Adelaide, South Australia and a tiny rant from a high horse...

Our camper van adventure ended in Adelaide, capital of South Australia. We eventually (after a night in a not so great hostel) checked into a great hostel run by a very friendly Swiss lady. Sian and I signed up for the city lights tour of Adelaide and also a trip to a German township, on the outskirts of the city. Hahndorf was unfortunately rather commercial, but all that was forgotten when I found a lovely cake shop.

Hahndorf.

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the cake, sorry Gaz.

Adelaide is one of those places a lot of travellers dismiss, it's certainly not as "happening" as Sydney or Melbourne, but we found plenty to do. The state museums are excellent and no I'm not just saying that because they are free. Although I do now find myself considering museums solely on the entry fee and of course "donation only" is another way of saying "free".
If memory serves me well (unlikely) the State Museum had some really interesting footage of Aborigines in the late 1940's living off the land. They were dressed in what as Europeans we'd call tribal clothing, hunting with spears. It's interesting learning a little about Aborigines. There are still huge problems here, some Aboriginal communities are not getting basic facilities. I actually learned this from Lana (I originally met her in Argentina, we caught up last week over lunch) who works as a social worker in Sydney, but also helps out with a charity that pushes for clean water in Aboriginal communities, yes CLEAN WATER apparently isn't obligatory in all of Australia.
I think there is a certain expectation of some (and I stress that, some) Australians of European descent, that Aboriginal people should integrate better. In Alice Springs the cinema had a notice asking all patrons to wear shoes and be of clean appearance. It's easy to assume "we", the modern consumers smelling of a brand deodorant and wearing the latest shoes made by a child in some far away country are right and those not meeting this criteria are wrong. But who's to say there's only one way to be?
I think asking a people who have been isolated from any other race for thousands of years to suddenly surrender to the 21st century and all it's flaws is ridiculous. Yes there are some grave problems in the Aboriginal community, child abuse being the most shocking, but the government or should I say previous government seem to have had a rather heavy handed approach to the problems. In the Northern Territory a state of emergency was declared, strict drinking laws have been enforced (physically Aboriginal people cannot tolerate drink like most races) stopping anyone from drinking before 2pm and in some bars enforcing a two drink maximum. However the community these laws are meant to help weren't even consulted.
It's very different from New Zealand, although Aborigines are also claiming back the land, it seems with less success. By this I mean there is no such thing as a 100% Maori living, the last person know to be of full Maori blood died over 20 years ago. The Maori people have mixed with those of European descent for hundreds of years. New Zealand may still have issues of racial equality (from what I saw, more in terms of how Samoans are treated), but the different cultures have mixed together. There are still differences and of course problems (again a problem of child and spousal abuse in the Maori community), but in general a common ground has been created. This isn't the case in Australia. Of course there are some people of both Aborigine and European blood, but the majority remain quite separate.
In the Northern Territory a huge area of land was given to an Aboriginal community (payment for what was wrongly taken in the first place) along with 10,000 cattle. However no one thought to educate the new farmers in farming! So a few years go by and the new land owners approach the government for some more cattle to replace the 10,000 dead cattle. It's assumed that a group of people living a nomadic existence off the land for thousands of years, will in the space of what 50, 60 years, a blip in their history, assimilate to Western ideas.
There is no easy answer to the problem and I certainly don't pretend to have a full understanding of it either.
I'll be interested to learn more as I travel further in Australia. I hope no one takes offense from what I've written, I realise each country has it's own set of problems, for me it's very interesting because outside of Australia I don't think these issues receive much (if any) media coverage. Also my first thoughts of Australian history involve those poor sods forced out of Britain and Ireland for stealing a loaf or the like. It seems there are a lot of wrongs to right.
So this post has turned into a kind of rant, apologies. Here are some photo's from the rest of our time in Adelaide.

Sian and I found a hostel offering free bike hire!


The pretty streets of North Adelaide


The beautiful beach at Glenelg.


Adelaide has so many of these pretty trees in blossom.

Coober Pedy, opal capital of the world.

