From Hobart I flew back to Adelaide where I stayed for one night before getting up early the next day to start a 6-day outback tour. It was an epic journey, some 3200 km (2000 miles), in a bus similar to what we toured in in Tasmania. I waited for the bus in front of my hostel, so early it was still dark, but it didn't come, which was really worrisome. It finally did show up nearly an hour late and I was the last to be picked up, so the only seat left was at the front, which made me feel a bit outside the rest of the group, but fortunately we all switched around seats a couple of days later.

We headed north out of Adelaide; after a couple of hours the landscape was already mostly flat and dry. Only 3 days previous I had been in cool Tasmania, bundled up in the warm clothes I did have. Now we were starting to get a taste of the heat awaiting us as we moved farther into the outback. We made just one cultural stop for the day, at a cliff with some Aboriginal paintings. We then carried on toward our stop for the night, the bustling town of Parachilna, population 6. We brought our stuff into the bunkhouse and then hit the pool that was right outside it. I hung out with and got to know some of the members of our group. Later we were treated to a very Aussie BBQ of camel sausage, kangaroo, and emu. The emu was particularly tasty. At 10 pm, some of us hung around the back of the bunkhouse for the entertainment of the evening: the nightly passing of the world's longest train, carrying coal to Port Augusta. It's so flat there, we could see the light of the train for ages before it finally got to us. The driver blew the horn as he passed and then the train clattered past us for a solid 3 minutes. That fun over, many of us headed to bed. It was eerie and exciting going to the toilet in the middle of the night. The bathrooms were separated a bit from the bunkhouse; above me were so many stars, I could easily see the specks of light even without my glasses, and to my left was unimaginable emptiness.

The next morning we had a "late" start of 8:00 and we drove to a nearby gorge where the rocks have shifted sideways and you can clearly see the layers deposited eons ago when that area was under water. Our guide, Clark, was big on geology and there was a lot of that to talk about in the various places we visited. The drive in the gorge was a bumpy one on gravel road, the only real off-road part we did. I originally had signed up for an 8-day tour, but it was cancelled because it didn't have enough people. The 6-day tour was essentially the same, but we did skip travelling on the dirt tracks and instead stuck to the highways.

In the gorge we stopped next to a steep, rocky hill where we could spot yellow-tailed rock wallabies. We did see a few and it was amazing to see how they can hop around so quickly on the rocks. Clark found that at some point on the gravel one of the back tires of the bus had gone flat, so he had to change that before we headed back out of the gorge. Our next stop was Wilpena Pound, a huge circular area with high rock walls that used to be used as a grazing area because the rocks formed a natural enclosure. We had the option to go on a hike that went to the top of the rock walls, or stay on the Pound floor and walk to an old settlement house. I wanted to avoid a strenuous walk in the heat, so I took the easy option, which was still beautiful. The path went through some shaded green areas and we saw emus and wallabies, before reaching the house and a viewpoint that took in the whole of the Pound. That night we stayed at a sort of campground, though we slept in a cramped, crowded bunkhouse that wasn't the best environment for me getting much sleep.

It was a very early start the next day because we had a very long drive ahead of us. We were up around 4 so that we could leave just before 5 to have time to reach the opal town of Coober Pedy by the afternoon. We headed off in the dark and it was another moment when I appreciated my front-seat view. There was a lot more wildlife out at that time of the morning, feeding before it got too hot when the sun came up. I could tell things were going wrong though, Clark was having trouble getting the bus to shift into the right gear and there was a burning smell coming from the engine. He finally made a call for help to the tour organizers, telling them he was stuck in 5th gear and also the speedometer had stopped working. I was worried about what we were going to do and I felt like I was the only one who knew anything was wrong since most everyone else was snoozing behind me. I soon fell asleep myself and woke up much later to see it was light out and we were pulling into a truck stop on the outskirts of the town of Port Augusta which was more south towards civilization again from where we'd been. It was the planned route actually, we had to head south to pick up the main highway that goes north all the way to Darwin. Clark came to a stop and told us about the problems with the bus and said that they were sending a replacement from Adelaide, but in the meantime we were stuck at this bus stop. In the end, we had a long, boring, 4-hour wait for the replacement bus. We hung around the bus, napped, paced, and brought a lot of business to the little shop at the truck stop as we kept going back for snacks. Clark blamed all of our problems on these rocks from Uluru (Ayers Rock) that we had with us. Someone who went on one of these tours before had taken home some small rocks from around Uluru as a souvenir, even though, since it's a national park and sacred spot, it wasn't the most respectful thing to have done. Apparently the rocks had caused this person some trouble, so he mailed them back so that they could be returned to where they had come from. And now Clark was sure that we were also cursed by these displaced rocks. He had never had so much as a flat tire before and now one thing after another had gone wrong.

By the time the new bus came, it was still only 11 am, we had left so early. We really had to book it to Coober Pedy though, nearly 500 km (over 300 miles) away. There was an opal mine tour scheduled for us which we still hoped to make. We only stopped a couple of times on the way, as briefly as possible, and made sandwiches on the bus for our lunch. We got into Coober Pedy around 6 and the people at the opal tours graciously stayed late so we could still have our tour. We watched an incredibly cheesy video about how opals are formed and how they are mined, then took a tour around an underground house which is typical of the town (it's a way to escape the outback heat). We got to sleep underground ourselves, in a bunkhouse carved out of a hill. It was huge, so we got to spread out and have much more space to ourselves. I slept wonderfully, thanks to the coolness and relative quiet.

By now on the trip, it was a luxury to be up after dawn. This was the last time we would have that luxury. Another long day in the bus was ahead of us, driving from Coober Pedy, crossing the border into the Northern Territory, then eventually heading west towards Yulara, the resort near Uluru. There were only a couple of points of interest on the way (besides the dingy little places we would stop at for breaks or lunch which I guess were interesting in a quirky, out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere kind of way). First, not far outside of the moonscape of Coober Pedy, we crossed the dog fence, one of the longest structures in the world. It covers some 5,300 km (3,300 miles) in an attempt to keep dingoes to the north, away from the sheep and agriculture in the south. Then later we stopped for our lunch break at the Northern Territory border where I could feel an increase in temperature even compared to Coober Pedy. Our poor bus fought its hardest against the heat, it definitely was preferable to no air conditioning, but it wasn't as cool as we hoped. But considering that it was very hot outside, the bus was packed, and we were doing a lot of miles at a high speed, it's understandable that it couldn't get much cooler.

Life on the bus

We arrived in Yulara and unpacked at our campsite. There were these little, permanent tent-like things, a wooden base with canvas over them and doors, with two beds in each. There was no way anyone was going to sleep in them, they were so stuffy that to go in for a just few minutes to get something out of my bag left me drenched in sweat and dying for air, so they just were places to keep our stuff. Some of us went for a refreshing swim and then the whole group went up to a viewpoint to check out Uluru and to watch the sunset. We were disappointed actually, the rock looked small, and we would have preferred to have watched the sun set behind it rather than shining on it. I think I took more photos of the sun setting behind Kata Tjuta (The Olgas; rocks similar to Uluru, but in smaller, more rounded shapes) than I did of the famous changing colors of Uluru. Back at the campsite, Clark had dinner prepared for us, and we hit the sack early so we could watch the sunrise at Uluru the next morning. We slept out in the open on swags, something typically Australian, referring to a bedroll with a foam mattress and a cover that can protect you from the rain, which is also very portable. Ours were made of heavy canvas, which is fine in cold, wet weather, but in the desert heat, I rolled the canvas flap back and put a sleeping bag on the mattress. I still was too hot to even crawl into the sleeping bag, so I slept most of the night under the broad outback sky in just a tank top and shorts, only covering up a bit when I realized mosquitoes were after me.

The next morning we dragged ourselves up at 4:30 am to get to Uluru in time to watch the sunrise. I decided 4:30 wasn't early enough and accidentally got up an hour earlier than that. The Northern Territory doesn't observe daylight savings time, so we had to put our clocks back an hour when we crossed the border. Unfortunately I forgot to change the time on my alarm clock, so I got up and was all dressed and ready and wondering why no one else was up yet. I realized what I'd done and went back to sleep for awhile.

At the rock, we had the option to do a full walk around the base, or go to the sunrise watching area and then do half of the base walk once the sun had come up. I went for the latter option and hung around with a few other people from my group. On the drive over to Uluru, I came to appreciate it much more. The road passed pretty close at one point and the tiniest bit of light was beginning to appear behind the rock, just enough to be able to pick out its silhouette. Then I got a sense of how large it really was, and seeing it in this predawn light was powerful. Unfortunately standing with the other hordes of tourists watching the sunrise is not quite as wonderful of an experience. People jostle around for hundreds and hundreds of photos; I had an Italian woman not so kindly ask me to get out of her photo. I overheard someone else say "we're here at the crack of dawn to watch a rock."

Those of us from my group soon moved on so we could start the half-base walk before it got much later (and hotter). Being up close to Uluru meant you could see how much variation there was in the rock: cracks and holes and crevices, all of which have meaning to the Aborigines of the area. There was also a surprising amount of vegetation. Once our group reconvened after the walk, Clark explained more about the sacred rituals which the Aborigines held at Uluru, which unfortunately don't really happen anymore. We drove on to Kata Tjuta and he told us a bit about it as well. It was all a bit of a blur for me though because, while I had taken care to carry a lot of water for the walk that morning, I didn't bring much food with me, so I was really low on energy. There was a short walk we could do at Kata Tjuta, but I gave it a pass and lay on a bench in the shade with my hankerchief over my face to keep away the flies. I only came back to life more after we returned to the campsite and had lunch, but I regret not fully taking in the things we saw.

