Well, if I thought we were in the middle of nowhere in the Blue Mountains, the next few days would be quite enlightening. We left enroute for Cascade National Park, but stopping near a place quaintly named Coonabarabran called Warrumbungles to camp for the night. My flu wasn’t too horrible on the bus and though I felt some pretty serious nausea initially, it quieted into a sort of general lack of energy. Mer gave me some Immodium and Katie insisted that I and all the other sick patrons take some probiotics. Which are sort of the opposite of antibiotics, I suppose. Bacteria pills. Still, they seemed to do the job. We stopped for lunch at a place called Mudgee, and since I had no appetite and lunch I’d bought for the two days prior, I had a little bit of that. Chris and I found a shaded bench and sat there eating and discussing world affairs. After devising a solution for the Cuban Missle Crisis that would’ve resulted in a technological paradigm that would permit fusion-powered vehicles, we were back on the bus for more driving.
We passed some kangaroos and a dead wombat which was pretty exciting. They do hop, just like the legends say. And finally, our campsite. With all our excitement at seeing kanagaroos on the road, there were plenty hanging around the camp. Not really wild at all (au contraire) but still cool to see up close. They use their tails a lot more than I realized, sometimes crawling on their small front limbs and using their tails to support the weight. Sitting upright, they basically sit on their tails as well. And their legs are bent backwards at the knee, with their whole lower limb essentially acting as a foot, which gives them a lot of jumping leverage. Oh, and nice big claws, so if they don’t like you, they can sit on their tails and use their hind claws to gut you. Anyway, after a little trouble with some German campers, we settled in for dinner. None of us guys were hungry, so we just sort of hung around and then went for a walk in the woods.
On this walk we encountered some actually wild kangaroos, which was much cooler in my mind, and also some really crazy ant colonies that my compatriots felt compelled to stir up. There were a LOT of them. It was actually relatively insane. And they are not small ants. We walked back, and I had my first smore over a gas stove which was ridiculously good, even if their marshmallows here are a bit unusual. And then an early night as I still wasn’t feeling great and my sleep the night prior had been less than incredible. The next morning, we were up early and I was feeling pretty darned good. Close to 100%. Such a relief. We got back on the bus and headed into town to have breakfast in the park near a cricket game. I just had M&M’s, not wise necessarily, but you have no idea how tired I am of peanut butter and bread. Instead, I had peanut-filled chocolate candy. I wonder how I got sick?
Today was our longest trek of the tour, 7 hours of driving, and it went relatively fast. Tamworth was our lunch stop and we also got groceries for our next three lunches. Anthony and I went in together to make it nice and cheap and fast. Corn on the cob, a sandwich, and tortellini. Done, done, and done. We got in to Cascade at about 7:00, had grilled cheese and tomato soup, and just hung out. I gave some music to Amanda, Anthony, Chelsea, and Lauren, we watched some Family Guy, sat around chatting, and played a little Frisbee. Others played some basketball and did hair, and essentially it was a “chill” evening.
At noon the next day we took a nature hike through the surrounding woods where I was fortunate enough to have my first ever leech bite. And then two others. But I got off pretty lightly compared to the others – pretty much everyone had been hit by a leach before I was. We made our way through with our guide, Jeff, who stopped to explain a lot of the foliage and interesting things about the forest. We tried some pepper leaf and sarsaparilla and made our way to a small waterfall where we took a dip. I would never have jumped in back home as it looked rather dirty, but hey, when in Aus. We also crossed a 2m high termite mound, and looked at the way the vines grow and how some plants would get their seed up into a tree so that they were closer to the light. Very interesting and enlightening.
We came back and had an equally interesting dinner of local wildlife. But that was after a couple games like the helium stick and the golf-ball circle. The dinner was kangaroo burgers, some big nut that grows to be up to 20 lbs., local berries, an ice cream that was mashed with some leaves to make a lemony creamy myrtle, and alligator cakes (with meat from the tail). It was actually all delicious, though some of the berries were pretty much not anything but bitterness, mostly it was interesting and unusual and unlike any meal I’ve ever had. Today was definitely a great day.