After another early start, okay it wasn't that early, we arrived in Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy, is not only difficult to say without at some point calling it Peeder Coby, it's also an opal mining town where most inhabitants live underground to hide from the soaring temperatures, sometimes as high as 50 degrees in the midday sun.
We checked into Riba's underground camping ground, we were disappointed to find we couldn't park underground, some scaremongering about carbon monoxide poisoning...However we were allowed to take the bedding from the camper van and use one of the caves. Yes caves. The campsite is an old mine, that has been blasted out to create individual caves.

Entrance to the Campsite.

Our campsite.

Rather distastefully this led to hours posing in "hostage" photo's. Included in the price of one night's stay was a tour of the opal mine on site, now only open to tourists. People are still arriving in town to stake a claim and there are still plenty of opals to be discovered.

Rick talks explosives.

Some of the tour was interesting, but it also became a little too detailed and a little creepy, when Rick told Sian she looked just like a girl he use to date in High School and then asked her if she was indeed the woman he dated forty odd years ago. We managed to escape back to the cave for the night.
In the morning, we stepped out into the blinding sunlight. It's amazing how cool it stays underground, a constant 23 degrees. It was also lovely to leave the flies outside too.
After checking out of Riba's, we headed to Faye's Home. This was the first underground home opened to tourists. We learned from the current owner, Colin that Faye was a bit of a pioneer. She arrived in Coober Pedy in the early 1960's and realised immediately a hotel was required. She set about opening a business, while at the same time digging out her own home. Now you may conjure up images of some sort of hollow in the ground, but in fact Faye dug out a huge three bedroom home with the help of two female friends. They didn't use any machinery, but created a really great and rather stylish home.

One of the bedrooms.

Even the TV reception is great underground.

Sian models the pool table.

The home looks a little like a James Bond set, it has a bar, cellar and even a swimming pool, although the latter is above ground. Faye sold the house over ten years ago but with the condition it always be open to the public for tours. Faye went on to run a successful hotel on the Gold Coast. It really is a unique home she built.
Coober Pedy not only has underground homes, but also churches. We visited a small catholic church and a Serbian Orthodox.

Coober Pedy's Catholic Church.

Entrance to the Serbian Church.

Coober Pedy has also welcomed a few film-makers over the years, look familiar?

From Pitch Black.

Mad Max anyone?

The Rock

Our second re-location was from Alice Springs to Adelaide in a Britz camper van. We were given enough miles to be able to visit Ayers Rock and Kings Canyon on the way south. We left Alice Springs with a camper full of food and supplies. Our first stop would be Ayers Rock National Park. There is a full resort 30 or so K's from the Rock. We arrived at the resort and booked a spot in the campsite.

Our second, slightly more upmarket camper.

Yes me and the Rock, and yes I always drive like this.

We decided to watch the sunset at the Rock, but arrived in time to have dinner first. We enjoyed a meal, so much that we almost missed the sunset, we were busy doing the washing up.
It wasn't quite as we imagined as the sunsets behind the viewing bay, so you don't get a shot with the sun going down, but rather with the colour of the rock changing in the setting sun. I felt rather bored and found myself looking around, at first I thought this is just the result of seeing too much in the last eleven months or so, I've become jaded. Then I noticed Sian, in an attempt to entertain herself was trying to create the illusion of holding the rock in her hand. It seems that not only I, was bored.

"She's got the whole wide Rock, in her hands..."


The Rock

Once back at the campsite we were treated to another beautiful starry night. We set our alarms for the ridiculous time of 5am, so we could pack up, watch the sunrise at the Rock and then be on our way to Kings Canyon. However as is often the case with early starts we slept in. I mean it wasn't like we'd travelled thousands of kilometres to see the sunrise at Ayers Rock or anything....
After finally waking we decided to spend an extra night at the resort and try again in the morning for the sunrise. It actually worked out well, we had time to hike around the base of the Rock and make a stop at Kata Tjuta.

Me at Ayers Rock.


From the information booklet provided we thought the base walk would be 4k, instead it turned out to be much further and I'm still not sure how this happened. Up close the Rock looks completely different, there is visible scarring and colour changes and at one point the outline of William Shakespeare.

The Bard.

Prepared for the sun.