We packed up at the campsite and drove to a campsite near Kings Canyon, which we'd be hiking the next day. The two look relatively close, but it was still quite a drive. After another wonderful swim in an outdoor pool, we settled into the campsite, which was pretty much the same as the one we were just at, but much more in the middle of nowhere. As it got dark, we heard dingoes howling in the distance, perhaps at the full moon that was beaming down on us. We slept in the open in swags again, which made us perhaps even more vulnerable in this location. I don't know, I didn't really worry myself, I don't think dingoes are really a danger, though I woke up in the middle of the night and noticed that their howling had gotten closer. I enjoyed being in such a unique place, sleeping outdoors, so far from any cities. It is one of my favorite memories of the trip.

We had a rough morning in order to get up and be packed up to leave for Kings Canyon. Clark wanted to start walking before the sun was up or else it would be too hot to do the hike safely. In order to have time to pack and then drive to the canyon, which was not all that close, it meant being up at 3:30 to leave at 4:30 to start walking at 5. Oof. It hurt to be awake, and even more so to try to tell my body to eat breakfast, even though it was essentially the middle of the night. In the end, I appreciated the early start. We were the only tour group there, hiking the main steep climb to the rim of the canyon by flashlight. Any sounds from animals and bugs really carried through the air and the moon had gone down so the stars were really visible. With so much open sky, you could sense much more the gradations of dawn. We got to the top and out to the rim of the canyon just in time for the sunrise. It was all an amazing experience. We could see the car park filling with buses and cars, so I was glad we got to do the main part of the hike on our own and before it got much hotter. When we arrived at the canyon, it was still 30C (86F).

From there, it was a 3 hour drive to Alice Springs, the final destination for most of us on the tour (some carried on north to Darwin). We made some rest stops. We stopped for "lunch" at 11 am; by then we'd been up 8 hours. A wild camel ran alongside the bus on the highway and Clark told us about the amazing ways in which camels are adapted to the desert. Not long before Alice Springs, he asked if anyone wanted to ride a camel. I thought it was a setup for a bad joke, but he was serious. Up ahead was a camel farm run by a guy he knows, so we stopped in for the chance to ride a camel around a little fenced area. I passed the opportunity by, I don't know why, but I watched others in the group go for rides.

We soon arrived in Alice Springs and that night had a last dinner together as a group in this quirky bar with bizarre decorations covering the walls. I stayed one night in a hostel where some others of the group were also staying, but I moved the next day to a motel that I stayed in for a couple of nights. I didn't plan to be in Alice Springs for 3 days, and it's not something I'd recommend, but I had the extra time because my tour was changed from the 8 day one to 6 days. I of course would have preferred to have gone back to Melbourne earlier, but I had already booked my flight and I couldn't afford to change the ticket. So I holed up in the desert, spending most of the day in my air conditioned motel room. All the days I was there, it got to at least 40 degrees (104F). I did try to see some things in the town though. I went to the Royal Flying Doctor visitor center to learn about their medical service to the remote corners of the outback. I twice tried visiting a place that rescued joeys whose mothers had been killed (often if a kangaroo is hit by a car, the mother dies because she gets the brunt of the impact, but her body protects the joey). These people care for the joeys and raise them until they are old enough to be released into the wild. There was the possibility to feed them and just generally hang out with cute little kangaroos, but the rescue center was closed when I went by. Maybe it was just too hot.

I finally flew back to Melbourne, which was really good to be back in, somewhere familiar. I couldn't believe though that it all was almost over. You know it is going to come and it's still so hard when it finally does. At my hostel, I reunited with my large suitcase that I had left with a friend in early December. I also had a bunch of mail that had collected which included many Christmas cards, though Christmas was a month past. The next day was Australia Day and I caught a parade that celebrated the multitude of ethnicities in Melbourne. In the evening on Federation Square there were drumming performances by all sorts of different groups: African, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese, Aboriginal.... The celebrations ended with fireworks, all on this wonderful, warm summer evening.

Chinese lion dancing

Before going back to the hostel, I walked along the river and wondered how I could leave this place behind, how I could leave summer behind. The next day was my final full day in Melbourne and Australia. I spent it getting last-minute things, doing various things one last time. In the evening, I decided to go to Federation Square to watch the men's final of the Australian Open tennis tournament. I'm not a tennis fan, but I'd been watching some of the matches since I was in Alice Springs and I'd been hearing about this young French guy, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who came out of nowhere to end up in the final against Novak Djokovic. I'd paid vague attention to him absolutely killing Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. Now I thought I'd join the sports-loving Aussies in cheering on this underdog who was without a doubt the crowd favorite. The match was shown on the big screen in Federation Square, so I found a spot amongst the huge crowd gathered to watch a match that was going on for real only a couple of kilometers upriver from us. It was an amazing atmosphere that could have been beaten only if Tsonga was Australian. Tsonga unfortunately lost, but it was a close match, so there was plenty of excitement. It wasn't how I imagined I'd spend my last evening in Australia, but it was so memorable, with all of these strangers coming together outdoors, watching the sun set just behind the big screen, and the city all around. It was actually a perfect way to say goodbye to Melbourne.

Into the Outback remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

From Adelaide, I flew to Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. Tasmania is an island off the southeast coast of "mainland" Australia and it's considered by many to have some of the best untouched wilderness in the world, not to mention the cleanest air in the world (something I can't say I noticed myself, but it was wonderful and fresh there). I went on a 6-day group tour around Tasmania (or Tassie, as Australians fondly call it), taking in a lot of the nature and history of the island, though I sadly did not see one Tasmanian Devil, in the wild or otherwise.

Day 1 was spent driving from Hobart out to the former penal colony of Port Arthur, where there were convicts imprisoned during the 1800s. It was in a good location far from any of the burgeoning cities in Tasmania at the time and on a peninsula that was nearly an island because it was connected by only a very narrow bit of land called Eaglehawk Neck, so it was naturally cut off from the rest of the island. A line of guard dogs were chained along Eaglehawk Neck in case any prisoners tried to escape in that direction and then rumors were spread that the waters around the prison were shark infested.

When we arrived at Port Arthur, we were given a card from a deck which was used when we went through the visitor center. Each card corresponded to a different convict's (true) story, so based on your card you were guided though their experience: what lead to them being sent to Tasmania in the first place, what they did for a job, whether they tried to escape or not, things like that. It was a very unique way of presenting the prisoners' lives there. After that we were mostly allowed to roam around the site and explore the buildings, which also included many houses for the officers and their families.

After a night spent back in Hobart, we headed north to the Freycinet Peninsula, which is known for its beautiful Wineglass Bay. You need to work though to see it; the bay is on the other side of a line of hills, so it was a stiff walk up and over to get to it, but it was very much worth it: a white sand beach and green-blue water. It was very windy though and sand got everywhere. I think I was finding sand in my ears for days afterward. The beach was in some sort of vortex though so that despite the wind and clouds whipping past, it was always sunny, the clouds went around it. Very strange. We came across a couple of very tame, spoiled wallabies who knew the tourists couldn't resist them.

We spent the night in the tiny town of Bicheno and then continued north to the Bay of Fires. We had some time to explore a beach on our own, but a thunderstorm moved in and we eventually all gathered early at the bus before finding a picnic shelter which we had lunch under. The day also included a short walk through lush fern forest to a waterfall and a later visit to a lavender farm. That evening we arrived in the 2nd largest town in Tasmania, Launceston.

We drove the following day to Cradle Mountain National Park and went on short hikes near the mountain. The weather was amazing, even more so since it rains a lot in that part of Tasmania. I unfortunately missed a major wombat spotting after the hike, but a girl in the group who was obsessed with them got to see them up close which made her entire holiday, I think.

Our luck ran out with the weather the next day and it was raining on and off all day. We did a 3 hour walk to see another waterfall. The trail followed a former mining track, there was an old mine entrance to the side at one point. The waterfall was really disappointing, not very spectacular at all, but at least there was a suspension bridge that the trail crossed so we all got to play Indiana Jones, except this bridge didn't collapse and we weren't being fired at. It definitely wasn't for people afraid of heights, the base you walked on was narrow and a bit slick from the rain, and the bridge bounced and wobbled a lot. Only two people were allowed on it at once. We spent that evening in the small coastal town of Strahan and after dinner some of us went to see a play that told the story of a group of convicts who escaped and stole a ship to sail to South America. It was fun, it was in pantomime style with the audience getting involved. It was also outdoors though, so, despite it being summer, it was really chilly and I was wearing the most layers I'd worn in months, probably. Fortunately the theater also provided blankets for the audience to bundle up in.

The next day was the final day of the tour and we fit in stops to about 4 different nature areas. We did a short walk to another waterfall, Nelson Falls, and then stopped and had lunch at Lake St. Clair. We crossed the Franklin River on another suspension bridge and then we went on to waterfall number 4. Russell Falls was in a national park and the walk to the falls first went through forest made up of very old, very tall gum trees. It was a stunning place full of interesting wildlife, like little forest wallabies. From there it was just a long drive back to Hobart. After a bit of down time in the afternoon, we all gathered for drinks later in the evening. We then went to get dinner, but it was getting rather late, so we ended up getting fish and chips from a floating stand on the harbor. They were mighty tasty. Our group stood around talking about our next destinations and sharing memories of the trip together before later wishing each other well and going our separate ways. I spent the night in Hobart and flew back to Adelaide the next day where I spent one night before embarking on another 6-day trip, this time into the red, searing outback.