Our final morning, we went white water rafting through the rainforest. It was really quite beautiful and something like what I imagine the Amazon to be – except not as wide. We were able to get out of our rafts and float down the river, which was good fun, and we got to a narrows that was so deep we couldn’t find the bottom. Admittedly, we were wearing lifejackets, but Dustin would dunk me and stand on my shoulders (which puts me almost 12 feet under), and then Brad would stand on his shoulders, then someone would push Brad down which put me about 20 feet down and with no sight of the bottom. The water here isn’t glacial and crystal clear like in New Zealand, so there was also little light and a lot of murk that deep. We did some splashing and dunking and also some small waterfalls (category 4 but we also had to walk past some category 6 ones) that were actually great fun. It was a beautiful way to spend a morning and afternoon. We had a BBQ after and saw a really large goanna lizard (probably close to 2m long) and spent the rest of the day hanging around our camp. Tomorrow is Anthony and Kristen’s collective birthday and we head off to Byron Bay for some surf and definitely party. We’ll see you there!
En route to our hall in the Blue Mountains, we stopped for a couple hours in Katoomba. As always, Brad, Chris, and myself took off, realizing very quickly that this town had some sort of collective deficiency. We walked behind a man who would stop, say something to someone (who was clearly invisible) beside him, and continue on, sometimes shaking his head angrily. More than once he peered into an alley and started screaming into it. We followed from a safe distance. We passed a woman on the street whose eyes were glazed and mumbled something to Chris and then a ‘nevermind’. Another guy on the opposite side of the street was also loudly talking to noone and everyone in particular and turned and shushed Brad. Meanwhile, thunder was cracking in the distance, and we took a wrong turn down an alley, finding ourselves in Soviet Russia, with graffiti and sketchy loosely wired fence and no sign of life aside from a lone cat. And that’s when it started to pour.
We ran back, trying to reach the more populous Katoomba St, but the rain poured harder and we took shelter in a little canopy over a doorway. The rain intensified further and lightning was cracking and booming all around us, lightning and thunder arriving within less than a second of each other. It began to hail and blow all the harder, and I wondered aloud if Australia ever got tornadoes. It was a decent-sized canopy but with the wind, it wasn’t enough, and we all fought laughingly for a spot in the corner. We were getting wet no matter what. The maelstrom continued for about ten minutes before quieting and subsiding. We ventured out and back to the main street where water was cascading down the roadway at an impressive rate. A drought, you say?
We had a hot chocolate/coffee at a café and met the others to do our grocery shopping before heading to The Edge. It’s an IMAX style film about the Blue Mountains, and wasn’t too bad actually. Really overdramatic, but still had its interesting pieces. Plus I love time-lapse photography. Right before the show, someone from another group rather rudely stood up and announced “Ladies and Gentlemen” as though addressing everyone in the theatre, then proceeded to ramble on about what his group would be doing for dinner, accommodation, and day-to-day life for the next week. It was somewhat amusing to me and I told Katie she should similarly apprise us of the coming days’ activities. She dared me to, and so when he finished, I got up and essentially gave a similar but abridged speech to our group. I didn’t really want to make fun of the guy, I just thought it would be funny to do it. The other group took it the way it was intended and the theatre burst into applause as I finished.
After a falafel dinner (by which point I was feeling worse than ever) we ventured to our residence. I was feeling a little off at this point, but nothing too serious. We all were set in the same room and I picked out a place near the fire that we never did get to lighting and settled in. We hung around for a while and a few of us watched some Family Guy on my laptop before I went to bed… really early. Bed wasn’t that comfortable, even with my camping mat. My pillow was too hard and so was the floor, but I did get a bit of sleep. The next morning I felt worse still, like I needed to empty my stomach from either end, but instead could do neither. We were supposed to go canyoning, which I’d had my heart set on, but because it had rained the night before, it was felt by our leaders that this was not a good idea. While I disagreed (rain is only dangerous when it starts pouring from nowhere, causing flash floods), I obviously wasn’t the one to call the shots, and anyway, we were still going to walk into another canyon. Which, I didn’t bother to point out, was equally dangerous, but at least it was something. The canyon itself was nice though the water moved pretty slowly and was kind of stagnant and rusty. Still, we had some fun and though my stomach ached a lot on the stairs up and out, it was worth it.
