN room. In Enmore there was always the scary chance that they could move someone else in to the empty bed at any moment.. But my mobile home is all MINE! Plus I have my own ensuite bathroom and my own mini-fridge. It’s like a backpackers dream come true! The bed isn’t too bad either. I jazzed it up with 2 duvets, 2 pillows, and of course my Mets blanket and Marbles. I also added a Winnie the Pooh fleece blanket that I found in the laundry room cupboard as my rug. My fridge is always stocked with coke, and I even have an air conditioner! I really am quite happy with my little space. We’ve become good friends. It is dirty and buggy and all that, but I don’t care. I have my own room. With an AC. And a mini-fridge. The bugs can come hang out every once in a while if they want to, I’m ok with that.

They feed us breakfast lunch and dinner, but it’s sort of like eat this or go hungry. Breakfast is put out from 7 am – 9:30 am, lunch for us is always at noon, and dinner is always at 6. I tend to sleep through breakfast (I’ve been working late shifts this week), nibble on lunch since I don’t much care for their lunch meats, and then by 4 pm I’m starving and wolf down whatever is put in front of me at 6. I am desperate for snacks though. I’ve already begged my mother and aunt to ship over cookies and crackers and sweets. I can’t get to town because I have no car, and the snacks at the homestead are all expensive and in small bags. I like being able to snack. I anxiously await the arrival of my snack boxes. The local water here is filled with calcium and kind of has a sulfur-y stink to it. The guests have to either suck it up and drink it or buy bottled water. We are able to use collected rain water instead. It’s a tad yellow, which is a bit disconcerting at first, but it tastes pretty good.

Now the place is called the Glen Helen Resort, and while resort might be a stretch, it is a pretty nice place. The formal dining room is quite nice, and we are required to anally set it up. The hotel rooms are simple, although quite nice considering the remoteness, and they have a little swimming pool that’s kept nicely as well. There are also campsites and a backpacker bunkhouse. The homestead has a giant flat screen tv, and there’s also a piano, books, and games. Here’s the backyard of the place:

And here is the actual Glen Helen gorge, which is a 10-minute walk from the homestead:

You can swim in both, although I haven’t done so yet. Too much other stuff to do! While I’m up here, I have to plan and book both my New Zealand part 2 trip and my entire backpacking around Australia journey. I want to get those things done first, and then once that’s all settled I’ll spend my free time outside, enjoying the surroundings.

I’ve got no mobile phone reception here, but I do have the internet! Apparently it’s satellite-based, so I’ve been told it can be a tad slow. So far I have no complaints about it.

In terms of the heat, it’s really not so bad. Anyone out there who has ever been to (or lived) in Arizona during the summer months would feel right at home here. It’s hot, but it’s a dry heat. There’s no humidity, which is nice, since everything dries quickly. I never go to sleep with wet hair anymore – just go for a 5 minute walk outside and it’s bone dry again.

This past week has also been my first real experience with the Aboriginal people of Australia. You don’t really see many in Sydney, but the Northern Territory has a large population. When we first got to Alice Springs and stopped at the supermarket, we weren’t out of the car for 30 seconds before someone tried to sell us native artwork and then proceeded to beg for money when the answer was no, not interested. It’s a tough situation that they have here. “White” Australians seem to be divided into those who understand the plight of the indigenous people, who had foreigners come in and take over their world, trying to destroy their culture and force them into accepting lifestyles that made no sense to them, and those who think the Aboriginals are lazy drunks who refuse to embrace the educational system and play active, positive roles in white society. Alcohol certainly has done horrors to the population, similar to the story you see in the U.S. with the Native Americans. There are very strict alcohol laws in the Northern Territory for everyone, which are primarily aimed at curtailing Aboriginal access to alcohol. Drinking is a particularly bad problem in the rural communities, so there are actually laws in place as to which Aboriginal people can buy alcohol at pubs. If anyone other than an Aboriginal person walks in the door and asks for a beer, they get it; just as long as they have the money for it and appear to be at least in the neighborhood of being 18 years of age. If an Aboriginal walks in and asks for a beer, you have to check ID. If they are from Alice Springs (135 km from here) or Darwin, then you can serve them. If not, then no matter how old they are, the answer is no. Apparently these laws were put into place by representatives of the Aboriginal communities, so the laws are kind of self-imposed. Not that drinking isn’t a problem in Alice as well, but apparently it’s much more pronounced of a social issue outside of the town. I’m sure as I travel Australia I’ll learn more about the good side of the Aboriginal story. I got some bits and pieces from our tour guide in the Blue Mountains, who was just absolutely enamored with them. It’ll be fun to learn more about their beliefs and ways of life and how they used to do things before they got taken over. But while I’m up here I’ll have a front row seat to the opposite side. It’s sad really. They come in to the store and many times they just look a bit lost. You can see sometimes that the concept of money doesn’t really make sense to them, just by the way they haphazardly grab items and then hand me the $50 note like it’s some sort of alien object that they just need to pass on so they can take home the massive amounts of soda and ice cream. Then once I give them the change, they often are back 5 minutes later, buying more junk until all of the money is gone. It’s been an interesting anthropological experience for me thus far.