It was a gloriously hot day, something that we hadn't expected. A few days before there had been rain, a very rare occurrence. Although since arriving in Australia it has rained almost everyday, I'm tired of locals telling me how unusual this is. So much for a drought.
I think the base walk took us about 2 and a half hours, there's very little shelter on route, so we arrived back at the camper exhausted. The great thing about travelling in a camper is being able to eat where ever you want. Once again we had a great view of the red rock while we ate and drank.
We decided to head to Kata Tjuta, more rock formations with special significance to the Aboriginal community. We took the short hike to a beautiful oasis.


Classic Australian Signage.

We decided to stay to watch the sunset, and of course eat another meal. The next day when our alarm went off at 5am we did manage to get up and packed. We were disappointed to find the sunrise viewing point doesn't give the opportunity for a photo with the Rock and the sunrise, but rather the changing colour of the Rock. I'd recommend to anyone visiting in the future, watch the sunrise at the sunset car park, and the sunset at the sunrise car park.
So there was only one thing to do, eat a cooked breakfast.

No we didn't have salad, but I couldn't find the right photo.

It was a whole lot cooler as we drove to Kings Canyon. We intended to do the short hike and then get back to the Stuart Highway that dissects the centre of Australia. We hoped to make it to the Northern Territories/South Australia border before night.

Dead Leaves, Kings Canyon.


We arrived at a campsite with plenty of time to spare, so enjoyed another meal and setting sun.

Harvest Trail

Tomorrow I start work at a farm picking cherries. It's about an hour outside of Melbourne and I'll be living on the farm. I plan to work for 3 and a bit weeks (if everything goes well) and make my way to Sydney for Christmas and the New Year. My work day will be 7.30- 5pm 6 days a week, yikes!
I had hoped to have my blog up to date before leaving, but after several hours online, uploading photographs and replying to emails I still have more to post. I've spent most of today gathering things for the farm, I'm now the proud owner of a cowboy hat and the world's largest bottle of insect repellent.
I'm not sure if I'll be able to get online over the next few weeks, so if an email goes unanswered do not worry!

This is me at the Rush Cafe, were I worked for a whole four days, with Beau, Uta and Mac.

Kangaroo Rescue Centre

Joey's Ready for a Ride Home

Alice Springs is home to the Kangaroo Rescue Centre. Driving through the outback I was amazed to see so many dead Kangaroos at the side of the road. Rental companies urge tourists to avoid driving at night and early mornings as this is when the majority of Kangaroos are hit. Cars are often written off, due to the size of the Kangaroos, males grow to over 2 metres high. Unfortunately female Kanagaroos are often hit while they are carrying a joey in their pouch. The Kangaroo Rescue Centre in Alice Springs was set up to take in joeys that survived car crashes their mothers didn't. It is also the goal of the centre to educate people. If you see a Kangaroo at the side of the road, they want you to check the pouch (if there is one) for a joey. They urge drivers to carry an empty pillow case, this can act as a surrogate pouch. Most towns in the outback have someone who will be willing to nurse the joey back to health. Nursing a Joey We arrived at the centre in time for the Joey's feeding. I noticed the owner nursing a Joey and thought it a bit gross he had most of his own lunch around his mouth, but then felt awlful when I realised he let the Joey's take milk from his mouth. In all my travelling, I've never felt so sick!
Sian and I both agreed they do excellent work at the centre, but neither of us could imagine taking a look inside a dead Kangaroo's pouch.

Sian eating Kangaroo Curry with no remorse, later that day.
I've uploaded a video to this post, but I don't think the link is working. It has uploaded to my vimeo account (right hand side) and shows a Joey preparing for bed.