There seemed to be quite a few of us coming down with this stomach bug, so there weren’t many takers for our afternoon walk and ‘train’ through the Blue Mountains, but I did go anyway. That’s what I’m here for, after all. There was a massive and beautiful waterfall and we boys hopped the fence and fooled around in it and also looked out over the edge at a rather large and frightening drop before coming back to the path. We walked along some more and took what they claim (most likely accurately) to be the steepest rail on Earth. It was pulled up by a cable and was definitely a bit scary. We were probably looking down 70 degrees or so in parts, and we went through a crevasse in the mountain coming back up.
At the top, we looked out again at the Blue Mountains, which do look a bit blue, apparently from the vapour the eucalyptus trees give off. And, best of all, we ran into Chirs’ Scottish lass. What the odds are, I’m uncertain, but they were there and reunited in front of the group. We went back to our place and had dinner, which was pretty good. Chicken breasts, and beef/kangaroo mixed burgers. I’d not had lunch of anything as I had only a rumbly tummy and no appetite and wasn’t really hungry, but I managed to eat some fruit salad and chicken and try a couple bites of the burger. It was Dustin’s birthday, so some cake was brought out, but I didn’t have it in me to eat any. I played a bit of a game with Meridith where we would try to create expressions on our faces and take photos. I also finally started reading my book again, for the first time since coming overseas, and I did a few card tricks on Katie and Brad which I was happy to have work. We played a bit of cards too, and I laid around chatting with whoever might be unlucky enough to be in my vicinity before calling it a night. Tomorrow, we’re off camping in the Cascades and I add nausea to my list of symptoms: just in time for a six hour ride. Will Dean make it? Stay tuned…
I left New Zealand alone as I’d booked my own flights, stopping over in Wellington. It was sort of weird to be flying into a city I already felt like I knew, kind of like coming home and yet not at all the same. Coming into Sydney, on the other hand, felt like coming into Los Angeles. Beaches, water, surf, and city as far as the eye could see. Compared with New Zealand cities, which are generally smaller than 400,000, a city of 4.5 million was particularly sprawling. I was supposed to arrive 10 minutes after the rest of the group and was a bit worried about customs because I had no return ticket for leaving Australia, but customs was a breeze. Still, there was nobody there when I arrived. I worried a little then checked their flight and saw they were delayed and not due for another 20 minutes. About an hour later, they were peeling out of the gate and PC2 was rejoined, ready for Australian adventures.
We were supposed to take a Harley tour through Sydney to our hostel, but as is our custom when arriving in a new country, it was rainy and unpleasant outside, so we simply went straight to our new home in Manly. And what a home it was. Basically a bunch of condos with shared facilities, right on Manly beach, it was easily the best accommodation we’ve had to date. It was already dinner time, so I went out with Katie, Brad, Chris, Chelsea, and Lauren to a pretty decent Thai place by the wharf, walking along the strip crossing the peninsula. Then we grabbed some groceries for the group and hung out in our little nest for the evening. Another pleasant note about Australia, or at least Sydney, was that in that little walk we saw more pretty girls than in all our time in New Zealand combined.
The next day was still rainy – and Australia is supposedly in a drought. Still, it was warm enough and scattered enough that we went to the beach for a while and played in some of the biggest waves I’ve ever seen, trying to body surf. Brad and I also found an internet café that easily beat any café we’d used up to this point. It was lightning fast, so much so that I ran out of photos I’d already captioned. We went back to the hostel to get on our bikes for the evening tour, and wouldn’t you know it, as I made my way back to the hostel the rain began. It drizzled initially but within 10 minutes of getting back, it was pouring. Still, danger or not, we were taking the Harley tour, so we loaded on our waterproof gear and hit the road. Thankfully, not literally. The tour was kind of interesting as it was in the rain, but otherwise we definitely missed out. We didn’t go into Sydney and so just toured the suburb of Manly and its various homes and freeways. Still, it was fun, but it would’ve been cool to roar across the Harbour Bridge. We stayed at home again tonight, and wound up watching the Academy Awards, which were actually pretty decent this year.