Breathe in deep remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

On January 2nd, I picked up a rental car in Sydney and started a 6-day drive to Adelaide, via Melbourne. In the end, I drove 2325 km (1445 miles). Some stories from the road trip:

- In the town of Bairnsdale, in southeast Victoria near the coast, I was checking into a motel which was owned by a very friendly couple. The provided breakfast, delivered to my room, and the man checking me in asked if I wanted milk for my tea. Being American, I said I didn't need it, so he offered me a beer as compensation. How Australian...

- Before heading from Bairnsdale to Melbourne, I went to an Aboriginal site that I had read about called the Den of Nargun, a cave where a mythical creature dwelled. It was an interesting drive there, out on a country road and then onto a gravel road that lead to the park that the cave was in. I fortunately got there when it was still rather quiet (though it was already off the beaten path), so I saw hardly anyone on the steep climb down to the cave. It was really sunny and the air buzzed with the sound of tons of insects. I saw some little lizards, but fortunately none of the larger lizards that a sign said lived in the park. After visiting the cave, which was in a beautiful setting, I hiked back up to the parking lot and tried to destickify myself, since it was getting quite hot by then. As I drove out of the park, I did catch sight of one of these larger lizards crossing the road, and perhaps my memory is exaggerating things, but I swear it was 2-3 feet long. Very glad I didn't run into one of those while walking around...

- The night I stayed in Melbourne was probably the worst night of sleep I had in all of the hostels I stayed in. First of all, it had been about 35 degrees (95F) that day and there was no air conditioning, only an open window and a fan to help cool us. Then the woman in the bunk above me was one of the loudest, most constant snorers I came across. Maybe if there was only one of those two things I could have slept better, but the two together lead to me only getting little spurts of sleep for about 2 hours. I put a damp towel on my legs and stomach to help keep cool, but then someone in the room decided it was a good idea to shut off the fan and I decided that was the last straw. I left the room and slept for a few hours on a couch in the TV lounge. I was desperate enough for some sleep at that point I was actually considering going out to my car and sleeping in the back seat...

- In Port Fairy, on the coast, I was looking forward to going on a walk past some of the shipwrecks in the area, but instead I found out that that evening there was a tour in the local cemetery lead by a woman from the town's historical society. It was one of the best things I did, the woman was well versed in the town's history, but she had also done a lot of study regarding the people buried in the cemetery and the symbolism on gravestones and such. In its early days the town got a lot of Irish immigrants (and was originally called Belfast), so some of the older gravestones had inscriptions in Irish and some were carved from stone brought over from Ireland. The woman told many interesting stories about people from the early days of Port Fairy, or of people who drowned or children who died young. I wish I could remember more of the stories now, but it was wonderful to hear this history, all the things you can learn from a cemetery.

- A video from the drive to Adelaide. It was a long drive through some very empty countryside. The road was often flat and straight, with no other cars in sight, so I easily could pull my camera out of my bag and take this video of the bare landscape.

Road trip from Sydney to Adelaide remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Panorama of the view of the Blue Mountains

Crowds increasing as the sun goes down on New Year's Eve

An amazing way to start the year

Sydney and the Blue Mountains remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

On my way south from Christchurch, I stopped in a town called Timaru for lunch. I had thought about overnighting there, but I had decided instead on a town further on called Oamaru, which was a decision I was very happy with. I decided on staying in Oamaru because there is a fairy penguin colony there, and since I never went to see them on Phillip Island near Melbourne, this was my chance. They come on shore around dusk, and there is a whole grandstand-like area set up to watch them. There were a few hundred of the little penguins and you could see them tumbling in the waves and then they came uphill to near where we were sitting. They then cautiously made a run for the area they stay in for the night, with little man-made boxes for them to shelter in. They were cute to see, but unfortunately I don't have any photos of them because flash photos weren't allowed.

I discovered that Oamaru also has a wonderful historic downtown area which I enjoyed exploring the next morning. It was also finally really sunny; the ocean was beautiful, as were the old buildings in the town.

I drove on south and stopped at a popular beach that has these large, round boulders called the Moeraki Boulders. Tons of people were there taking photos of the unique rocks. It was so nice to see the sun out, though it was quite chilly on the beach.

That afternoon I reached Dunedin, the end of my road trip. All together I drove 2034 km (1264 miles) in New Zealand. I returned my car and wandered around the town a bit. I found out about a train trip that you could take up a nearby river gorge called the Taieri. It sounded like it would be really beautiful, so I bought a ticket for a trip the next day. Fortunately it was again sunny and we started out on a 4-hour return trip that went up to one point inland and then came back down the gorge. Some people just went one way and then took a bus that connected to a popular mountain biking trail. Outside of Dunedin, it was at first flat and we travelled past farms and fields. But then we started slowly climbing and we entered the gorge, which started out with fir-covered hills that were very Oregon-like. As we got farther inland though, the hills got drier and were mostly covered with scrub and that yellow weed that grows everywhere. There were many bridges and tunnels that allowed the train to navigate the narrow, steep gorge above the river. There was a man giving occasional commentary about the landmarks we were passing and it was amazing the amount of work it took to build the railway, especially since it was done in the late 1800's using mostly manpower and only having horses for transportation. I really enjoyed the trip, it was a beautiful day for it and it was a unique view of the countryside. Also nice was that, since it was only two days before Christmas, the staff on the train came through and gave everyone a piece of Christmas cake and a drink. Eventually we reached Pukerangi, the farthest we were going to go. We were then out of the gorge and on top of the inland plains. We had a bit of a break there as the train engine was moved to the other end of the train for the trip back to Dunedin.

Earlier on in the trip, I went to the area between the carriages and took this video as we crossed over the longest bridge of the railway:

The next day, Christmas Eve, I flew to Sydney, via Auckland. Back in Australia!

Final part of New Zealand remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

I left Rotorua and headed south, spending most of a day driving some 325 km (200 miles) to Palmerston North. I took a break in Taupo, another town along a round, volcanic-crater lake. I wished I could have spent a bit more time in Taupo, but I needed to push south.

I had pretty much nothing else planned for the trip down, except I'd be going past Tongariro National Park, which has three large mountains in it (two of which featured in the Lord of the Rings movies) and I was really looking forward to the seeing them looming up from the flat plains of the east. Unfortunately, the mountains were all hidden in clouds, so I only caught a glimpse of their bases.

The area just south of the mountains was dry and deserty, with a lot of scrub brush, probably the most un-New Zealand-like environment I saw. It is quite parallel to Oregon; the west side of the island up to the mountains captures all the moisture coming from the ocean and then the east is much drier.

I arrived in Palmerston North and it was after I arrived at the hostel there that I started to have the flu-like symptoms I had for the next few days, which I wrote about when I was travelling. It was not a fun time, especially when you want to enjoy where you are and you have plans to travel, but you just can't.

From Palmerston North I drove to Wellington, the capitol of New Zealand, at the southern tip of the North Island. I first went downtown and spent a little bit of time at Te Papa, the highly-regarded national museum. Unfortunately I didn't see much since my stomach was feeling horrible. I do remember the exhibits on volcanoes and earthquakes that reminded me of similar exhibits at OMSI. I then headed to the east side of the city to find the house of my former co-worker's sister, where I'd be spending the night. Wellington reminded me a lot of San Francisco or Seattle, a lot of hills nestled next to water. My co-worker's sister lived in a gorgeous house on a hill with an absolutely impossible driveway. I stupidly tried to get up it, but only succeeded in burning the tires and still didn't get up the hill, so I had to roll back down. After dinner, their family and I all piled in their car and they took me on a drive around their area, pointing out Peter Jackson's house on the way. It was a beautiful area, but I was feeling so miserable that I don't remember it as well as I might have.

The next morning I turned in my North Island car and caught the ferry to Picton, on the South Island, where I got my South Island car. I don't remember much about the ferry ride, though the entry into Queen Charlotte Sound would have been wonderful. I didn't take one photo on the crossing, I just tried to sleep and feel ok. Once I got my other car, I headed to my co-worker's parents' house, just east of Picton and facing the sound. The views from their house were astounding.

I mostly took it easy at their house, though we did go just below the hill from their house to see an old Maori fortress. I was suppose to leave the next day to head south along the west side of the island, but there was no way I could have spent hours driving. So I asked if I could stay one more night at their house and I changed my plans so that I made the shorter drive down the east side of the island. It meant missing out on the glaciers and Mt Cook and Milford Sound, but there were some memorable parts to the east coast that I wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Heading south from Picton, the first main town is Blenheim, which is in one of NZ's key wine regions. Normally the area gets a lot of sun, but it started raining as I left Picton and it never let up for the rest of the day. It's for the best then that I spent most of the day driving, so I was warm and dry in the car. Not too far after Blenheim the road met up with the ocean and I was so excited to be driving along the Pacific. Sure, it's a corner of the Pacific very far away from the Oregon Coast, but it was the ocean! The gray, rainy day certainly made me feel like I could have been in Oregon. At one point I pulled into a rest stop and was looking out at some rocks in the water and it was awhile before I realized that there were seals hanging out on the rocks. They were mostly napping through the rain.

In the afternoon I got to the town of Kaikoura where I stayed for two nights in a convent that is now a B&B, making it the second renovated convent I'd stayed in (the other being a hostel in Melbourne). With my stomach still acting up, I wanted a room of my own, and I highly recommend this B&B. My room was cozy, with a large bathroom, breakfast is included, and the owners were so friendly. It was a great place to recuperate for a couple of days.