So that’s my updated story! Hopefully I’ll settle in more over the next week or so and will have the job down pat soon.

Hope you East Coasters are enjoying winter – it’s 106 degrees and sunny here J

A Fortnight in Glebe

As sad I was to leave New Zealand behind for now, this was a pretty nice “welcome back!” view that I got form the airplane:

I landed back in Sydney not 100% sure how long I’d be staying. My new job wanted me up there towards the end of January, but I didn’t have an exact date when I got back. The plan was to just stay in Sydney until it was time to go up to the outback though. I had toyed with a couple of ideas for what to do with myself during the approximately 2 weeks I’d have in between my plans. I was initially hoping that I’d be able to squeeze some farm work in, just for the experience. I had a recommendation for a great working hostel (a hostel in sort of a not so exciting area whose main function is to house and hook up backpackers with local farm work in the area) a few hours north of Melbourne, but in the end I realized that it would be cramming too much in. I also thought of calling up one of my employment agencies to see if I could get some work for the 2^nd week in Sydney. In the end I canned that idea as well, not out of laziness but because my to-do list was just super long. Plus I wanted to see the friends I have here, since this will be the last time in my itinerary that I’m in Sydney for anything resembling an extended period of time.  My stops down the road will be more popping back into town in between travel legs then actually spending any time here. So I booked 2 weeks in at the same quiet hostel in Glebe that I stayed at before I went to New Zealand, and that was that.

What have I been doing the past couple of weeks then? Jeez, I don’t know what filled up all the hours, but they sure got filled up quickly. First I had to pick up my bags of course, which was a project. Here’s all of them on the bus:

I went through all of my things, separating them into items to be shipped home, items to be taken to the outback, and items to be put into storage in Sydney. I shipped 2 boxes and 2 poster tubes home. I figured out how to roll over my retirement account from the wrong account that the employment agency shoved my funds into back to the correct account that I set up back in July. I finalized the date that I’m coming home. I had my original mobile phone fixed, so I no longer am using something that looks like it’s from 2001. I finally bought a backpacker backpack! His name is Stewart, after Stewart Island, which is where I had the realization that I would need to own a backpacker backpack. My poor suitcase has aged about 10 years in 6 months. I don’t want to kill it any more then it’s already been killed, so I went with what all the cool kids are doing and bought a giant 70-liter backpack. Here is a picture of me with my new bff Stewart!

Let’s see, what else… I bought a mosquito face net since apparently the flies in the outback are quite intense. I bought a raincoat and some plug adaptors that were sorely needed. I got a flashlight and extra toiletries and finally had my watch repaired and did heaps of laundry. I caught up on my journal and uploaded a bazillion pictures to facebook from my New Zealand trip, and worked on the blog. I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff, but I’m also sure you’re already bored with this. It hasn’t been the most exciting 2 weeks, but it’s been productive.

I also did some fun stuff. I met my friend Julie from Jillaroo school twice for dinner in Glebe, where we checked out the local Mexican restaurants. They aren’t too bad, but they aren’t anywhere near the quality of what you can get at home. Australia needs more Mexicans. Cheryl and I went to Bondi Beach one day, to actually go to the beach. Never been there in summer before! We got tanning oil and everything, although the experience wasn’t what I’d hoped. It was windy and the sand stung horribly. I went in the water for a bit, but the waves and undertow are way too rough for my tastes. After I got knocked down and lightly bruised my butt in the process, I called it a day for the swimming. We did take a classic photo though, us at Bondi Beach, in Australian flag shorts, holding up a Bondi Beach towel. It’s pretty epic!:

Went for manicures & pedicures after, and then I helped make dumplings for dinner. Look: Behold, a photo of me making dough and using a rolling pin!

I can’t even remember the last time I touched a rolling pin. We hung out on the balcony afterwards, enjoying these lovely Long Island Iced Teas that we both like that are found at exactly one liquor store in all of Sydney. When I went to pick them up though, the liquor man informed me that they are being discontinued since they have become too expensive to produce. I bought 2 packs of them, one of which still remains, but after they are gone we shall never be able to drink them again. Sad.