Finally, our third day in Sydney, and we were off to see the city itself. We took a ferry in the morning and checked out the opera house. Which isn’t white and painted at all, but is actually a mosaic tile that looks more yellowed unless reflecting the sun. It was surreal to be at the foot of this very foreign monument on the other side of the earth. We broke off into groups and Chris, Brad, and myself ventured around the city. We strolled through the botanical gardens seeking other views of the opera house and harbour bridge then made our way to The Rocks, an old quarter of Sydney. Though we well overshot it, stopping for lunch in the busy office district before finding ourselves at the end of Pitt St. in Chinatown. We supposedly had a pass for any transit, so we went to take the monorail back into town only to be scolded by a very angry tub when we asked her if our pass also worked for the monorail. I thanked her for being so polite, wished her a pleasant day, and we walked up to George St. to catch a bus back.
We looked around the Rocks, which weren’t all that incredible and stopped for a beer before heading to the middle of the Harbour Bridge. Brad had to get to class with his ignorant cultural professor (q: Why do we see more Canadians abroad than Americans? A: Because their country sucks.). Yup, she’s the one responsible for opening their eyes and minds to other cultures. Luckily, her students are more enlightened than she is. Anyway, Brad went back for more of that fun with her and Chris and I continued across the bridge to check out Luna Park. Which was closed but we were able to peek around because there was a wedding there. We found our way back and met up with Brad before deciding to head into Chinatown for dinner. But we hopped on the wrong bus and it took us across the harbour bridge and another into some suburb.
We debated exploring the suburb for decent and hopefully cheaper food and then some locals recommended we stroll along Darling St. to some decent restaurants. We wound up having Japanese food instead, walking about 8 blocks extra to bring our own wine in from a not-so-nearby shop. Dinner was good and reasonable and we’d certainly had an adventure to find it. This also marked the beginning of the Canadian drinking game. See, it’s considered rude to not lift a glass and drink when someone toasts, so basically you just take turns coming up with a lot of cheers. Pretty simply but potentially lethal. We got back into town and were making our way to the ferry when we passed these Scottish girls that started talking with us. We still had some time before the last ferry so we stopped and had a beer with them before escaping home, mostly unscathed. The ferry ride back was nice at night, Syndey has a beautiful skyline. We said goodbye to that skyline early the next morning, venturing to the Blue Mountains and a small Scouts’ hall near Katoomba where we would spend the next couple nights.
We were back in Christchurch again to catch our flights to Sydney, Australia, which was met with a mix of excitement and sadness since it’s hard to leave a beautiful and amazing place like New Zealand. Still, more adventure ahead and I am certainly more excited than sad. I called up Mike again since we were in town on the weekend and we met up at the hostel after my first shower in ages (I bought a new towel!), dinner, and who knows what else. We went out with Katie, Meridith, and us boys and had a good time but were all fairly tired. We started at Sullivan’s, which had some pretty decent live music actually. Then Mike took us to a place called Concrete which was quiet but a pretty cool underground club. We (by which I mean Anthony and Mer) did a little dancing and hung around a bit before wandering into a place I’d spotted walking that was in an alley and also underground, somewhere along Hereford St. It was likewise slow but cool and we hung out a bit until I wasn’t the only one tired and then got some BK before calling it a night. The next day, though, Mike was taking us on another sojourn into the NZ countryside – a French town called Akaroa(?).
I got up at 9:30, just in time to grab the hostel’s continental breakfast, shower, and caption some photos. Mike offered to let me use the net at his house so I wanted to upload as many photos as I could there. This was our last full day in New Zealand too, and I had to print off my itinerary and e-ticket for my flight among other errands. But that was later. He met us and we left the hostel around noon, stopping for petrol as they call it and some groceries for the trip. Which, itself, took about 40 mins through some very nice scenery. Rolling hills and all the stuff I would be missing from New Zealand very soon. The town itself clearly had some French history but was pretty well English by now, so it was more of a novelty, but it still had some pretty sections. There is a restaurant there called C’est la Vie that’s meant to be quite famous and we were hoping to have lunch there before heading back. When we finally found the place, not knowing its name, location, or anything other than the fact that patrons write all over the walls about their experience, we were understandably disappointed to find it was closed for lunch and all booked for dinner.