Kaikoura was also a lovely little town. They attract a lot of visitors who go on the many sea life tours available. Also there is a peninsula to the east of town where there is a seal colony and you can do a couple of walks in the area. The Lonely Planet described Kaikoura as being between the ocean and a range of mountains that rise up right behind the town, but when I arrived the mountains were completely obscured. Fortunately they made an appearance the next evening.

The day after I arrived, I checked out the seal colony and then decided to drive inland on a highway that was meant to go into some mountains and eventually past a skifield. I thought I'd head towards that and hopefully see some mountains, since it was still really gray, though the rain had stopped. I didn't make it as far as the skifield, which was about 55 km (34 miles) away, because the road was so twisty and slow it took about half an hour to go just 40 km and I was getting a bit tired of all the turns. But it was a beautiful drive past farms (a lot of sheep) and over rivers (usually on one-lane bridges) and it was quiet out there. At one point I saw a deer up ahead and only as I got closer and saw there were many more deer with it did I realize it was a deer farm. I'm used to deer being wild...

The next day I headed on south towards Christchurch, which is the largest city on the South Island. Maybe it was because I wasn't there long, but it didn't leave the best impression on me. For one, I hated driving around the city, I remember it felt like ages to get back to the highway to carry on farther south. And I just didn't connect with the city, there's not much about it that stuck in my mind. I'll continue in the next part about the next town I stayed in, which was a much nicer place.

Off the North Island and onto the South Island remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

I stayed for two nights in a great hostel in Rotorua and I became quite accustomed to, and even fond of (in a weird way), the sulfur smell. The day after I arrived though I drove an hour and a half further northeast to the town of Whakatane on the wide Bay of Plenty to go on a boat in search of dolphins. I was the only observer in the group of about 15 people on the boat, all the rest were wetsuited up in the hopes of being able to swim with the dolphins. We met Doug, the captain of the boat (though with his Kiwi accent, his name sounded more like Dag), and a girl who would help out the people who'd be going in the water. The boat was much smaller and more basic than I thought it'd be, but it was powerful, as we found out when we headed out of the harbour and out to sea. It was a gray, wet day and we had some big waves to fight through to break out into the open water. Doug waited for the right moment and then suddenly we were going full throttle at the waves, like a plane trying to take off. It was a much bumpier ride though. We would come over the top of a wave, go airbourne, and then slam down into the bottom of the swell. It was like a wild, unnerving roller coaster ride and I was completely unprepared for it. I gripped a bar in front of me as tightly as I could and was unable to keep from squealing just about every time we lost contact with the surface of the water. I must have had such a look of absolute fear on my face. I eventually relaxed a bit (in very relative terms), though I was shaking from the adrenaline and fear. We got out into the open water and I could tell after awhile that we were getting no closer to the island offshore that Doug had planned to head towards. He eventually told us that we weren't going to the island; he had spotted a bunch of birds in the distance and the birds usually meant dolphins (the birds try to grab fish from of the dolphins). A short while later we were spotting fins in the distance and soon a pod was swimming with us, the dolphins right alongside the boat.

The next couple of hours followed a pattern: we would spot the pod of dolphins, speed over to catch up with them, pass them, stop, throw some people in the water in the hopes of them getting the swimming experience, have the dolphins all pass by in no time, grab the swimmers out of the water, and then go off to find the pod again. So the whole "swimming with dolphins" thing didn't really happen for our group, which is too bad, but even boating along with them was amazing. It was all exhausting though, especially since every time we stopped, I got queasy from the roll of the sea. I really had to keep my eyes on shore or I would have been sick, I'm sure. I was lucky, others on the boat did get sick, but fortunately Doug was very sympathetic about it and understood that not everyone has their sea legs.

Since I wasn't going to be swimming, Doug said I could sit out on the bow of the boat so I could get an even better view of the dolphins. I sat out there for quite some time, getting rather wet and cold, but it was worth it to see the dolphins darting around in front of the boat when we caught up with the pod. It was a bit freaky though to be out there when we were moving. There were times when we would hit a swell and the boat would drop from beneath me, I was pretty much suddenly standing up, and then I had to tense up my legs to stop from smacking down too hard when I met up with the boat again. Needless to say, I was sore for days in my knees and back and bum. I don't even remember how I managed to take some photos while I was out there, since I was gripping the boat railing with one hand and had the strap of my camera bag wrapped a few times around my other hand. I stupidly only took one video, but at least it was a good one. It's probably my favourite video of my entire trip (you can see a young dolphin a couple of times. It's amazing how they can keep up with the adults, but I guess it's a matter of survival):

Doug finally decided we'd chased the dolphins around long enough and we then headed to the nearby island where he said there was calm water, so those of us with unhappy tummies could finally settle down. It was lovely over there, the sun even started to come out (leaving me with a sunburnt face), and we saw other wildlife, like seals and nesting birds. We stopped for awhile, and Doug and the girl passed around snacks and warm drinks and everyone felt a lot better. We headed back into Whakatane, and after all of the stress I was starving, so I got some fish and chips next to the harbour. Doug boated past, probably on the way to dock the boat, and he saw me and gave a friendly wave.

Amazingly, that same evening (after the 1 1/2 hour drive back to Rotorua, and despite being so exhausted) I went to a Maori dinner called a hangi. I imagine it's quite similar to going to a hula show in Hawaii, it's a way for tourists to learn a bit about the native culture of New Zealand. There's the dinner, but also performances and explanations about traditional weapons and customs. It was on the edge of town, so a bus drove around Rotorua to pick people up. As I waited for the bus, I ended up chatting with a fellow traveller, a guy from Canada. I had guessed he was also waiting to go to the hangi, and we ended up hanging out the rest of the evening. It was always good when travelling alone to have a break from being on your own. The bus showed up, driven by a guy with a rather cheesy sense of humour who was asking us all where we were from and such. He ended up being the host of our group for the dinner; there was another group in another room and we ate separately, but came together for the performances. As we settled into the dining room and had drinks, the host found out what countries were represented by our group. There were 18 different nationalities there and he named us the Tribe of Many Nations. What was also pretty cool was that for each country, he was able to say a few phrases in that country's language, usually "How are you?" with a few other words or phrases thrown in. Amonsgt others, he did French, Spanish, Afrikaans, Dutch (the phrase he threw out then was "dank u voor de bloemen", heh), Japanese, and the one that impressed me, Hungarian. I think even the Hungarians were impressed. I heard the host later tell someone that a guy from Texas was there once and said that if he could learn a few words and phrases in the 80 or so major languages in the world, the Texan would fly him to the US and get him on Letterman. He knows about 40 or 50 now, and that's taken 7-8 years, so it wouldn't take much more to get to 80.

Before we went to see the performances and enter the Maoris' home, we needed a tribe leader to accept their offering and show we were there in peace. An Australian ended up being our leader and representing us when we met up with the Maori tribe. We then headed towards where the performances would take place, which took us on a beautiful walk through a forest. There was a spring there with the clearest water, and then we lined up along the sides of the stream that ran from the spring and watched some of the Maori men arrive on canoe.

We then entered the performance area and the offerings were given, first to our tribe chief, then the other group's chief.

They did a couple of hakas, a traditional dance with a lot of intimidating postures and shouting. Women did a poi dance, which uses balls on strings which are swung around very fast. Then we had dinner and another walk through the forest looking for glowworms, before being taken back to Rotorua.

Dolphin watching and a hangi remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

In early December, my proper travelling started and I left Melbourne behind to spend 2 weeks in New Zealand. Two weeks is barely enough time to scratch the surface, but that's how my plans worked out. I got to see and do some amazing things, so it was still a very memorable trip.

Click here to go to the photos from this part of the trip.

New Zealand is full of unbelievable scenery and wonderful, friendly people. Some people say it's a bit old fashioned there, and it can be, but you can't fault good ol' friendliness and warm natures. New Zealand is made up of two main islands, the North and South Islands. The North Island is more populated and it also has more Maoris, the indigenous people who are similar to people from South Pacific Islands. The country is just a tiny bit larger than Oregon and has only a tiny bit more people. I was often reminded of Oregon when I was there, especially since NZ is part of the Ring of Fire like Oregon is and has been influenced in similar ways by earthquakes and volcanoes. The climate is quite similar, especially on the South Island where it is wet and cool on the west side of the island, but much drier on the east side, due to mountains that catch a lot of the moisture. There are definitely differences though, such as the fern-filled rainforests in the north, and unique animals, such as their iconic kiwi bird.

I flew from Melbourne to Auckland, the largest city in NZ (though not the capital, that's Wellington), where I stayed for a couple of days with a former co-worker of mine and her husband. After Melbourne, Auckland felt rather small. It seemed to miss the vibrancy that Melbourne has. So it was a little disappointing, but it's a beautiful city, surrounded by a lot of water. We went to the Auckland Museum and I started getting more closely acquainted with Maori culture and New Zealand history. The next day we drove to Piha Beach west of Auckland. It's in an area popular with surfers and it's actually a black sand beach, since the rock there is volcanic. It was a quiet, gray day when we were there. Still beautiful though, especially the drive there through thick vegetation, including a lot of fern trees. It looked prehistoric...

Piha Beach

I left Auckland and started my drive south, the beginning of many hours on my own in the car. Fortunately I had tons of CDs of NZ music to listen to, thanks to my co-worker's husband. My first destination was Waitomo Caves, which consisted of a few different caves you could visit. There were also adventure tours you could do, which is very typical of New Zealand. It is the country that invented bungee jumping, after all. These adventures were pretty tame by comparison, things like abseiling down into a cave and then going blackwater rafting. I would have liked to have tried it out actually, but it was bit out of my price range. Instead I did a couple of the normal tours, visiting two different caves. The first, called Aranui, was my favourite, but that was partly because we were a small group of only 6 and we had a wonderful guide who had been working in the caves for about 30 years, so he knew all there was to know about them. The cave is filled with limestone formations. They take some insane number of years to add on just one centimeter of limestone, so it boggles the mind to think how long it's taken a stalactite that's meters long to form.