On a Wing and a Prayer

When we picked up our Wicked Camper (that's the company name, I haven't gone over all "street") we were given a road map that showed us places to camp and fuel stops. As Wicked is a low budget camper alternative we were also asked to check the oil and water each day. This required Sian and I to remember to take a look at the engine first thing each morning, before it got too hot. Six out of six mornings we failed to do this. I mean it really was expecting too much of us. We also liked to test how far a tank of petrol will really go and discovered we could do 40+k's on empty, admittedly the middle of the Australian outback isn't really the best place to test this theory.
We had to return our Wicked camper to an address just outside Alice Springs by 10am on Saturday, I forget the date with an empty tank, just like when we'd collected it. About 45k's from Alice Springs the fuel warning light came on, we made the decision to ignore it. It was around this time the camper asked me to make three wishes, I knew this because the genie lamp light had also appeared on the dashboard.
We drove (rather slowly) into Alice and decided to check out 4 hostels before booking into Annie's Place and leaving our packs there.
We rolled up in front of the drop off point at 2 minutes to 10, with a drop of petrol and a bright little genie lamp. We felt very smug, if a little relieved too.

The Next Installment

The Road Ahead
Apologies for the time between posts, but working this week has given me little free time, but don't worry I've quit!
However I do have work lined up picking cherries at a farm in the Yarra Valley (not far from Melbourne) starting on Wednesday. Tomorrow I have to register with the Harvest Trail and stock up on supplies before I head out to the farm on Tuesday. But first to re-cap on the last 4 weeks in Australia.
On our second day we travelled through Adelaide and found a free campsite (well actually a lay by at the side of the road) near Lake Albert, north of Adelaide. It was quite cold so we were looking forward to the following days drive into the Outback, just north of Port Augusta.

Sian Busy Cooking

We found the driving easy, we both took it in turns so the distances never felt too great. We also bought an i-trip devise, so we could listen to the music on our ipods via the camper's stereo.

Our Camper at Sunset

As soon as we stepped out of the camper van in Port Augusta we were hit by a wave of heat. We bought food and water for the next few days of driving and filled up the tank, before heading out into the Outback towards the Opal Mining town of Coober Pedy. But first someone had to turn 31. Unfortunately another year has passed, and I can't quite believe I'm 31. However the past year has been amazing and spent like no other.
I decided where better to spend my 31st Birthday but in the outback town of Pimba, population 35. We found another great free site, this time in front of a service station, motel and bar. It was hot enough when we arrived (late afternoon) to use the outdoor showers, a novel way to get a tan. The water is dispensed from a hose pipe poking out of a breeze block wall. Thankfully the sun had taken the edge of the water, it wasn't quite freezing cold.

Glorious Pimba!

After a very refreshing shower, Sian cooked a great meal and we celebrated my birthday. I was also presented with a carrot cake and candles, a brilliant birthday.

My Birthday Dinner

Yes I'm Alive!

After a few frantic emails from friends checking everything is OK, I finally have the time and access to the internet to post. I realise it's been quite a while, but I have been doing a lot of travelling (mostly in the Outback) since arriving in Australia on 24th October.
I arrived in Melbourne, to join my friend Sian in St Kilda, a beach suburb of the city. We had decided to hire a camper van and drive along the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide and then travel north to Alice Springs, stopping at Ayers Rock on the way. However after some research we discovered how expensive this trip was going to be, thankfully before we booked an organised tour we found two camper vans that needed to be re-located. This is a cheap and popular way to see Australia. Because of the vast distances within Australia, often people want to drive in one direction. Rental companies then require people to "re-locate" the camper van. There is a minimal charge ($1 a day with Wicked and $5 a day for the slightly more plush Britz camper van), you must pay for fuel, but often receive a small refund and the time between locations is limited. Sian and I were given a Wicked van (pretty basic people carrier converted into a camper) to drive from Melbourne to Alice Springs in 6 days. This is a distance of 2500k's (1550 miles) roughly. Yes we were quite ambitious. But we had a second camper van to collect in Alice Springs and return to Adelaide, with a mile allowance that would cover the detour out to Ayers Rock and Kings Canyon. We bought an extra two days (normal costs) for this part of the trip, giving us 6 days for the return, 2000k's (1240 miles).

Our "Wicked" Van
We gave ourselves enough time to take in the Great Ocean Road and camped near the Twelve Apostles (giant rocks off South Australia's coast). It was around 6 when we pulled into the campsite and Sian optimistically asked the manager, "what time is sunrise"? The following morning, having slept in we sheepishly left the campsite at around 10am.

Some of the 12
We were surprised when the Great Ocean Road left the ocean and went in land, it seemed to defy the trade descriptions act. However I did spot a Kangaroo and actually the only one I have seen thus far in the wild.
Technical Hitch - I'm typing this in Melbourne's State Library and there seems to be some problems with Blogger. Tomorrow is my first day of working in a coffee shop, making sandwiches (after 12 months without work, it's going to be tough!), so rather than leave this post on my laptop I thought I would post anyway and then carry on with a new post when I'm back online, sometime soon hopefully.

Familiar Faces

Over the past week I've made my way back from the South Island, to Auckland, ready for my flight to Melbourne later today.
In Wellington I had a chance to catch up with a friend, Jillian, who is about to leave New Zealand after a year and a half here. Jillian kindly treated me to dinner. Note to anyone else meeting me on this trip, this is greatly appreciated.
We had a lovely evening eating great sushi, discussing visa's we'd like to apply for and generally putting the world to right!

My cousin Ian moved to Auckland a year ago, although as is often the case with families that live close to each other we hadn't seen each other in years. I had Ian's mobile number and gave him a call to arrange a meet up. We agreed to meet in a pub on Queen's Street (the main drag), later that night.
I entered the pub a little nervous, thinking would I recognise Ian. Thankfully we had no problem recognising each other.

Thankfully Ian no longer winks for photographs. I still like to eat.

Some years later, Ian and I at Mount Eden

We went to a great Japanese restaurant, The Cave, that was lively and fun. After that Ian took me to a couple of bars around the city centre. It was great to have the chance to get to know one another, but also have some common ground to start from.

We shared the beer.

Ian suggested a trip to Mission Bay for fish and chips and that's exactly what we did last night. I also got to meet friends of Ian's and we finished the night at a great ice cream parlour, where I ate far too much.
It made for a lovely end to my time in New Zealand. Being able to catch up with Jillian and Ian, made for a lovely change of pace. The only problem with travelling, although you meet lot's of people, conversations always tend to begin with "So where are you from?"

Kaikoura

Dorm with a View, YHA Kaikoura


Sea Lion on the rocks.

Milford Fjord

Milford Sound

On arrival in Te Anau I had intended to spend a few days exploring the town and local area, but more abysmal weather changed my plans. So after just one night in Te Anau I left for Milford Sound. Part of the Kiwi Experience pass includes a two hour boat tour of the Sound, well actually as we were all informed it's a Fjord, as it was formed by glacial activity. The tour also included a buffet lunch. I was incredibly excited by the lunch, I mean the fjord.
Kiwi Experience seems to have a monopoly on annoying drivers, it's imperative they all have a nickname, I mean how will the passengers relate to someone called, heaven forbid, James?
Our driver introduced himself, at first I thought he said his name was Jess, I thought how restrained? That was until I heard someone call him "Cheese". Yes Cheese. From that point on I decided I wouldn't need to ask the driver any questions.
The drive out to Milford Sound is incredibly long and surprisingly perilous. The road cuts through high mountains, where avalanches are common. Only a week before the road had been closed for two days after an avalanche. The snow banks on either side of the road were several feet high. We spotted several small avalanches as we drove along.

The snow banks on the road to Milford Sound

We stopped at the last photo opportunity, further on it's too dangerous to stop in because of avalanches. As we stepped from the coach, snow began to fall. Before I arrived in New Zealand I knew I would be out of season, but I had no idea how far. From talking to locals, I now understand warmer days don't arrive until mid January.
We were fortunate as we pulled into the small ferry terminal, the sun shone through the clouds and for the whole two hours on the water it remained rain free. There is an advantage to being out of season, all the recent rainfall had created some great waterfalls, that in turn created rainbows as they hit the water.
Being typical backpackers we all dug into the buffet before taking a look at the scenery. Once the food had settled I wandered onto the deck to take in the views. The scale of the place is hard to take in. Cliffs looms up high out of the water. The ship's captain took us close to one waterfall and explained it was three times as high as Niagara. He also took us close to some seals, although I think this is a shame, surely they'd prefer to be left alone.

A Rainbow


The two hours passed quickly and we were soon back on the coach making the four hour return trip to Queenstown.