I tried in horrible French to ask the chef who we could hear and see working away at prep what time they opened for dinner, and he came to the door and spoke in English to me. Whew. Embarrassingly, he’s not actually French (I’d been told they were, but maybe his wife was) but German, and I tried to secure us a spot at dinner. At best he had my number and put us down for a phone call should anyone cancel and recommended another place we might want to grab dinner (Ma Maison) in case we couldn’t get a spot. Our reservation was for 5:45 at Ma Maison and we were supposed to have heard whether a spot had opened up by 5, so that left us some time. More time than we realized, because my watch was lacking a setting for New Zealand time and the time had been an hour ahead on my watch since arriving and I forgot this when quoting the time to the others. We strolled around the town and took some silly photos, warmed up in the car and got some rest, drove around to nearby outlooks and gravel roads and driveways, went to hilltop parks of unusual quality, and basically killed time until dinner. It was a lot of fun despite having no driving purpose or deeper meaning.
We drove back into town a little before 5:00 and discovered that the placard outside which had so coldly proclaimed the restaurant full for the night now had a seating time and phone number to call. I talked to the lady inside and they had just had some cancellations (apparently the cook hadn’t felt it worthwhile to call us) and so we got a table booked. We cancelled our reservations at Ma Maison then came back for dinner. I had a nice steak topped with spinach and blue cheese and marinated in some other sauce as well. Quite delicious and definitely worth the wait. The only way to get a better steak here would be to fly in my dad. Which could be difficult given my ever-dwindling funds, but I digress. Mike also had the steak, and Chris and Brad had the venison, which was also great (but not as good as my steak). We all felt the meal was terrific and worth any waiting that we had to do.
We drove back into town and stopped at Mike’s house for me to use the internet. It turned out he had some episodes of Family Guy I hadn’t seen so he copied me a DVD (which I just realized I forgot to pay him for!) and we watched a hilarious episode while I did my internet things. Then back to the hostel and the boys went out, tired or not, and hit the town running with what is probably the cheapest wine we’ll ever buy ($4-$5 NZ bottles). We went all over and got a little more zany as the night went on, and boy did it go on. We were at the Holy Grail for a while, we went to some place on the strip, and who knows where else before Brad and Chris went for BK and Mike and I took off to the casino. As is my fashion, I did well at the start off my last $5 and then lost it all, but it was fun even if late. I got back to the hostel at 6AM, just in time to get two hours sleep before an 8AM meeting.
We had our meeting about Sydney and what was in store for our big move to Australia, cleaned out the vans, and got packed. My flight was different than the others so I went to the airport early with Katie and got myself sorted. Now I’m sitting here waiting in the Sydney airport for the rest of the group to arrive (I was supposed to arrive 10 mins after them but our plane made good time), and I’m very eager to get out of my sweaty clothes and into our condos, which I hear are good, and of course the Sydney rain and humidity. We got some nice views of downtown from the plane too, and it was exciting to see those oh-so-remote monuments like the Opera building or the Harbour Bridge just sitting there waiting. Now, speaking of waiting, I’m going to go back to it. Next time, Sydney. All it’s cracked up to be or more?
It was a six-hour stint from Wanaka to Franz Joseph, home of the Franz Joseph glacier, ice climbing. We stopped midway for lunch at a salmon farm and had some salmon related luncheon paninis and such before arriving in Franz. When we got there we stopped by the activity centre to book our ice climbing and other options for those not interested. Unfortunately, there was only one spot left. I offered mine (quite reluctantly to be honest about it) to Lauren2 since she is a climber and though I had been looking forward to it since I heard about it she probably wanted to do it more. But there were others who also wanted to and she was also reluctant to accept, so we did a draw for the spot. Well, I won but felt pretty bad about it. Still, I suppose it was fair and in any case I was going ice climbing the next day.