Stalactites in Aranui Cave

In Aranui Cave

The other cave featured glowworms, which are larvae of bugs that hang sticky strings down to catch other bugs in, then they pull the bug up and eat it. But they glow as well to help catch the bug. This cave had a river in it and we were pulled on a boat through the dark where the glowworms were. The ceiling was full of these glowing blue points of light, like a lot of blue stars. It was absolutely beautiful and we were very quiet because noise makes the worms dim their light, so there was only the sound of the boat a bit and distant dripping water. The tour was marred though by a school group that joined us, a bunch of jaded teenagers who hated being there.

From the caves, I drove to the northeast, towards Rotorua. On the way I drove through a lot of green countryside, filled with sheep-dotted hills. And I stopped at the Orakei Korako thermal area, which I wrote about before in this post. Below are some videos of the thermal features.

Steamy (be glad this isn't in Smell-o-vision, because it was also stinky)

The mud pools (turn up the sound for optimal enjoyment)

Yeah, more mud pools. This one made a particularly slobbery noise, thanks to a bubbling hole at the back to the left.

In part two: the stories of seeing dolphins and going to a Maori dinner.

New Zealand, part 1 remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

The day trip to Wilsons Prom was not nearly enough to truly explore the park. I was meant to go on a 3 day trip with two nights of camping, but the tour company cancelled the camping part on me, which was really disappointing. Still, it was an amazing day, we saw lots of wildlife, and I realized how out of shape I was after the first walk to a viewpoint.

I then spent 3 days on the Great Ocean Road, which was all just so beautiful: the ocean, forests, farmland... The main places I visited which the photos show were the nature area at Cape Otway, the most southern point of this part of the coast, with a lighthouse; the Otway Fly Tree Top Walk, which was a pathway suspended amongst a forest, so you had a totally different view of the trees and wildlife; and the western end of the Great Ocean Road, with the famous Twelve Apostles, as well as other formations and blowholes carved from the sandstone that makes up that area.

Some videos...

Walking along the tree top path. You can hear some of the clanging and other weird noises it made as it swayed around. Not for those with a fear of heights, or of clanging, swaying things...

Even bouncier! This is a part of the path that sticks out from the rest. You can see how it bounces around and the guy has a hard time walking straight (at least I think that's the walkway's fault).

The view from the tower that is the highest part of the walk. You can hear some clanging as someone goes down the stairs.

Wilsons Promontory and the Great Ocean Road remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

One of my favorite places in the city was Federation Square. The square is relatively new and everything I had read about it talked about its controversial architecture and whether it fit in with the rest of the city. So before I went there I had the feeling that Melburnians hated the square. Once I was actually there, I didn't have that feeling at all. It felt like the cultural center of the city and so much went on there. The square has a few cafes with outdoor tables, a permanent stage, a huge TV screen, and a lot of space for events, activites, or, on quiet days, just hanging out. There were many times I popped over to Fed Square to see what might be up over there, because there usually was something. It seemed like every weekend there was an ethnic celebration: one week Indian, the next Turkish, one evening a Chinese children's celebration with lanterns and traditional dances. And if nothing happened to be going on, it was enough to pass some time sitting on the warm tiles, reading or people-watching. I thought it was a brilliant place, and I spent my last evening in Melbourne there, watching the final of the Australian Open on the big screen with hundreds of other people who had stuffed into the square to watch as well, while the sun set in front of us next to the city skyline. Talk about making it hard to leave...

I posted some photos before, while I was in Melbourne, but of course I took many more. You can go to my Melbourne album to see the new, and the old, photos I have put online. I ws going to keep them separate, but then you don't get the whole story. I was going to take advantage of Flickr now allowing videos to be uploaded, but all I get when I try to upload a video is a frozen browser. So the videos are included below instead (I hope they work! If not, try again later...).

I tried to take some everyday scene types of photos, especially of some of the beautiful buildings in Melbourne and some of the places I visited most. One day I also walked around part of Ascot Vale, not the area around where I lived, but the area my bus passed through before stopping at the train station, and I took photos of some houses, many of which are typical of Melbourne, or maybe of Australia in general. Some though wouldn't look out of place in Portland. They are in this separate album.

Koalas at the Melbourne Zoo:

Little penguins at the zoo:

Mollydog on the porch (She wasn't being very exciting, though I was trying to get her to run around. She can be a jumpy, excited dog, but it just wasn't happening):

More on Melbourne remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Besides what I've posted here, you can find the rest of my photos from Kuala Lumpur on my Flickr page.

Kuala Lumpur was the first Asian city I've been to and I think it was a good one to start out with since the language is relatively easy (not in another alphabet), people (in the cities at least) speak quite good English, it's multicultural, and I found it safe to walk around as a single woman, even at night, as long as you take the usual precautions with your bag and with avoiding dark alleys. It's a very Muslim country (the mosques broadcast their prayers over loudspeakers), but it felt very modern and not too conservative. The 3 main cultures are Malays (who I found similar to Indonesians), Indians, and Chinese, the Chinese, I imagine, being the main non-Muslim population. Despite it feeling at times like any other Western city, with shops you can find anywhere and English being common and shiny new buildings going up everywhere, it still was like what I imagined Asia to be like, especially in the mad traffic. I don't know how you can learn to drive there, maybe you just have to grow up thinking that driving with pretty much no rules is just the norm. It was a bit insane as well to try to cross the street. At first I tried to wait for the pedestrian lights to go green, but I eventually realized they don't always work, so you just have to go when you have the chance. In the beginning I'd often keep my eye on someone native waiting to cross the street with me and go when they went, but I soon got over my fear and learned when it was good to cross.

Malaysia is a very tropical country. It was like being in one of those tropical plant or bird houses at a zoo, but for real, so the middle of the afternoon was rather intolerable and I was just a puddle of sweat. It would eventually rain almost every afternoon because the sky just couldn't hold any more moisture. Fortunately most storms didn't last too long and then it was a bit fresher in the evening.

There were also different customs there for me to get used to, especially related to hygiene. I think it was customary to wash your hands before eating, so almost every restaurant had a little sink in the corner for this. Some people eat with their hands, using rice to scoop up the meat dish they're eating. They don't seem to use knives as a utensil, so you were only ever given a fork and spoon and I would somehow try to cut a piece of chicken with a spoon. Maybe I was meant to use my hands, but that didn't seem right, so I just kept attacking my chicken in various ways with the fork and spoon I had. Some sort of bidet system was common in nearly all of the toilets. The first toilet I went into, in the airport, had a bit of hose coming out of the wall and I guess you used that if you wanted to. Then I found that some places gave you a choice of toilet to use, either a standard Western toilet, or a squat-over-a-hole toilet. I used one of those in a mall before finding out that the other stalls had normal toilets so I just needed to wait for one of those. Ah, the joys of a foreign country...

My first day there, I didn't really know what to do and I was lacking energy, so I didn't do much besides go to the tourist office and get stuff to help me figure out what to see. During my visit, I spent a silly amount of time in the large mall that was not far from my hotel, at the base of the Petronas Towers. It was air conditioned and there was a large bookstore I liked to browse, so it was good to go to when I was too hot to be outside anymore. That afternoon was the worst thunderstorm while I was there, it lasted for about 2 hours; fortunately I was in my hotel room during it. It was bucketing rain and there was a lot of lightning and thunder. I watched it for awhile, but eventually went to take a nap and was still being woken by big rumbles of thunder. It was still raining that evening when I went to find a place to eat dinner so I got a bit soaked.

The next day I finally got out into the city more. I took the metro to the Chinatown area and wandered around, plus I had a look through the Central Market, which was full of little shops selling souvenirs and cheap stuff, so it was rather touristy, not a cool local market with weird produce and meats for sale. (By the way, though they like their durian, I never saw one there, though large supermarkets in Australia had them for sale. I did see durian chocolates once and was very tempted to get those, if only to try to find out what durians smell like.)

Chinatown was really cool, so many wonderful smells from food being cooked by street vendors or in restaurants and all these very Asian shops and mopeds zooming around and all of that. I made it over to Jalan Petaling (Petaling Street), the main street of Chinatown and basically just walked and walked, checking it all out. There were tons of places down alleys selling food and I sometimes walked through these areas, but I was too afraid to actually order anything there.

By now it was the hottest part of the day and I was soaked with sweat, but on my way back to my hotel, I went to a neighbourhood I read about in the Lonely Planet that was supposed to have more the old-style of Malaysian houses. It was pretty much just across the metro tracks from the Petronas Towers, but the feel of it was light years away from the sparkly, modern Kuala Lumpur that was taking over.

I walked around the neighbourhood and felt horribly out of place. I felt like people were looking at me wondering what wrong turn I took to end up there. A few people were lounging in the heat and it felt rather quiet, like everyone was inside taking a siesta. I went down one little street to get back to the metro station and there was laundry hanging everywhere and chickens running around. I passed this building:

and some kids were playing on the raised part at the front of it. Most of them, when they saw me walking by, freaked out and ran away, but one boy showed he wasn't afraid and he came to the edge of the platform and said hello and smiled. I said hello back and waved, and then he called back to his friends all "it's ok, she's not scary!" so they came over and started calling out hello to me as well. It was really sweet.