I met up with her another day as well, with a grand plan of going to Sydney’s giant fish market, then over to Ashfield (sort of like Sydney’s version of Flushing – the Asian neighborhood that the tourists don’t really go to) for dumplings, then over to Cheryl’s Oz tag game, and then out for one last night in King’s Cross. We ended up going to only Ashfield. Poor Cheryl got a wicked case of food poisoning, from a work dinner to make matters worse. She started to feel worse as the day went on, so instead of partying in King’s Cross we spent the early part of the evening in the emergency room instead. Not too bad time wise though, we were there for about 3 hours. I felt absolutely awful for her. I’ve never had food poisoning like that, and I hope I never do. They gave her some medication to help, but essentially those sorts of things you just need to ride out. Yuck. Had a late dinner of tim tams and – wait for it – PEACH SNAPPLE – back at her place. There is ONE place in Sydney where you can buy 16 oz glass bottles of Snapple, but it’s imported, so you pay the price for it. Each bottle is $5. So it’s not something to drink every day, but every time I come back to Sydney in between travel legs I might just treat myself to one. Mmmmm…

I was so busy running around that I only got to gymnastics once in 2 weeks! I attempted to go twice, but the one gym was closed. It’s happened once before. They are a small, family run place, so while it’s great because I get lots of attention and instruction and it’s pretty inexpensive, every once in a while they do seem to randomly close on a whim. I did get to see my favorite Australian cat though on the way back, Mr. Bojangles!

I usually caught him on my way home from the gym Thursday nights when I lived in Enmore. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the cat during daylight hours before! A neighbor who was outside taking out the trash told me the cat’s real name: Maximus. I don’t like it. I liked the real name of the Hippo Lodge cat better (Her name was Moss – I had called her Snickers), but Mr. Bojangles is a MUCH better name than Maximus. I might put a note in his house’s mailbox to let his owners know.

Managed to get to my other gym this past Friday night though, which was interesting. I haven’t been to the gym since before New Zealand, so we’re talking a little over 7 weeks since I last attempted to bend myself. The stuff I can do that required technique was still there, albeit a tad rusty. I had to throw things sometimes a half dozen times or so before they came back. But my split is still there, and my back & shoulder flexibility, while a bit tighter than what it was, isn’t too bad at all considering the length of time I’ve gone without stretching and how ancient I am. I did notice a difference on bars though. Things that I did with ease 2 months ago were a bit of a struggle. I’ve definitely lost some of that body strength I acquired while I was living in Enmore and going to the gym a lot. That stinks for now, but I’m not too worried. One day when I’m settled like a real person again and can go to the gym consistently, I’ll get it all back. For now I just wanted to have my body go through the motions and stretch out a bit, so that it doesn’t forget everything it’s learned.

The scary moment of the 2 weeks: My cat is special. He’s a bit of a nutcase, which I already knew, but now he’s medically special too. Apparently he was born with genetically defective kidneys. They are larger than they are supposed to be. He started acting really strangely, so my parents took him into the vet, which is how we found out about it. He had to stay for a few days and got IV medication, which my poor mother has to continue at home. So now we have to keep an eye out on this, and might need to take him back to the vet down the road for further treatments to keep his kidney function in check. He should be OK, and he can live for many more years – I mean, he’s already almost 5 and he’s had funny kidneys since he was born – with his condition, but in the end I imagine he won’t be setting any records in the kitty lifespan department. Hopefully he will have many more long years ahead of him though, filled with wailing for no reason and giving me dirty looks, but it’s certainly scary to find out that your pet has genetically defective organs. But he’s a little trooper, so I have faith that he’ll be around attacking me and then having my parents yell at ME for starting it for many more years to come. I may enjoy the company of Mr. Bojangles, and I certainly did meet many lovely cats in New Zealand, but this is the only one that matters:

Lastly, as you may have noticed me mention, I have an end date! Yes, there is an end date to all of this madness. I will be arriving at 8:10 pm on Friday, August 17^th on Flight VS009 from Heathrow.

Are we confused yet? Do we know where Heathrow is? You live under a rock if you don’t, it’s one of the world’s most well known (and busiest) airports. London, baby, London!!!!!

I’m going home the long way, flying over Asia and Europe instead of over the Pacific Ocean and the U.S. Why, you may ask? Good question. Well, I put in a bid for tickets to the Olympics like a bazillion years ago, and I got tickets to 2 of the 3 gymnastics prelim sessions. Now I wasn’t going to fly to London, watch 4 hours of gymnastics, pay a zillion pounds per night for accommodation, and then fly home. But my Australia trip started creeping up towards the end-July mark (I originally thought I’d be home by the end of June), and then I happened to meet a wonderful friend – who also likes gymnastics – who happens to live in London, and said I could stay at her place. So then the gears started churning in my head. My plan had been to leave Australia at the end of July and be home in time to watch the Games on TV. But MAYBE, I could leave Australia the same date, just fly home via London instead, and just hop off the plane and check out the Olympics? Brilliant! And if I’m going to be in the U.K. then anyone who knows me knows that I simply MUST go to Paris as well, so in the end I just stuck on a 3-week stopover in Europe. I figure I might as well do it now. Once I’m home I will need to find work immediately and then I plan to live like a gremlin, emerging only when someone pays me to do something. So there will be no vacations for a while, especially no long ones to Europe. So I figure, might as well take advantage of a perhaps once in a lifetime opportunity to go to the Olympics and visit my beloved France as well. Who knows when I’ll have the funds/time off to get back there again? Might be a couple of years. So wooo hoo for USA Gymnastics and for raw, non-pasteurized cheese! I’m a comin’!!!! It’ll be good mentally too I think. It’ll be sort of emotional leaving Australia behind, but this way instead of going straight back to reality, I have one last fun stop before I head back and need to find a job. The Olympics!!!! I’m going to get to see Olympic gymnastics in person! And even though I’ll still have to watch the finals on TV, I’ll get to be IN London, right where all the action is happening. Plus I’ll get to hang out with Suzy again, and she can meet Stewart. Suzy was the one who helped me realize that Stewart needed to be purchased.

So that’s what’s new in my life. Today I took the ferry over to Manly and walked around, then had my last quickie dumpling session with Cheryl. Tomorrow I’m moving to the outback! The ACTUAL outback, as in the place in the world that the horrible chain steakhouse is based on. I’m excited and nervous as well. Moving to a new place in the world where I have no friends, plus I have to learn a new job. I hope it’ll be fun, and I really hope that I can save up some money. Now that Europe’s been thrown into the mix, I have to be a bit more cautious about funds.

No mobile phone service for me until I’m back in Sydney. Based on what I understand I will have internet though. Gosh I hope that’s accurate. Not so much because I’m a princess who can’t live without it, but I need to keep my blogs coming – plus I need to plan my backpacking journey around Australia, my New Zealand the Sequel trip, and this freshly tacked-on sojourn in Europe.

Wish me luck in the outback! Just checked the weather in Alice Springs, which is where I’m flying into. It was 42 degrees Celsius  today – that’s about 107 F for us Americanos. Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice J

Christmas, New Year's & the Final Stretch

“Once upon a time somebody ran - 
Somebody ran away saying as fast as I can
 - I got to
go - 
I got to go - Once upon a time we fell apart - 
You're holding in your 
hands 
the two halves of my heart - Once upon a time 
we weren't right - 

All we ever seemed to do is fight - 
On and on -  
And on and on and on - Once 
upon a time on the same side
 - Once upon a time on the same side in the same game

 - Why'd you have to go
 - Have to go and throw it all in my face - I could've been a
 princess, you'd be a king
 - Could have had a castle and wore a ring - 
But no
 - You 
let me go - 
I could've been a princess, you'd be a king
 - Could have had a castle and wore 
a ring
 - But no
 - You let me go - You stole my star
 - La la la la la
la
 - You stole my star
 - La la la la la la - 'Cause you really hurt me

 - Oh you really hurt me - 
'Cause you really hurt me
 - Oh you really hurt me
 - 'Cause
 you really hurt me
 - Oh you really hurt me
 - 'Cause you really hurt me - 
You really
 hurt me”

Day 24 Continued – Travel Up North – So I left you all last sitting at the airport in Queenstown, waiting to head up north for Christmas. A whole week of not running around the country being a tourist! I was pretty pumped. The flight was good, I was very excited to finally get on Air New Zealand, as I’m sure I’ve already mentioned. They even had All Blacks (their rugby team that won the world cup) themed snacks on board, which was pretty awesome. So where was I headed exactly? My friend Steen, who I met at surf camp, happened to be kind of moving to New Zealand when I was traveling around there, so I somehow luckily fell into getting invited to crash someone else’s family Christmas J. So he picked me up at the airport, and then we drove up north maybe like an hour and 45 minutes to where his family lives. I was falling asleep in the car, so I bought one of those silly energy drinks about halfway through the ride, which resulted in me being wide awake until about 5 am. Let that be a life lesson to you all. Don’t ever drink red bull type things in the evening if you plan on actually going to sleep any time in the next 8 hours. Yikes. Not my smartest move ever.

Day 25 – Merry Christmas! – While it’s certainly strange that Christmastime is….um… summer in this part of the world, it’s kind of fun. It was a nice warm day, as opposed to the usual which is me shaking when I am forced to go outside to get into the car to go out to eat. We took his Grandmother’s dog for a walk in the morning, which was sort of a major life event for me, since it was the first time I ever added a SMALL dog to the list of dog breeds that I wouldn’t mind owning one day. She was a King Charles Spaniel, and SO freakin adorable. Like heart-melting adorable. I very much enjoyed having that dog around all day. We went for a ride around the area at one point during the day, and then also went to the beach. Yes, the beach. I went to the beach on Christmas day. Did any of YOU out there do that??? Ha! I didn’t go all the way in the water (too lazy to put on a bathing suit), but I went in as far as I could. The water wasn’t too bad actually, much nicer than the frigid waters of the South Island where I had just come from. Spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out on the porch, then had dinner, which was super yummy AND did NOT consist of instant noodles. The rumors must be true then, real people actually DO eat things other than instant noodles! It’s fascinating. I was mesmerized by all the fruits and vegetables and meats and other non-noodle things. Good stuff. Desert was yummy as well, and then when the family opened up all of their gifts, “Santa” was nice enough to get me a couple of things as well. That was very sweet and much appreciated. Santa found me, even all the way in Ruakaka, New Zealand. He must be a smart guy. Once it got dark a bunch of us headed to the beach with some wine and had a little bonfire for a bit. That was pretty cool. Never actually had a fire on the beach before. All in all, a very nice Christmas. Sure beat the heck out of my alternate plan, which either would have been a Christmas Day Chicken McNuggets Value Meal, or perhaps if I was feeling social, a crap Christmas dinner with whoever else had nowhere real to go at one of the local hostels. I liked my plan better. I got to play with a puppy and open presents. Woo hoo!

Day 26 – Boxing Day – For us, the 26^th is just the day after Christmas, but in a lot of the world, Boxing Day is a holiday as well, which was kind of cool for me. My first Boxing Day! It was a lovely day again, and although we did some errands and stuff, my mind was back in Queens for a lot of the day. Why? Think New Yorkers, what happened last December 26^th? It snowed. A lot. I tried to get to work. So very hard.  I waited an hour and a half for the Q28, only to have the 7 train stop at Citi Field and then go no further. I walked home 5 miles. In 3 feet of snow. On an empty, growling stomach. That was Boxing Day last year. Boxing Day this year was spent partially in the jungle. I wore a summer dress. The sun was out. HA I say to the snow that tried to deflate my spirits last year, I have emerged victorious! You may have near destroyed me last year, but this year you will not! I will dance around in my flip flops on the bright green grass, singing songs of your defeat! OK, that’s the end of my rant at the weather, I promise. Last December 26^th was just a really super rotten day. A snow day that shall live in infamy. The day I walked home from Citi Field in the snow.

I don’t remember exactly what the heck I did with myself all day, but at one point Steen went to go check out his new house/apartment/flat whatever you want to call it, so I went along for the ride. Now I knew that in coming to New Zealand I’d get to be in Middle Earth, which I was really excited about. I got to walk through Mordor to Mount Doom, drove by film crews filming the Hobbit, and every 10 minutes the bus driver seemed to be pointing out another location that appeared in Lord of the Rings. But I most certainly did NOT expect to be submerged in Lost. Yes that’s right, not only did I find myself plopped right in the middle of Frodo’s world, I also ended up in what looked like the infamous Island. The new residence wasn’t too far off the main street, but it was up a long gravel road that sort of terminated in the jungle. It was an amazing little summer cottage, complete with a 60s style caravan painted in crazy bright colors, hitched permanently to the end of the porch. There was a path through the jungle behind the caravan that led up to a cliff overlooking the ocean. Totally like being in Lost. It was awesome! Very rustic though. Despite being not too far from a regular road with paved streets and everything, this was a rustic little hippie hut. Rustic, as in no indoor shower. Outdoor shower instead, with hot water heated by a gas bottle. And the long drop. More commonly known to us Americanos as an outhouse. Yes, that’s right. An outhouse. The kind of toilet that separates the men from the boys, the prissy squealy girls from the chicks who just roll with the punches. You haven’t lived until you’ve had to use an outhouse in the jungle. You simply have not lived! But I was pretty excited about getting to hang out at the place for a few days. I only wished I had not left my Lost DVDs back in Sydney!

Day 27 – Move In Day – Day 27 was spent doing the type of stuff that seems super boring when compared to sky diving and hang gliding and canyoning and glacier tramping and all that stuff, but sometimes one needs a break and the boring stuff is nice. Sort of a little taste of living like a regular human again. Went food shopping to stock up the new residence, and I bought a bunch of bottles of coke, knowing that for the first time in a month I could safely store them in a non-communal refrigerator, where some idiot might snag one. I bought myself a gallon of milk. Even some juice. Bought eggs and sausages and all sorts of food that are NOT instant noodles. It was quite exciting for me.  Helped buy some odds & ends for the house, like sponges and cleaner and whatnot. All very basic stuff, but seeing as I have lived like a backpacker since July, this was kind of fun. A little taste of the real world again. We started cleaning up the little house, which was quite a chore since no one had been there in quite a spell. I decided to tackle the long drop. Ever attempted to clean out an outhouse that hasn’t been used in ages? It’s kind of scary. There were some bugs in there who dfinitely were not please with the presence of a meddlesome human. But all in all it was a fun day. I don’t mind cleaning when I’m away from home, it’s just AT home that my incredible laziness seems to kick in…

Day 28-30 – Chillaxin! – I grouped these all together because none of these days were particular standouts, and although they were definitely enjoyable they all sort of blended together in my head. I uploaded my previous blog entry, which took ages since the internet was a bit spotty. I posted photos on facebook. Watched tons of movies. Did some stuff around town. Went for a few local walks (and got bitten up by the local bugs…) Caught up on my journal. Even actually…wait for it!... read a BOOK. Yes, an actual book. For the first time since I left home, I finally had the time to read a book. It was glorious. I also got to sleep a lot. Sleeping is my favorite activity in the world, and I had not had much of it since arriving in New Zealand. I was happy to finally not have to wake up at the crack of dawn every day to load my bag on the bus and zoom off to the next activity that would cost me $300 plus an additional $50 for pictures.

Day 31 – New Year’s Eve 2012 – The plans for New Years were sort of up in the air until the last minute, there was talk of a boat somewhere, talk of a bar, talk of a party, but in the end laziness won, and we just kind of stayed in. I bought myself some cider and some sort of malt liquor stuff that I decided must be had since the packaging was pink. Went up through the jungle to the top of the hill for midnight, which we rang in according to Vodafone time with champagne and sparklers and music blaring in the background. There were fireworks on the beach below, which while I’m sure didn’t compare to the spectacle that took place 2 hours later in Sydney, were kind of fun nevertheless. I called people at midnight, not really caring what time it was back in their time zone. I’m super glad that I got to spend my New Year’s Eve in New Zealand. We got to 2012 first!!!!

Day 32 – New Year’s Day – Another lazy day, which consisted of about 7 episodes of the Dollhouse (which confused the hell out of me), and me slowly (emphasis on the slowly) packing up my stuff to go back down south to Queenstown. I think we did go somewhere at some point. I do vaguely remember getting in the car and going somewhere. Four Square maybe? I can’t even remember anymore. Went to bed fairly early. Doing nothing makes you tired man!

Day 33 – Back to Queenstown – My flight back down to the bottom of New Zealand left at about 2 in the afternoon so I bid my friend and my week of slothness a fond adieu, and I was at my hostel in Queenstown by about 5. It was a snazzy little place, brand new, with 2 plugs at EACH bed. Seriously, that’s a big deal. Do you know how Darwinian it gets when you are sharing a room with 5 other people, and there are 2 plugs??? And EVERYONE has a phone, a computer, and an ipod, plus lots of stupid girls have hair dryers and straighteners too. You have to sometimes be ruthless to get your stuff charged. But not at Adventure Queenstown! Good for them. I give them an A+. I was going to get the famous Fergburger for dinner, but the line just to order was about 15 minutes, and then it would be an additional hour to actually have the burger in my hands. I ended up with Thai takeout on the hostel balcony instead. They cooked it up in 5 minutes, which was a much more acceptable wait time.

Day 34 – Mt.Cook – I got back on the Stray bus on the morning of my 34^th day in New Zealand. The new driver’s name was Rob. He was ok, but he wasn’t Whales, which meant that I didn’t care for him much. We drove over to Mt. Cook, which is New Zealand’s highest peak. We stayed in the little mountain village at the food of the mountain range, which was absolutely gorgeous. From the balcony of our hostel room, we had an amazing view of a glacier huddled on the side of a mountain. It really was quite sexy:

I went jet boating for my activity. The glacier is melting, and the meltwater started forming a lake back in the 1970s. When pieces of the glacier break off, it creates icebergs floating in the lake, which is pretty cool. Here’s the walk to the lake:

And here is our guide explaining some stuff to us from our little jetboat:

Those icebergs were pretty awesome. I’ve never been in a boat surrounded by icebergs before. I’ll never let go Jack, I’ll never let go! Sorry – couldn’t resist J

The tour included dinner and a glass of wine, which was quite nice. It also included a free 3D movie at the local Alpine Center, which is located in the village’s 5 star hotel. Oh man. I wish Stray could have hooked us up with that place instead. Not that Mt. Cook Backpackers was bad or anything… but it wasn’t quite a posh as the 5-star place J.

Day 35 – Rangitata – On the morning of Day 35 we drove to Rangitata, which is one of New Zealand’s best places to raft. Up until I almost drowned river surfing in Queenstown, I had been looking forward to rafting. Now all this talk of grade 5 rapids and boats flipping over was starting to scare the crap out of me. Rangitata isn’t a baby rafting trip. Rapids go from grade 1 through grade 7, with grade 6 and 7 being essentially unraftable. So grade 5 is pretty much as scary as you can get without putting your life in danger. Rangitata had 2 grade 5 sections, one 50 meters long with 2 separate 6 foot drops, and the second one just a long sh*t show of rapids, stretching for 350 meters. I prayed that the boat wouldn’t flip. The guide said that they don’t always flip, but it does happen often enough that every boat is taught what to do in case we were to find ourselves upside down.  My friend Suzy, who was at Rangitata a week before I went, flipped over when she went rafting. Yikes.

Here is us going through a baby rapid, maybe a grade 2. I am in the light blue helmet in the back, next to the guide, a spot which I thoroughly enjoyed. If things got scary, at least I was right next to the only person on the boat who knew what they were doing.

Here is our guide screaming at the top of his lungs, leading the charge into the first grade 5. I like this picture, it reminds me of scenes in war movies where the leader hoists his weapon into the air and yells at the top of his lungs, letting the troops know that it’s time to head off into battle:

This next one is my absolute favorite photo from rafting though, because you cannot see anyone in the photo at all, just all the paddles going every which way. And yet somehow, we were all actually in there, and the boat didn’t flip over. We emerged right side up, ironically only losing the guide, who cracked some girl’s paddle when he went flying out at the bottom. I also smashed my face into the woman sitting in front of me, but other than that we were all good:

After the scary rapids were all over, we got to float a bit, lazy river style. I liked that very much:

So in the end, I survived! Didn’t flip and didn’t fall out. Whew! It was fun though. The grade 5’s were super SUPER scary, but the 2’s and 3’s were just fun. I look forward to going rafting with my aunt in the Grand Canyon. She promised she would take me, and after reading this, I have NO doubt that she will follow through.

Day 36 – Kaikoura – Day 36 was essentially my last day of being a real tourist. This was the last stop on the bus tour before we basically just pressed full steam ahead back up to Auckland. Kaikoura was a spot I was very much looking forward to though. My first giant disappointment of the trip was when I didn’t get to swim with the dolphins up in the Bay of Islands, and Kaikoura was my 2^nd chance at it. Kaikoura is a hotbed for marine mammals, something to do with an underwater canyon and currents converging. Basically there are a bunch of different whale species, tons of dolphins, and fur seals hanging out all over the place.  As soon as we got to Kaikoura, I jumped off the bus to get ready for my seal snorkel. Threw the wetsuit on, then took a mini van to a boat, where we got in the water by a giant rock with dozens of them chilling out. We weren’t allowed to get too close to the rock or touch the seals, but as long as they wanted to come in the water and play it was all good. Here are some seals sitting on a rock:

And here is my new best friend, giving me a funny look under water:

He even waved at me!

It was a great time. I’ve never been anywhere before where swimming with wild seals was an option. It’s a very cool experience, although that water was quite nippy!  They gave us wetsuit hoods though to help combat the cold, which was interesting. Never been in a hood before. I wish I had gotten a picture of me in it, I looked like a little space alien. On the boat ride back to shore we even saw a penguin, who put on a bit of a show for us by dramatically scratching his belly, which was pretty cool.

Back at the hostel, which was a lovely little place called the Fish Tank lodge (it was themed! Fish themed! I LOVE themed stuff!!!!!!!), I ate Thai takeout for dinner again. I got lazy with the food preparation towards the end of the trip. It’s naughty though, buying dinner adds up if you do it every day. Plus if I was going to buy dinner, I really should have bought something non-noodle based. But that’s what happens when you budget travel. You get so used to noodles, that even when you have the option to eat something else, you still end up choosing old faithful.

Day 37 – Dolphins to Wellington – My alarm went off at 4:50 am. Let’s stop here for a moment, and just take a minute to process that. Yeah. 4:50 am. I rolled out of bed, grabbed my pre-packed bag, and hustled down to the dolphin swim center, where I arrived just as they opened the doors at 5:20 am. Not only is the best time to swim with the dolphins at the crack of dawn, but it was also the only time available that would suit the bus schedule, without me having to hop off the bus and stay an extra night, which wasn’t an option for my schedule. So up I was, in a wetsuit and leaping into the icy water at like 6:30 am. They had warned us that the boat ride might be a little rough. The Bay of Islands is a bay, not open water, so the boat ride is smooth. This is basically open ocean, so sea sickness becomes an issue. I did ok, although the small child sitting next to me puked into a bucket, which was fun. I didn’t feel great, but I think part of that was simply because I was exhausted. I could not fall asleep the night before, maybe from being excited. I was also seething mad at Vodafone, since I had to top up my mobile phone yet AGAIN the night before, after swearing on New Year’s Eve that I had given Vodafone their last dime from me. Regardless, I was painfully tired on the boat, but once you get into the water you do kind of wake up a bit.

We went swimming with Dusky dolphins, which are a southern hemisphere only species. They are also the most acrobatic of all dolphin species, which is amazing. These guys are constantly jumping and leaping and flipping. They did some complicated moves too. I saw a few back flips with full twists. They are quite talented, those Dusky dolphins! Here is a new friend I made:

And another friend as well!

We were told that in order to amuse the dolphins (who will swim away if they get bored with us), we should spin around in circles, dive down deep, and make crazy noises into the snorkel. I did the spinning thing at one point, and got into a competition with one. He swam in circles and I spun in the middle. Guess who won? I started getting nauseous and gave up, and then the dolphin got bored and left. I guess we didn’t bond as much as I though we had? It seemed like a special moment on my end…

We were given the chance of 3 swims, although I was very much done after the 2^nd swim, so I stayed on the boat when we moved to the 3^rd location. I was starting to not feel well, but I had a great time on the boat for the 3^rd swim anyway, taking pictures of them flipping around and stalking the boat:

We were done with the whole thing and back at the dolphin center by 8:50 am, where I then zoomed back to the hostel to get on the Stray bus and start the long journey back to Auckland. What a morning! We were in Kaikoura for less than 20 hours, but I sure as hell made the most of it! We drove up to Picton, where we then got on the 3 hour ferry ride to Wellington. I walked around Wellington for a bit, then collapsed in bed. Long day!

Day 38 – Wellington to Rotorua – There isn’t much to say about this day. I got McDonald’s breakfast, but they forgot to put cheese on my sausage McMuffin. We stopped on the drive to Rotorua at Tongarira National Park and Lake Taupo, so the drive was a bit of a trip down memory lane. We were on the bus from about 9 am until 5 pm, when I got off at the YHA in Rotorua. I had instant noodles and a spoonful of peanut butter for dinner. That’s pretty much it.

Day 39 – Rotorua to Auckland – I got up early and dragged myself in the rain to McDonalds, because I really wanted to have a sausage McMuffin done properly, with the cheese on it. They got it right in Rotorua. We then stopped around 10:30 am in Matamata, where I got a Subway breakfast sandwich. I was very naughty with the fast food breakfasts towards the end of the trip. Very naughty indeed.

We got to Auckland around 1:30, and I hopped off the Stay bus for the last time…until April. Yeah. Have I announced this yet on the blog? I can’t remember. Anyway, halfway through the north island, I decided I was going to come back. There is too much left I’d like to do, so I’m planning on another 2 weeks in April. Woo hoo! So that made saying goodbye to NZ a bit easier. It wasn’t really goodbye, more of a peace out, catch ya a bit later instead. Anyway, I finally took a walk around Auckland:

I also did some souvenir shopping, some outdoor gear shopping, and then took myself out to dinner for asian food, just as I did on my first night in Auckland. My hostel room only had one other girl in it, so I had a nice, quiet evening.

Day 40 – Sydney, I’m a comin’! – Woke up at 5 am, was at the airport at 6, and mixed it up this time, buying Burger King breakfast instead of McDonalds. Can you die from eating sausage egg & cheese muffins every morning for days on end? I hope not… Anyway, the flight left on time, and before we landed in Sydney we got an amazing overview of the city, flying right over the opera house and harbour bridge, plus we flew right over my old neighborhood. I caught my old K-mart and local park from the sky. So 2 weeks in Sydney now, and then…. Off to the Outback! And no, I don’t mean the steakhouse…

Final thoughts on New Zealand? Wow. It really is an amazing place, and it’s majestic beauty certainly is not overrated. I had an incredible time, and although it wasn’t all peaches and cream, there are only a handful of really sh*t times that come to mind. I mean, I certainly didn’t enjoy almost drowning in Queenstown, or almost destroying my computer getting caught in the rain in Paihia, but for the most part, it was really quite special, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it.

In the event you were wondering, this entry is flanked by the lyrics to 2 songs that I picked up in New Zealand, and then listened to over and over again. I spent a lot of time on the bus, so naturally I listened to a lot of music. These two songs ended up being my favorites, and will forever remind me of my (first) incredible journey through Middle Earth.

“This is not the end - This is not the beginning, - Just a voice like a riot - Rocking every revision - But you listen to the tone - And the violent rhythm - Though the words sound steady - Something empty's within 'em - We say Yeah! - With fists flying up in the air - Like we're holding onto something - That's invisible there, - 'Cause we're living at the mercy of - The pain and the fear - Until we dead it, Forget it, - Let it all disappear. - Waiting for the end to come - Wishing I had strength to stand - This is not what I had planned - It's out of my control....Flying at the speed of light - Thoughts were spinning in my head - So many things were left unsaid - It's hard to let you go... (Oh!) I know what it takes to move on, - I know how it feels to lie, - All I wanna do Is trade this life for something new - Holding on to what I haven't got - Sitting in an empty room - Trying to forget the past - This was never meant to last, - I wish it wasn't so...(Oh!) I know what it takes to move on, - I know how it feels to lie, - All I wanna do Is trade this life for something new - Holding on to what I haven't got - What was left when that fire was gone? - I thought it felt right but that right was wrong - All caught up in the eye of the storm - And trying to figure out what it's like moving on - And i don't even know what kind of things I've said - My mouth kept moving and my mind went dead - So, picking up the pieces, now where to begin? - The hardest part of ending Is starting again!! - All I wanna do Is trade this life for something new -Holding on to what i haven't got... - This is not the end - This is not the beginning, - Just a voice like a riot - Rocking every revision - But you listen to the tone - And the violet rhythm - Though the words sound steady - Something empty's within 'em - (Holding on to what i haven't got) - We say Yeah! - With fists flying up in the air - Like we're holding onto something - That's invisible there, - 'Cause we're living at the mercy of - The pain and the fear - Until we dead it, Forget it, - Let it all disappear - (Holding on to what i haven't got!)”