The other Lauren swung by and invited us boys to happy hour at a nearby pub and so we went along and had some drinks with them. And then went elsewhere and grabbed some appetizers and dinner and, yes, more drinks. I went home a bit earlier with Lauren and Chelsea because I had to be ready for ice climbing at 7:45 and was in bed by 11:00, though I watched the last episode of the Office I’d downloaded before bed (Dwight and Oscar return). Chris came back towards the end and we watched one more episode, so I suppose I was asleep by midnight. In any case, I don’t know if I was nervous about sleeping in, ice climbing itself, or the room was hot and poorly ventilated (probably all of the above) but I got no sleep. Every hour or two I was up and debating going back to sleep or not, even though I’d eventually look at the clock and it would only be, say, 3 AM.
I got up to do some ice climbing on time regardless and hurriedly threw breakfast and lunch (bread and jam) into a container and walked over to the activity centre. We packed up our stuff, though I forgot to grab a rain jacket because I had the wrong-sized boots, and drove to the glacier. It was about 3 km to the glacier through rain forest and along the glacial stream all, I stress, in glorified ski boots. Not comfortable. Well, maybe they were a ski/snowboard hybrid but my point remains. We got to the base which I discovered had a staircase carved into it. Not my idea of ice climbing, I joked to myself. Not that the group was not friendly, they were all Scottish and quite nice, but I wasn’t up for being the outgoing one at that point. Remember I’d had no sleep, and anyone who knows anything about me knows that early mornings and bad sleeps are a bad mix.
We hiked another km up and into the glacier, arriving finally at our base where we’d do our climbing and set up. All said, we did 5 climbs, the last of which was actually greater than 90 degrees of slope. It was a lot of fun, though I think I like rock climbing better, and pretty demanding. I did the whole thing without ever falling though there was at least once where I was dangling by a single ice pick. It was a definite workout, however, and by the time we finished climbing, hiked back down the glacier and found ourselves at the van I was definitely beat. Still, we stopped by a pub on the way and I bought a drink for the guide that gave me his rainjacket and one of the guys on the trip that owns a pizzeria in Glasgow bought us all some pizza to munch on. All in all, I had a great time with these guys.
I didn’t bother with dinner back at the hostel because I pretty much crashed right through it. That is, after I cleaned up the sprinkled hearts and fake love letter off my bed and had a good laugh. Brad’s mom had sent him some valentine’s day stuff which I instantly recognized, so they didn’t actually fool me, but it was hilarious for all involved. I did wake up later (or else this particular blog post would have a lot more zzzzzzz’s) feeling refreshed and took a sauna with a few of the others which only helped more. That night the plan was a Lord of the Rings marathon which I definitely didn’t have the stamina for, but it was fun to sit in the TV room with everyone watching the first movie. Quite a few of them stayed up for the second (maybe half left) including Kate, Anthony, Brad, Chris, Dustin, and myself. Only Anthony attempted the third movie, though even he was unable to survive all those endings.
The next morning we left Franz Joseph behind and made our way up the coast to Arthur’s Pass, which brought us back into Christchurch once more. This was our last trip in the vans and we all were feeling a little sentimental. We stopped for lunch en route at a small coastal town and Norm, Chris, Brad, and myself grabbed some meat pies and sat on a really strange beach with all sorts of weird wooden sculptures and debris strewn about. We stopped again in Arthur’s Pass and got some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had from the same place that we’d stopped with Mike coming through with Chris, Simon, and myself a few weeks ago. Excellent choc-o-mint and caramel ice cream. And, something that has been somewhat lacking in my mind, we stopped again about 40 km past the town at a cave stream and wandered through it from one end to another. It was unguided and really quite a cool thing to do to break up the trip – I don’t imagine there’s anywhere else in the world where they’d just let you wander into a cave stream that could easily flood you out without waivers and ropes and so on. It was really only Brad, Chris, and myself that wanted to do it. I think Katie was on the fence because it was drizzling and cold, but we managed to get most of the people reluctantly on board. Well worth the stop and I hope this is the start of more off-the-beaten-path activities. We drove on and Norm passed Katie in Christchurch which meant I got to navigate us back to the YMCA, where we would spend our last two days in New Zealand before departing for Australia.