I went back to the hotel for awhile and then went back to Chinatown in the evening when there's a night market on Jalan Petaling. It was even more crowded and guys in the market kept wanting to sell me cheap knockoffs of designer bags or sunglasses, but they weren't too pushy and would leave me alone when I said no to them. Adding to the atmosphere were the red lanterns hanging everywhere because it was the run up to the Chinese new year on February 7th. I ended up passing one of the main Hindu temples in the city and I went to the door to have a peek, but it was getting late and the people there were all leaving and turning out the lights. What I saw looked interesting though.

My final day was also the day I left, but my flight wasn't until almost midnight. So I had to leave my hotel room, but then I kept my bags at the hotel and spent the day in the city. I decided to see one of the main Chinese temples and you couldn't get there by public transport, so I took a taxi, which is pretty cheap. Apparently though no one knew where this temple was, so my taxi driver was a bit lost for awhile. I fortunately had a basic map with the temple on it, but we still were driving around a neighbourhood and stopping every once in awhile to ask where it was. Thankfully we found it in the end, though I walked the last bit and thought I might still not find it, but I got to it, fortunately, after going through all that trouble. It was mostly worth it in the end.

There were some other tourists there and a few people coming in to give prayers. You have to take off your shoes before entering the main room of the temple, something which I think is common in all of the religious houses there, no matter which religion it is. People were lighting sticks of incense and putting them in a holder outside before going in to pray in front of one of three deities. The main room itself was pretty small in comparision to the size of the whole building. After seeing the main part of the temple, I followed a sign to a tortoise pond, which was pretty much as described, a pond full of tortoises. As I stood there taking some photos and awing at the number of tortoises there were, a guy pulled up on a moped next to the fence bordering the pond. He stopped just long enough to plonk down on the pond side of the fence a poor tortoise with its legs and head pulled in. I guess it had gotten free and the guy was returning it to its home. After the moped zoomed off, the tortoise cautiously poked out its legs and head, then ran around rather aimlessly, probably still feeling freaked out, before running into the water and seeming a bit more calm. At least the guy saved it from being run over. I left the temple and went back to the city and I didn't really do much else that day except wait until it was time to go to the airport.

I will now write about the food I had in Kuala Lumpur, so if food doesn't interest you, you can skip the next few paragraphs... =) First off, the breakfast buffet at the hotel was amazing. There were just so many different types of food, it was quite impressive. I thought the buffet I had in Jamaica was incredible, but this one catered for even more cultures. There was the Western American/British food, like cereal and yogurt and eggs and sausage and pastries, but then also Asian foods such as curries and rice and fried noodles and sushi, which for them is normal breakfast food. I was well taken care of every morning with all the choices available.

For lunch and dinner though at first I only ate at safe places in the mall. On my first day I went to a cafe and had what is pretty much the national dish of Malaysia, nasi lemak. It's rice cooked in coconut milk and usually served with some sort of meat curry (in the one I had there was chicken in a slightly spicy curry), and then condiments like cucumber, roasted peanuts, little fried anchovies, a dab of sambal (spicy chili paste), and hard-boiled egg. Very yummy.

On my second day, I was more adventurous and finally ate at cheaper places around Chinatown. For lunch I ate at an Indian restaurant. A guy helped me order, basically he threw out suggestions and I would be like "that, yeah, I'll have that," heh. So I ordered vegetarian naan with tandoori chicken. I sat down and waited for the food to come. They aren't the most atmospheric places, it's like a kebab place or something with cafeteria tables and fluorescent lighting, but the people working there were all really nice and I never felt really guilty for being a stupid English-speaking tourist. I hadn't ordered a drink, mostly because I didn't know what to ask for, so one server after another kept coming over to ask me what I wanted to drink. I finally ordered something, especially since I was rather hot and thirsty. I saw a woman get something that looked like iced tea, so, though I don't normally like iced tea, I asked for one. What I got didn't look like what the woman had, it was milkier, but it tasted wonderful, it was sweet and and kind of like an iced chai. Then my food came, first the chicken, a few small pieces, along with mint chutney and a small bowl of dal. And then the naan bread, which was round and cut into pieces like a pizza. It had garlic and maybe coriander and some red bits I never identified on it, along with a few raisins. It was all so delicious and it looked so good. I wanted to take a photo but would have felt too silly. The total price of my lunch was 11 ringgit, or just a bit more than 2 euros.

My dinner was even cheaper and just as satisfying. I went to a street vendor near the market in Chinatown that was selling bowls of beef noodle soup and again managed to communicate what I wanted and then waited for them to bring it over. It was simple, just beef ramen essentially, but so filling and good. I asked for iced tea again and this time it was more like I expected, tea, no milk, with ice in it. All of that cost 5.50 ringgit, or just over 1 euro.

During the day I would sometimes stop and buy a drink from vendors on the street selling various iced beverages (for only 1 ringgit), some of which looked a bit scary. One looked black, I was never sure what it was made of and I was afraid to give it a try. The first time I stopped, I asked the guy what a yellow coloured one was. He answered back "cone" and I was like "what?" and he kept saying it and I eventually said "sorry, I'm not sure what you mean..." and just asked for the one that I could tell was orange flavoured. A woman came up in the meantime also to order something and the guy I guess said to her something like "What is [yellow-coloured flavour] in English?" and she said to me "cone" and I just looked back confused and said "sorry, I still don't understand..." But then it finally clicked: corn! And then were like "yes, corn! That's what we said!" Doh. So they have corn drink... I also once tried one that was a sweet milky drink with strips of green tea jelly in it. At least that's what I think it was, I only know that (and dared to try it) because I read about it somewhere. Pretty much anything cold was good though.

More on Kuala Lumpur remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

So now I'm in Kuala Lumpur for about 2 1/2 days; I flew wth Malaysia Airlines so making a stopover was easy. It's an interesting city, though I haven't seen a lot of it yet, but there are a lot of different cultures here and it's fairly Westernized for an Asian country (not that I've been to any other Asian countries, but it's quite modern here and English is very common).

Things are very cheap for a Westerner and I mentioned before that my hotel is quite cheap. Now that I'm actually here, I'm amazed at what I get for what I paid. My room is not huge, but it's very nice and it has luxury touches like bathrobes and slippers for your use, and a separate bath and shower. There's a big desk for business travellers and a flat screen tv. I have a huge king-sized bed all to myself. It's very nice and all for only 84 eur a night. =) It was the first time I've had my luggage brought up to the room for me; they whisked away my bags from me as I got out of the taxi, I was lead up to reception to check in, and then my bags were brought up after I got to my room. I felt like such a poser in my shoes that are dusty and dirty from Australia and with my suitcase with SubPop and Threadless stickers on it. Everyone I saw at first seemed to match the poshness of the hotel, but I've seen more normal people since then. Oh, and my view! I asked for a room with a view of the twin Petronas Towers, which are the landmark of KL, and which are just across a park from the hotel I'm in. The view lived up to what I hoped for, I have this perfect view of the towers, plus the park in between. It's amazing, and on my first night I went to sleep in the glow of the lights lighting up the towers. Many photos to come...

Right, I'm off to go explore more of the city, esp the Chinatown and Indian area, maybe see a temple and visit some of the markets. I'll be back in Amsterdam all too soon and will hopefully get cracking soon on posting more stories and photos...

Kuala Lumpur remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Yeah, the 3 weeks or so since I last wrote have seemed very long because I've been so busy. In that time I drove on from Melbourne to Adelaide, toured Tasmania for 6 days, and then toured the Outback for 6 days. I am now in Alice Springs, in the center of Australia, the only "city" of any size in the Outback, about 27,000 people. It's damn hot, 40 degrees C, which is a bit over 100 degrees F. I imagine it's sort of similar here to Arizona or other places in the SW in the summer, a dry-ish baking heat that makes you feel like you're walking around in an oven. I plan to spend the afternoons anywhere air conditioned, it's horrible to try to do anything outside after about 11 or 12 until the sun goes down.

Of course I have many stories from the past few weeks, which I don't have time to write now. It'll all come eventually and if I do it from home I can add photos and videos. So look forward to all of that! I've had a great time though, though it's been trying sometimes with some of the long walks I've done and with the heat and many hours trapped in a bus that was desperately trying to cool us with the airco, but it's hard fighting that kind of heat pounding against all the windows. Tasmania was definitely a different story, much cooler and wetter and I actually had to drag out my jeans and rain jacket and long sleeved stuff for a couple of days. In the Outback, the only time I got out my sweatshirt was to use it as a pillow when we were camping outside. Tasmania was beautiful though, it is so full of amazing nature, temperate rainforests and rivers (that aren't dry!) and waterfalls and white sand beaches. It felt very similar to New Zealand and I liked it in the same way. It's not very populated either and has lots of tiny towns scattered around the island, quite a few of which we popped into for toilet breaks or to fill up the bus with gas. Humourous sometimes to see small town life.

On both tours I met a lot of great people and it's sad I'll probably never see them again. We had a happy little group though for a few days and I'm sure we all will fondly remember the trips.

My time in Australia is nearly over, which I hate to think about. This is likely the last time I'll post from down here. I am not looking forward to leaving Australia, but I am looking forward to seeing everyone back in NL and sharing stories. I hope to see those of you back there soon!

I am still alive! remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

So I've been driving from Sydney over the last 3 days. It's been rather exhausting, the first day I was so tired and sore when I finally arrived at my destination; I've learned to take more and longer breaks to avoid feeling like that again. The first day I drove to a small town near Australia's highest mtn (which I can neither spell nor pronounce). Not the most exciting drive until I was in the mtns. The second day was much better, through some gorgeous forests and eventually to the southern coast of Victoria, and then today to Melbourne, which also wasn't a very pretty drive, but I did go this morning to an Aboriginal site out in the boonies in a national park and that was beautiful. Added a couple of hours to my trip though, but it was worth it, it was a small cave-like area with water, surrounded by rainforest-like plants and animals, apparently one of the most southern occurrences of a setting like that. A sign mentioned a certain type of lizard, and I think I saw one of them crossing the road on my way out. I had seen tiny little lizards as I walked to the Aboriginal site, but this thing was huge! It was about a meter long, including its tail. Glad I didn't come across one of those in the forest...

Melbourne! I've missed you! remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

I was mostly on my own on New Year's Eve, but still it was worth it to see the amazing fireworks that Sydney puts on at midnight. I found one of the most perfect spots, across on the north side of the harbour, almost right next to the bridge and with views of the Opera House and all of downtown. It was a small bit of park, but it didn't get crushingly crowded by midnight, at least not where I was sitting, and the people remained mostly civil. I spent all afternoon there, getting a bit sunbaked. It was sunny and about 28 degrees (low 80s F), but I fortunately didn't get burnt, I just kept slathering on the sunscreen. It may have been toasty here, but I was for once glad to not be in Melbourne since the forecast there was for 42 degrees (about 108F). That's just too much... It was quite warm here though and I envied the people around me who'd brought umbrellas for shade. An older couple sitting behind me graciously offered me the shade in the tent they had set up, so I sat in there for about an hour til it was late enough in the afternoon to be cooler. I later got to know the group sitting to one side of me, an Australian guy and his Polish girlfriend and German friend, very international... He shared some of their champagne with me at midnight, very nice of him, and we all wished each other Happy New Year. The fireworks were unbelievable. Actually, they give you a teaser at 9, the "family fireworks" so people with kids can see something and then leave to get the kids to bed. But that was nothing compared to the midnight fireworks. About 5-6 barges are set up on the harbour and from where I was you could see 3 of them, one being rather close to our left. All the barges had the same fireworks going at the same time and just one of them was about the same as what Portland might do on the 4th of July. Then there was the amazing stuff going off on the bridge, which is the centrepiece, and eventually added to it all was stuff going simultaneously on the tops of 8 buildings downtown, which we had a perfect view of. The finale brought me chills, the bridge was lost in all the fireworks going off, including a beautiful curtain of sparks falling from the base of the bridge, there were all the barges letting off tons of fireworks, plus an added barge on the water right in front of us.... There was so much at once, it was incredible, everyone cheering, and when it was over a huge cheer and applause from the whole harbour. Definitely a memorable beginning to 2008.

I have today in Sydney, then I drive towards Adelaide over the next 6 days. My last road trip of the trip. =( I'm kind of looking forward to moving on from Sydney, looking forward to being back in Melbourne in a couple of days, though I won't have a lot of time there. Should hopefully see some amazing views on the way...

New Year's in Sydney remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Now I'm in Sydney and the weather is beautiful. =) I caught up yesterday with some people I know from Holland (for those who know them, I saw Hayley, Egor, Hassan, Jude, Carolyn and David) and we had a picnic at Mrs Macquarie's Chair and it was so gorgeous, a bit cool actually with a strong breeze from the water, but the Opera House and Bridge were behind me and there was blue sky. So lovely. I've seen a bit of Sydney, a couple of neighbourhoods, but I can definitely say I prefer Melbourne. Sorry Sydneysiders... I just feel more at home there.

The plan is to see the big New Year's Eve fireworks tomorrow, so if you see them on the news or something, know that I was there! Have a happy New Year's everyone and best wishes for 2008!

Back to Oz remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

A couple of nights ago I stayed in Christchurch, which I was not impressed with. It also was a very frustrating city to drive around and frankly I was glad to leave it. I wasn't impressed with the area it's in either, Canterbury, it's mostly just flat farmland. Last night I was in a little town called Oamaru which was on the ocean and had its own share of hills. I stayed there because there is a blue penguin colony and you can watch them come ashore at night. You can also do this on an island near Melbourne and it's a big day trip thing to take, but it's 2 hours away and a bit expensive with a tour company driving you there, so I never went. Now I got to see the same little guys for a much cheaper price. They were very cute, they're the smallest penguins, hardly a foot tall.

As this will be my last post from NZ, a couple of memories: the small airplane that flew in right above me as I was driving and freaked me out; I thought a large truck was trying to pass me at first. The pickup truck I was driving behind for I don't know how long before I realized there was a cow riding in the back of it (don't worry, I wasn't blind, there was a piece of corrugated iron blocking most of the cow from my view). A couple of hawks or eagles, some large bird, flying almost right in front of my car, swooping in on something along the road. There were one or two sheep and the occasional cow. A ton of very friendly people who were always keen to help me.... It's a lovely little place here and I'll definitely be back. And I know I haven't told the stories yet about the dolphin trip and the Maori dinner, but they'll have to wait until later.

Last days in NZ remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Since I stayed in Picton for an extra day, it kind of screwed up my plans for the South Island. I was going to drive down the West Coast, past Mt Cook (tallest mtn in NZ), and to the Fiordland area in the SW and see Milford Sound, which is supposed to be astoundingly beautiful. But it's a very long drive and I needed each day that I had to make it without needing to drive 7-8 hours or more a day. I can't do that now, esp since I'm still not 100%, so I've modified my plans to where I drive down the East Coast, via Christchurch, to Dunedin, where I return my car. You can do that in only a couple of days and since I have quite a few days before needing to be in Dunedin I can take my time. So I am now staying in a town only a couple of hours from Picton called Kaikoura, which is known for its whale and dolphin watching. There's supposed to be some lovely mountains just to the west, but I wouldn't know because it's a miserable gray day and it's been raining since I left Picton. This is supposed to be the sunnier coast. Never mind, the clouds hanging in the hills was kind of pretty and the ocean manages to be a bit blue-green, despite the gray (Oregon's coast doesn't do that). And I was sort of happy to realize I'd be driving along the Pacific! Like, the same ocean I know, way, way far away from Oregon, but it's still the Pacific. =) I stopped and watched some seals on some rocks near the highway today, that was cool. Also I shelled out for a more proper room in a B&B instead of a hostel so I can be more comfortable for a couple of nights till I really feel better. I'm in a wonderful place in a former convent (I also stayed in a hostel in Melbourne that was a former convent; maybe I should see how many convents I can stay in), so definitely happy there. Yeah, not what I imagined I'd be doing and I'm sad to miss out on the scenery of the West Coast, but sickness has a way of screwing things up that way and the new route should still have some good things to see.

I did have one day of adventure before getting sick, I went dolphin watching and to a Maori dinner, but those stories will have to wait for another time since I should go now.

Not exactly what I had planned remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Auckland: I had a great couple of days in Auckland with my friends who live there. Unfortunately the weather was a bit miserable, esp the day we planned to bum around the city, but I still saw quite a bit and liked what I saw. Also got to see a black-sand beach, very lovely, I miss beaches like that, more like Oregon beaches, except for the black-sand bit. Also saw a band from Portland play, which was a great show and fun to see a gig in another country.

Waitomo Caves: There are a few caves in one area a couple of hrs south of Auckland where you can just go on a little tour, or do adventure stuff like abseiling, black-water rafting (going on a inner-tube in the dark), and rock climbing. I did the easy options, mostly because they were cheaper. So I went to one cave that had all these limestone formations, it was amazing, and there were only 6 of us on the tour, plus a very friendly guide, so it was all just cool. I think I got quite a few good photos. They think the cave might actually extend much further, but there was a cave-in at some point and they can't get past it. The cave is actually fitted out with lights, so you don't need a lantern or head-lamp, plus it even had a locking front gate. Funny to head out turning off the lights as we went and the guy locked the cave behind us... The other cave features glowworms, which are larvae of bugs that hang sticky strings down to catch other bugs in, then they pull the bug up and eat it. But they glow as well to help catch the bug. There was a river in this cave and you go on a boat through the dark and the ceiling is full of these glowing blue points of light. It's like a lot of blue stars. Absolutely beautiful and we were very quiet because noise makes the worms dim their light, so there was only the sound of the boat a bit and distant dripping water. The tour was marred though by a school group that joined us, a bunch of cynical teenagers who didn't give a damn, but I tried to ignore them.

Thermal area: Today I headed towards the thermal area of the north island of New Zealand, there are a few places where you can go to see geysers, mud pools, multi-coloured pools, etc. I went to one recommended as being a bit more off the beaten path and it was gorgeous. I came down the road and first I noticed this lovely lake and then across the lake, a bunch of steam rising into the air. A boat takes you across to the thermal area and yeah, it's just steaming everywhere. Little holes by the path are just releasing steam and there's boiling water coming out of other holes. There were mud pools as well, which I find meditative to watch, in a silly kind of way because it is kind of humorous, the sound they make. In this place there is also a cave with water in it, it's not boiling, but steam comes off it and I dipped a finger in and it was like a warm bath. The water is very clear at the edges, plus there's no wind disturbing it, so you can't really see where the pool begins. I saw an older German guy dunk his whole right foot in the water because he thought he was just stepping on rock. The whole area did stink though like rotting eggs because of the sulfur. It was ok usually, but if you got a cloud of steam blown your way, it was quite choking. And now I'm in a town called Rotorua which is surrounded by these areas and the town has a general sulfur smell. Blech, but the town is pretty cute and is on a big lake.

First days in New Zealand remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Yesterday I got back from my 3 day trip to the Great Ocean Road, a famous drive that is rather similar to California's Hwy 1, or the twistier parts of 101 in Oregon. I wish I could have stayed much longer and enjoyed some of the beaches more, but I was glad to have gone for a couple of days at least. The weather wasn't brilliant, but the water felt warmer than at the Prom and the beaches were practically empty. Not so for the big tourist spots though, like the 12 Apostles, these sandstone rocks just off the shore further west down the coast. They're pretty famous and much photographed and so it was swarming with tourists there. Still, quite pretty. I also did a treetop walk in an area called the Otways, a forested point sticking a bit south. They've built these high platforms in the forest, so you can walk amongst the treetops, 20-30 meters above the ground. Plus there was a tower that went about 40 meters up. Kinda freaky, it all is a bit wobbly to be able to sustain high winds, but I liked it, and it was an amazing area. Got lots of photos there, to be posted someday.

Not so fun about both of the trips: the flies. I've heard about flies being bad in Australia, and their numbers have picked up in Melbourne as the weather has been warmer, but it wasn't until these trips that I experienced enough flies to drive a person nuts. We'd be walking in the Prom and I'd notice how the person ahead of me had a whole mess of flies on their back and backpack, and then I'd realize that I probably had the same, and yeah, there'd be a bunch on my bag when I took it off. In the meantime about 6-10 are constantly in your face as you walk, going in your ear, up your nose, landing on the corner of your mouth - anywhere that is the most obnoxious. They'd land on my glasses, so I'm glad I wear them or I guess they'd be on my eyes. It was bad enough while walking, but then when you'd stop, you weren't a moving target anymore and they were everywhere. It was hard taking photos - either one would get in the photo or they'd land on your nose and tickle you and you couldn't get the photo taken... They are vicious, vicious things and it's only going to be worse in the outback in the middle of summer...

I drove a rental to the Great Ocean Road, so I survived 3 days of driving on the left! And I managed to get the car safely back through Melbourne, though I went on this roundabout journey since I'm more used to walking than driving, but I found my way eventually. I also had to do two hook turns in the process, which I did successfully! Very proud of that. Funnily enough, I had the same car as I had the last time I was in the US, a Hyundai Accent, so it was a bit familiar. It was all difficult at first though, but I could tell how used to it I got by the time I got back to Melbourne and realized I was much more confident than when I left. I never accidentally pulled onto the right side of the road (there are a lot of tourists on that road though, so there are a lot of signs reminding you "Drive on the left in Australia"!), but I did at first hit the wipers a lot instead of the blinker because those are switched around on the steering wheel. Also I never quite got used to the gear lever being to my left; thankfully I had an automatic...

So I leave for New Zealand on Saturday. I feel all ready to tackle their roads now, possibly even in a stick shift if that's what I get. And looking forward to a new country and I'm sure much amazing scenery.

The last week remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Yesterday I found out that my 3-day trip to Wilsons Prom is now a 1-day trip, thanks to the tour company not booking the campground for me, or not being able to because of low numbers, or I don't know what, the two days of camping are unguided so low numbers shouldn't matter. I was really really looking forward to this trip, to camping and being able to spend a couple of days in the park, so I was not happy to get this news. I'll still be going Wednesday, but just for their 1-day guided tour which still takes in quite a bit, but it's not the same...

New photos remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

This Monday night (yesterday) I moved out of the share house and into the apartment I mentioned that's much closer to the city. The last couple of days in the house were sweltering. It was 32 or so on Sunday, then Monday was predicted to be 37, though it got up to "only" about 35. (Yes, these are the Celsius temps, sorry to the US people, but if you'd like to convert to F, go to onlineconversion.com. Suffice it to say it was bloody hot, esp for this time of year; 35 C is 95ish F.) Sunday I was at the house all day, cleaning up my room and packing. Even though my room is usually quite cool because it's downstairs where it's more sheltered and shaded, I was still building up a sweat packing. I treated myself by heading in the afternoon to the milk bar (convenience store) for a peppermint Magnum (yum!), though to get there I had to walk up a steep hill in the midday heat, so it almost wasn't worth the effort. I slept most of Sunday night with no duvet; quite the contrast to when I moved in and I buried myself under 2 duvets and a blanket.

I went to the house after work Monday to pack up the rest of my stuff before moving across town. It was quite sad to be leaving the wonderful location next to the river. I sat out in the backyard watching the sunset for awhile and I also gave Molly the dog a hug goodbye. I had way too many bags to go by public transport, so I got a cab and soon arrived at the swank apartment building Andrea, and her sister, Helen, live in. Andrea is a friend of someone I worked with in Amsterdam and the mutual friend put us in touch. I'm very lucky to be able to stay with them for a bit. The apartment is amazing, very modern and open, and the view is awesome. I mentioned before that they're on the 29th floor, which is the top of their building. The view is to the east and south; you can see the Botanic Gardens and Shrine of Remembrance, South Melbourne, Albert Park, and I think St Kilda along with a bit of the bay. Unfortunately, though it is up so high, a lot of noise still comes up from the traffic, esp since there is a freeway near the building. So it was a lot louder than I was used to, but in the room I'm staying in it's pretty quiet. I can walk to work now, though this morning I took a tram because I was really hot already, but I was able to get up half an hour later than before, which is very good. So I'll be staying with Andrea and Helen for about a week and then I go for 3 days to Wilsons Prom and when I come back to Melbourne I'll be staying at a cool-sounding hostel called The Nunnery that's in a former convent. It's in an area of the city I really like, so I'll be looking forward to staying there.

Off to walk home in the warm evening air. =)

More on food, plus moving remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Quick update remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

It's not the best shot, his tail is bent so you can't see his full length and his head is under a leaf, but it's hard to get a photo of him without him dashing under the front stoop. The scale might be hard to tell, but I'd say he's about a foot long. And rather fat. He's apparently a bluetongue lizard; I've also seen stumptailed lizards at Wendy's farm, they're about the same size but so named because they have flat, stumpy tails.

This next story isn't really related to life in Australia or travelling around or anything, but I'm going to post about it anyway. I got my hair cut on Thursday and it came out quite different from what I expected and from what I'm used to from the woman who cuts my hair in Amsterdam. Since having my hair professionally cut in the past couple of years, I've only gone to this one person in Amsterdam, and she knew what to do when I went in since she was the one who cut my hair that way in the first place. So I was nervous about having to find someone to cut it in Australia. I was in dire need of a haircut, it had been 4 months since I last had it cut and I usually only wait 3 months, so it was a bit long and unruly. I went to a place near work in a shopping center, a sort of stylish looking place, quite different from the 2-chair shop where I go in Amsterdam. I must say I really enjoyed the hair wash. A separate girl did nothing but washing people's hair before it was cut and she did a lot of wonderful head massaging. Purrrr...

After washing though I had to wait a bit for the person who was going to cut my hair and I got the feeling that they weren't sure who was scheduled to cut my hair, just whoever was free next would take care of me. It felt rather hectic and disorganized. A woman finally came over to do my hair and I described what I wanted. Looking back, yeah, I wish I had been more specific, but then I didn't know at the beginning what she planned to do, which should have been a warning, I should have asked her what she had in mind for me. She started out normal enough, but after layering the back a bit, she took out this razor-comb and started going mad on my hair. She just kept chopping more and more hair off, which, with my hair is fine really, I have so much of it, but she seemed a bit too enthusiastic about it. She even said at one point "I can cut and cut at your hair and you still have so much of it! There's so much to play with!" Yikes. She was pulling it in all directions as well, combing it across my face and parting it one way and then the other. I was really wondering what the hell was going on. When she seemed to be finally finished with the cutting, I noticed with horror that she had cut my hair so that I had bangs. I haven't had bangs since I was a teenager and I was not particularly happy that I had them now. But it was too late to do anything about it.

Next, she started in on blow drying my hair, which took as long as it did to cut it. She blew it dry while brushing it under with a round brush which I hate, it reminds me too much of the haircuts I got when I was younger where my hair was styled like that at the end and ended up huge and poofy (though it was the late 80s/early 90s, so I guess that was the style then). Fortunately my hair was now too short to become too poofy, but drying it like that took out all of the natural waviness. Once she was done blow drying it, she then came over with a can of hairspray and gave me a coating from that, which was horrible! I haven't used hairspray in years because it's bad! Badbadbad! The whole thing was a horrific experience. And the end result... I guess it was "stylish" but it also sort of looked like a helmet of hair:

I think what made the whole experience even more intolerable (because the haircut wasn't that bad, esp once I fixed it more to a style I liked), was that the hairdresser was so damn pleased with herself and her work. As she was drying my hair, she was saying I should have someone to do that for me everyday, and if I had a special occasion I should come and see her and she'll style my hair like that. She was really selling the bangs and said how great they are and asked if I've ever had bangs and I said through clenched teeth, "Yes, a long time ago" but thanks for asking before chopping my hair off whether I wanted bangs now. Arg, she drove me nuts, and I hurriedly left the store, went to the nearest bathroom and tried to fix it. I parted it back on the right side, which is where I normally have it, and I got rid of the weird bangs. Here's how I think I'll normally wear it:

I might be able to try an retro chick thing with the bangs, but it's hard to get my hair to do what you want it to sometimes. I realized that in 3 months I'll be back in Amsterdam, so I won't have to get my hair cut in Australia again. And I can go to my normal hairdresser and beg her to fix it into something ok, esp since I plan to grow the hair back out that this woman chopped off.

Lizard and new hair remains copyright of the author marie_d, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs