GIRL TAKES ON WORLD!!!!!

Back in the UK

2008-07-06T10:53:00.005-10:00

Some of you may know I returned (as scheduled) to the UK on 11th June. I've been off the radar since then, trying to readjust (not easy) and find a job. Sorry for those of you who may have been waiting for a post. I have quite a lot I still need to cover on the blog and look forward to doing so in the coming weeks.
The last few weeks of my trip in Vietnam, Cambodia and back into Thailand were really great. I met some good people and had a lot of fun and felt it was far more important to get the most out of the time, than sit at a computer, so here I am.
If any of you know of any vacancies in the "little work, for good pay and major holidays sector" please let me know.
Here I am with my nephew and niece, who seem quite pleased to have me home.

Hanoi

2008-06-02T00:19:00.009-10:00

Jenny and I flew from Vientiene (Laos' capital), Aretha was catching a bus to Bangkok so we parted ways. We arrived quite late in the evening and knew which hotel we wanted to stay at, City Gate. We'd read of a scam in our guidebooks, that sure enough happened. Our driver drove us to a different hotel and had one of his hotel owning friends run out and say "That hotel is full", while pointing at a hotel clearly called Joy Hotel, "but I have a hotel that is even better".
We told him we had a reservation for City Gate, and Jenny pointed out we could read the sign for the Joy Hotel. Without any argument the driver took us to the real City Gate Hotel.
Stepping onto the balcony (yes you get a lot for your $) the following morning to survey the view, I expected to see Pierce Brosnan riding a motorbike handcuffed to a sexy accomplice, chased by bad guys. It looked just like a film set. Tiny, narrow streets, chaotic buildings, strong smells of food and authentic extras everywhere!

Jenny and I took a wander around the Old Quarter. One of Hanoi's most famous attraction's is the Ho Chi Minh Complex, this holds his body (his dying wishes were to be cremated), a museum, his preserved house on stilts and the Presidential Palace. Every year Ho Chi Minh's body is sent to Russia (or is that the Waxwork Museum in Great Yarmouth?) for "work" to be done.

Jenny at the Palace.

The complex has so much protocol, along with the strangest opening hours, it closes at 11am for an extended lunch. Because of the sheer size of the complex it's difficult to see everything in the time allocated.
We filed around the "body" shielded by a glass case, everyone thinking "it's a great likeness, can't possibly be the work of Great Yarmouth. Maybe London?"
There is one of the strangest museums I've ever visited within the complex, of course the Ho Chi Minh Museum. I was hoping to be informed, feeling rather ignorant about the man himself, but instead found baffling exhibits such as an artist's representation of Ho Chi Minh's brain, a giant bowl of fruit on a table levered onto two legs and many photographs of middle aged Vietnamese citizens holding get togethers overseas.

A representation of Ho Chi Minh's brain, of course...

Huh

Vietnam is famed for it's water puppetry shows, by who I'm not sure. We went to see an evening show. On the stage in front of us was a small pool of water, framed by a wooden set and to the left a small orchestra. The show began with some traditional music, including a zither and then one very small, old looking puppet, with paint flecks hanging precariously on, appeared in the water.
Jenny and I shot each other nervous glances, "we paid how much for this?"
In fact it was pretty good, it was all in Vietnamese so I have no idea what was going on, but it involved dragons, fire, fishermen, turtles and swords. At just over 40 minutes it was the perfect length.

Vang Vieng and a tale of tubing

2008-05-30T01:52:00.007-10:00

Laos really has some of the best place names. Vang Vieng is a tiny travellers hangout. There is no significant cultural reason to visit the town. It has grown as an important stop on any backpackers tour of South East Asia because of one thing, tubing. I'm not sure how this started out, but Vang Vieng is beside a river and someone decided what better way to spend a day than floating on a giant inner tube, stopping at makeshift bars along the way, eventually arriving back in the small, welcoming town of Vang Vieng.
I met a girl from Warrington Jenny (again not far from my hometown), on the bus from Luang Prabang, so myself Jenny and Aretha all checked into a hotel together. I was glad to have such great company, I don't think Vang Vieng would be any fun on your own. Sarah and Jodi (who I originally met on the cookery course in Chiang Mai) where already in town, so we arranged to go tubing together. We also managed to meet up with three Irish girls Aretha had been travelling with.
First though we had a day relaxing. Vang Vieng is famed for its restaurants and bars that show episodes of Friends, continually. You can walk down the small main street and hear any character from any number of episodes sprouting dialogue. Yes it gets annoying after a while. Thankfully we found a restaurant showing Family Guy (Kev - I take back what I said, I see why you like it so much) and settled in for the night.
The Lonely Planet's advice for tubing is simple, don't get off your head and you'll be okay. I like that simple, concise advice.

The view from the back of our hotel.

We were all concerned when we were assigned numbers, which where then drawn onto our hands. Was this to identify us when our bodies were dragged from the river?

Numbered and ready to go, if a little nervous...

We set off in a tuk-tuk, Sarah and I volunteered to hang onto the back, as it looked like fun.

Holding on to the tuk-tuk with my giant arm!

Standing (l-r) Jodi and Sarah, sitting (l-r) Jenny and Aretha - all ready to go.

The river looked quite fast moving, but once your on the tube you realise it isn't and by the end of the day it couldn't have felt slower. The river isn't very deep, as the wet season hasn't kicked off yet.
As well as bars along the river, there are also huge rope swings and platforms to jump off.
We had a really good day, but found the last bar is just too bar from town, we floated (very slowly) for about minutes before we reached the end. There must be about bars, but as no maps are provided it's hard to know when to stop. Towards the end, without any bars or music is possible to appreciate some of the amazing scenery, it reminded me of Peru, mountainous and green.
Vang Vieng also has a lot of bucket bars, they inventively sell buckets of alcohol. I had a great time in Vang Vieng and it was largely due to the people I spent my time with.

Back on dry ground

Luang Prabang, Laos

2008-05-30T00:50:00.007-10:00

Laos is the most heavily bombed country in history and yet arriving in the UNESCO protected city of Luang Prabang it was hard to believe. It's a tiny place, with a handicraft market taking up most of the centre each night, yet without the frenzy of a Thai market. There are plenty of tourists, yet it feels so laid back. In S.E. Asia Laos has a reputation as being quite a lazy nation, if something isn't fun they don't see why you should do it.
Luang Prabang is bordered by the Nam Song and the Mekong rivers, it's streets are lined with colonial buildings, vintage cars and Buddhist monks.
While in Luang Prabang I bumped into Aretha (who I originally met in Thailand) we would end up travelling through Laos together, with others we met on the way. It was a lot of fun.
My time in Luang Prabang was chilled out, wandering through the market and visiting temples with great views of the city.

Views from the top of Luang Prabang out towards the Nam Song river.

Dinner on the Mekong at Sunset

Luang Prabang street scene

Elephant Foundation

2008-05-29T04:16:00.008-10:00

I made a visit to the Elephant Foundation, outside Chiang Mai, after Jesse told me it was a really great place. I had thought it was a little expensive, compared with other day activities, but I was soon to learn it would be the best 2,500 Baht I would spend in Thailand.
Lek (Thai for tiny) is a diminutive woman as the name suggests. She grew up in a hill tribe and when she was 5, her grandfather was paid for some work in Elephant. Yes that was one live, fully grown Elephant. He gave his granddaughter the Elephant as a gift, as all good grandfathers do. Lek looked after the Elephant and learned how to take care of it. She developed a keen interest in Elephants. They are an important part of Thai culture and their image is revered countrywide. However for a long time Elephants were used by logging companies to haul heavy loads up rugged terrain. This practise was eventually banned in Thailand, but it is still legal in Myanmar. Disturbed by the mistreatment of Elephants, Lek saved enough money to buy her first abused Elephant. You see even malnourished, traumatised Elephants are worth something to their owners. Lek paid (if memory serves) $1,500 and from there became a committed protector of Elephants. Lek has since managed to buy tens of Elephants and currently has 31 at her Elephant Foundation.

Mud Bath

Lek's Elephant Foundation sits in a lush river valley, surrounded by mountains and forests. She is able to fund the operation by donations from the public, daytrippers like myself and a series of volunteers. A wealthy Texan bought the land for her a few years ago. Lek addressed the group I was with (about 40 tourists) and told us how many people in the past have promised money and then not been able to provide. So when this particular guy said he'd come up with the money, she didn't get too excited.

Bath time for the Elephants

Part of the day, involved helping to feed the Elephants and helping bathe them in the river. We were introduced to the Elephants at feeding time, the first shock was seeing an Elephant who'd been blinded while logging in Myanmar. Apparently she had been pregnant and forced to carry on hauling heavy loads up a mountainside. This eventually led to her loosing her baby, she gave birth at the top of the hill, and the baby fell to the bottom. From that day she refused to work. So her owners stabbed her in the eyes. This is a tactic often used to make Elephants work. It seems crazy and completely counter-productive, but I would continue to hear of this kind of brutality all day.
Another Elephant walked with a terrible limp, the result of standing on a land mine in Myanmar. However they had been forced to carry on working gruelling days, until Lek was able to buy the Elephant. Other Elephants had been rescued from carrying tourists. Elephant trekking is very popular in Thailand, unfortunately few places feed the Elephants enough, or give them enough rest.
Unfortunately no Elephants had been rescued from the streets of Chiang Mai or Bangkok. This is a profitable business, with one Elephant in Bangkok owned by a politician. This makes it even more difficult to get the government to change the laws. At the moment Elephants have no protection as they are classed as livestock. While out for a drink with Jodi and Sarah in a bar in Chiang Mai, an Elephant suddenly appeared from nowhere and charged up to the bar. The owner then fed it. It amazed me that tourists collected around the Elephant (obviously in distress) and took photo's and then paid the handler. If tourists stop supporting this practice then no Elephants would walk the streets. As Elephants have extremely sensitive soles, the vibrations of traffic sends them into a sensory overload.
But all this mistreatment palled, when we viewed footage showing how Elephants are "domesticated" in Thailand. It's an age old practice and any working Elephant will have been put through it.
Babies are taken from their mothers (this will be the first time they have been more than a trunk's distance from them) and forced into what are known as "crushing cages". Just as the name suggests, the Elephants are crushed, with no room to move. Once in place they are stabbed with sticks decorated with nails, and beaten. They are expected to learn to lift their legs and bring their feet down in tiny hoops. This is all while they are confined, can't see their own feet, are terrified and in pain. Female Elephants are kept in this state (the abuse goes on for hours, as every male in the village joins in) for 3 days, until they are broken. Unfortunately it takes 7 days to "break" a male. Sadly the abuse doesn't stop once they are freed from the crusher, they are continually beaten to keep them "in line".
Traditional Thai's believe this is the only way to domesticate a wild Elephant. However Lek has two Elephants at her Foundation who haven't been through this barbaric ritual (they were orphaned), yet they are not a danger. With love and attention Lek has trained them, so they are not a threat, as much as an Elephant can be to a human.

Lek with Hope, who she "domesticated" without any force.

Lek purchased a wild piece of land, know as Elephant heaven, unlike I first imagined this isn't some kind of mass grave, but rather a place the Elephants go for a night out. It's so they can learn about nature, as after all they are no longer wild.
Unfortunately sometimes the mistreatment has become so ingrained, much work must be done to rehabilitate the Elephants. One Elephant was so used to the chain around her leg, when it was removed she wouldn't eat.
Lek has high hopes for the future, she has built relationships with trekking companies, so along with a vet she can check the progress of the working Elephants. It was great to hear her talk and see how one person's actions can make a difference.

Good Luck Dave

2008-05-23T04:36:00.002-10:00

I want to say a quick good luck to my brother-in-law Dave, who is competing in his first Iron Man competition tomorrow. This is how he'll be spending his Saturday,

3.8km swim starting at 7:00am in the morning

180km bike ride around the Island

42.195km run

Yes that's a marathon to finish the day. Dave will be doing all this in the heat of Lanzarote. Once again good luck Dave!

Muay Thai (Thai Boxing)

2008-05-23T04:14:00.005-10:00

Jesse and I went to the local stadium in Chiang Mai to see a series of Muay Thai fights, which after a 50 minute walk didn't feel so local anymore. We thankfully arrived late, I'm not sure what the warm up entertainment consists of, but am quite happy to never find out. The second of eight fights was underway, by the end of the night it did feel a little like an endurance test for the crowd too.

Give it to him ref!

As our minds wandered and the beer kicked in it became difficult to really say who was winning. When there was a bit of excitement (a fighter was stretchered off) we both could have done with an instant replay to see what had happened, for that matter the fighter could have too. A guy came over the PA to tell all the nice tourists that the guy would be fine, while we could still see him out cold in the corner of the room.
It was also disconcerting that everytime new fighters entered the ring the Benny Hill music was played, I have no idea why. Another unique experience.

Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Rajvoravihara

2008-05-23T03:42:00.009-10:00

I visited this fabled hillside temple with Sarah and Jodi, two girls from Leeds I'd met on the cookery course. They had kindly kept me company as I watched Liverpool go out of the Champions League the night before. Until they arrived I was watching alongside prostitutes and middle aged Western men who should know better, in a bar in Chiang Mai. Sarah and Jodi's arrival was very welcome.
It is easy to become "templed out" in South East Asia. It's not surprising really, I can't imagine spending months wandering around churches in England. Yet Doi Suthep (between friends) was awe inspiring. Sarah (with expert bartering skills) had arranged a sawngthaew (basically a red taxi) to take us on the forty minute journey up the mountain. It's a regular deal that the driver waits for tourists for the return journey.
Although there were many tourists walking around the temple complex (some building date from the 16th Century), it remained peaceful. The sunshine was reflected off the glorious golden surfaces, the air was filled with incense and monks wandered amongst tourists. The site also offers amazing views of Chiang Mai.

Well you've got to have some fun.

Pad Thai Cookery School

2008-05-23T02:41:00.008-10:00

I took the sleeper train from Bangkok north to Chiang Mai. I've met many travellers who are smitten with the Northern city and amongst Thai's it holds an almost mythic status. There is a strong contrast between the islands of the South and the North. Although I really enjoyed the South, it does feel more like a beach holiday, than an adventure and I think the area has become far too developed.

This is my bed on the sleeper, without a window I had the strange sensation I was going into space.

I got chatting to an American guy Jesse, at the train station, we were both going to the same guesthouse. I spent my first day wandering around the streets of Chiang Mai, it's a fairly condensed city centre, with the usual number of temples to visit, it's also quite famous for it's night bazaar. You can buy any colour of La Coste polo shirt you want.
I decided to spend my second day in Chiang Mai at the Pad Thai cookery school. I choose this particular school after a rigorous investigation and because Pad Thai is my favourite dish.
Each student is given a menu with a choice of about 20 dishes, from this you choose the six dishes you want to make and at the end of the day you are presented a certificate and a cookery book, so you can actually make all the dishes at home.
Another guest at my guesthouse, Neil (CAN) was signed up to the class and we were collected by a typical open taxi. Along with the other students we were driven to the local produce market, we handed over our choice of dishes and someone bought the ingredients for us. While this was happening our teacher explained all the local produce. All the teachers spoke really good English and had a great sense of humour. On some trips the jokes are a little stale, but here I felt we really got to see some Thai humour, dry and sarcastic.

Class begins at the market.

The Pad Thai Cookery School has a great set up, we were put in groups, depending on which dish we wanted to make. Gathered around a table, we each had a tray of ingredients for the dish and our teacher would make the dish step by step. We would then go over to a cooking station and first watch our teacher and then cook for ourselves.

Making Pad Thai, it took all my will power not to eat the ingredients raw.

The teachers made everything seem so easy and I'm pleased to say I managed to follow the instructions. This is something I normally find hard to do, my mind starts to wander, I stop listening and next minute I have no idea what I'm meant to be doing. Thankfully I'm pleased to report this only happened once or twice during the day.
I made Pad Thai (of course), a mushroom stir fry, a green Thai curry, spring rolls, sticky rice and mango pudding and a fruit salad. As we ate what we made, by the end of the day I needed a wheel barrow just to get out of the class.

Enjoying the results.

Cooking up a storm.

The last dish for me caused the most confusion. We gathered around a small table, ready to make a Thai fruit salad, as usual all our ingredients were in a small tray next to each workstation. There was plenty of fruit, pineapple, mango, papaya (I tried to drop this on the floor - I absolutely hate the stuff), carrot, green beans - wait a minute! Had the kitchen staff become confused? Not according to our teacher. Worse was to come, we added garlic and chillies. Yes to fruit salad. The amazing part? I couldn't taste the papaya.

Bangkok

2008-05-22T01:13:00.010-10:00

I was slightly apprehensive heading to Bangkok, my aim was to get to know the city so I would find it familiar on my return, as Bangkok will be my last stop; my flight to the UK leaves the capital 11th June.
On my arrival (on another night bus), I found everyone I met to be a travel agent. It's not uncommon for security guards, tuk-tuk drivers and just about any member of the public to be working for a guesthouse. It starts with "Where are you from?" "Oh, Micheal Owen!" Or some such footballer is mentioned and then casually it moves on, "Do you have somewhere to stay?" After naming a guesthouse, they wrinkle their noses and frown, sometimes this is followed by mimicing the act of shooting up. "No, no you should stay at such and such, my sister was there just the other week, it's a great place, let me show you".
This is all fine and well, but what really annoys me and has happened a few times, is when the walking saint/tout takes my guide book off me and starts DRAWING on the map! I've started pretending to be Hindu and finding this an outrage, but with little effect.

Tuk-tuk driver

Anyway after batting off guesthouse agents from all angles I checked into a guesthouse in the Siam Square area of the city.
Bangkok has so many sides, ancient and modern stand side by side, everything seems chaotic and then you turn a corner and find peace and quiet, rich and poor, huge corporations and street vendors, everything sizzles with energy.
For the three days I spent in Bangkok I managed a trip to the Grand Palace, Reclining Buddha, a river boat ride, skytrain to the weekend markets and the huge shopping centre MBK and a look around Jim Thompson's home. Not bad really.

Jim Thompson's home

Skytrain Platform

View from the back of a tuk-tuk

Me at the Grand Palace

Reclining Buddha

Ko Pha-Ngan, Phuket and Ko Phi Phi

2008-05-07T21:39:00.008-10:00

I travelled up from Malaysia into Thailand, to Ko Pha-Ngan in time for Full Moon Party. It's a really beautiful island, but very much geared towards tourists. I met up with Sian and another English girl she'd met, Aretha. I had a day or two relaxing at what was a really nice resort.

You get a lot for your Baht!

In the tuk-tuk on the way to the Full Moon Party

I then travelled from Ko Pha-Ngan back to the mainland and across the country to Phuket. I met Naheed, another English girl on the journey and we ended up spending the next few days together.

Naheed and I in a tuk-tuk on the way to the Butterfly Sanctuary

Maya Bay, this is where they filmed "The Beach", it was very crowded and not the most beautiful place I've visited, but I did enjoy the snokelling.

Am I going to Georgetown?

2008-04-25T02:27:00.008-10:00

I took a night bus from Singapore up the Malaysian peninsular to Penang. There was some confusion about where my final destination would be on the Penang island. Every time I asked, hopefully, "Georgetown?" I would be met with the same reply, "Yes, close to". I even resorted to the pointing at a map tactic, but to no avail.
So I boarded the bus and hoped for the best. The air conditioning on the bus was turned up, past the ridiculously cold point, everyone on board looked freezing. For some reason the driver couldn't do anything about it, something trivial about making the windows impossible to see through.
We surged on through the night, I was regretting wearing shorts, but had my silk liner in my pack, so I crawled into that. However it is the flimsiest piece of material, I pulled my hood over my head and then snuggled into the liner and wrapped the top piece under my hood. My view was, I imagine the same as Micheal Jackson's children.
We made a couple of stops on route and then at 6am, we let some passengers off. I decided now was the time to ask the driver again, where would I be dropped in Penang. This time his reply was different, "Quick you get off bus". I looked at him incredulously, no one had mentioned the need to change buses. I was escorted with my bags to a bus waiting behind us.
For some reason I ended up sitting next to the driver, in his cab, on what can only be described as a piece of garden furniture. The driver was very chatty, although it took me several minutes to realise he was speaking English. I asked him "Am I going to Georgetown?" The reply "No", why would this bus be going to Georgetown, it is after all only the main city on Penang?
However the driver told me he'd drop me at the bus station just out of town (as it turned out along with the rest of the passengers) and tell me where to get a local bus into the centre. He told me taxi drivers would rip me off, he then used the international sign of a throat being slit. Reassuring.
The local bus driver thankfully let me on without paying as I had no small change. The sight of a chain smoking bus driver is still a shock.
I found a hotel in Chinatown and waited to check in. I then remembered something Sian had told me a few weeks earlier, about seeing loads of rats in some place in Malaysia and then finding one on her bed in the middle of the night. I suddenly realised where I was! I took a look at the guest book and sure enough saw Sian's name. Let's just say I didn't sleep much in Georgetown.

Rat Watch Room

Sights Around Georgetown

Singapore

2008-04-15T15:45:00.003-10:00

I arrived in Singapore on Monday evening and I'm moving onto Malaysia tonight. No it's not really that bad, I just have less time left to see a lot and need to be in Ko Pha-Ngan by Sunday to meet up with friends.
Singapore is a real melting pot, for me it's the first country I've visited where I've had no idea how to identify a local. There is such a mix of ethnicity's, but somehow it works. Singapore is obviously very affluent compared to much of S.E.Asia and for me a good introduction.
I'm staying in Little India, which surprisingly is full of Indians! I've found a great restaurant, thanks to a little publication called Lonely Planet and by Singapore's standards its cheap.
Singapore is famous for it's giant, exclusive shopping malls. Yesterday I took a wander around the Orchard Road area, where most of the shops are and was surprised to find a Marks and Spencers, see Mum you could live here. I also walked to the Botanic Gardens, it isn't very far, but with the humidity was too far.

Inspiration will you wait

The transport system is really good, air-conditioned buses, air-conditioned underground system and inspiring quotes on display, what more could a public want. Oh yes that's right a mobile phone signal underground.
My bus leaves Singapore at 9pm tonight and I will arrive in Penang at 8am tomorrow morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed!

Rottnest Island

2008-04-14T04:09:00.010-10:00

I spent my final day in Australia (typing this in Singapore) on Rottnest Island. It was amazing. The island is only 30 minutes by ferry from Fremantle, you can still see Perth's great skyline from the East side of the island, but it feels a million miles a way from everything.
There are no cars on Rottnest, so I took my friend's advice (thanks Rosie) and hired a bike. I spent the day riding around the island, stopping at different beaches for a swim. Here are a selection of photo's.

Catching up time in Perth

2008-04-14T03:16:00.008-10:00

I arrived in Perth with a long to do list, all very dull stuff- claim tax back, get all payslips together, contact old employers, go to the dentist (oh the joys) close Australian bank account, get malaria tablets and spend some time online uploading photo's etc. Now I know most of you hold down jobs, it's not really that much to do, but amongst the usual chaos of finding accommodation, somewhere to get online, another etc, well it all took far too long. However I did manage to do some sightseeing around Perth. But more importantly I was able to meet up with some old friends. By a twist of fate, Angie an old friend from Junior school, but we'd lost touch in recent years, moved to Perth 6 weeks ago. Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, we arranged a reunion. Oddly enough another school friend, Gav, moved to Perth last November, so we were able to have a "Woodfall Juniors Reunion" in Fremantle.
As Angie hasn't started work yet (slacker) we were able to meet for lunch in the week. I got to meet Angie's son Archie (extremely cute) when the three of us had lunch at Cottesloe Beach. The beaches on the West Coast are amazing, yet so empty. I think that's the main thing I noticed in the little time I had on the West, you really do feel like you have the place to yourself.

Archie - the cutie!

Angie and Archie on Cottesloe Beach

It was great to catch up with Angie and hear about her life with Trev and Archie, I just wish we hadn't lost touch in the first place.
On Saturday night it was time for a reunion. The three of us met in Fremantle (where I was staying at this point), it's a city (in the way Australians call towns cities) about 15k from Perth with trendy shops and markets, yet it doesn't feel pretentious. Again, considering how nice it is, there really aren't many people around.
It was great to catch up with Angie and Gav and be able to talk about so long ago, yes we are THAT old!

Gav, me and Angie - Woodfall Reunion

Angie and Gav

Me and Angie a few years ago...actually at Gayle and Dave's engagement party. Check out my Ronaldo style neck!

Fraser Island - I can't always be creative with the titles

2008-04-11T04:50:00.019-10:00

Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island, amazingly it is home to a rainforest (the only place on Earth were this ecosystem exists) and a number of beautiful freshwater lakes.
I left Tropic Days and Cairns abruptly, far more abruptly than planned. After my last shift I headed out for the night with friends I'd made at the hostel, Paul also joined us - thankfully no longer looking like Alf. I spent the following day organising myself. On Wednesday I would catch an early flight to Brisbane, then catch the skytrain from the airport to the city and then catch a bus that would take five hours to reach Hervey Bay. The latter is the starting point for most trips to Fraser Island. I was signed up for a three day, two night self drive 4wd tour. I would be put into a group of ten and we would be given a suggested itinerary, menu and camping gear. Oh and a shovel to dig ourselves out of the sand.
However Wednesday morning I was woken by Michele and Mari (staff at Tropic Days) telling me I'd overslept (it was 6.53), my 6.50am airport shuttle was waiting outside.
Mari had told me the night before she doesn't like goodbyes. I think I said my quickest goodbyes yet! I woke poor Yuka and quickly bolted for the bus, it was on the bus I finished dressing.
Some hours later, after a much delayed bus journey I arrived at Hervey Bay after ten at night, exhausted but excited by what lay ahead.
Thirty people were signed up for the tour, not everyone could drive, but drivers were assigned to groups randomly. My group of ten had 4 drivers, me included.
We were all shown a DVD to advise us how to stay safe on the island. Fraser has a very delicate ecosystem and the narrative advised minimising our footprint. The DVD also had a comical section on how to deal with dingo's. Fraser Island has the purest dingo's in Australia. The wild dogs have been known to attack children and even adults. The DVD suggested never walking alone on the island and for some strange reason if you see a dingo cross your arms over your chest and walk backwards. The virtues of this move were never explained but kept us all entertained.
I immediately recognised two people in my group as previous guests of Tropic Days. I had driven Bastiun and Tina, a German couple, on many occasions. It was great to see some familiar faces and the chance to catch up.
I soon learned that Ben and Sam (brothers) in my group are from Bebington, about 5 miles from my hometown and Sam is actually friends with my cousin Alan. Small world hey?
We collected our 4wd (Toyota, Harry) and headed to the supermarket for supplies. Afterwards we drove to the ferry and set sail on a 40 minute journey to Fraser Island. I've had some pretty poor weather by Australian standards, while I've been here, but my time on Fraser was blessed with only blue skies.
After letting down our tires a little, for driving on the sand, we followed the suggested itinerary and headed to Lake Wabby.

Lake Wabby

Taking in the view

First group photo...

I think the photographs speak for themselves. It was wonderful to swim in the cool freshwater of Lake Wabby, although we were all a little spooked by the depth of the water.
We set up camp alongside the other groups on the island's Eastern beach, under an amazingly clear sky, with the Southern Cross blazing above.

First night's camp

The second day involved beach driving (we had the tide times on our itinerary) and stops at Eli Creek (unbelievably clear water), the Maheno shipwreck, Champagne Pools and the vantage point of Indian Head.

Beach driving

Another group shot at the Maheno shipwreck

My feet in the clear water of Eli Creek

Tina, Vicky and Bonny

Ellie, Kate and Ben

A bumpy ride!

For our second night we once again camped at the beach, there were so many groups about it turned into one huge beach party.

I don't think dancing on the roof was covered in our jeep insurance policy...

We got some advice for our last day and decided to visit Lake Birrabeen as well as the famous Lake McKenzie.
A trip to Fraser Island is largely about swimming as often as possible, the water is absolutely amazing. Thanks to climate change the planet is obviously changing drastically, but Fraser Island, with it's clear waters is awe inspiring, I hope it remains this way.

White sands of Lake Birrabeen

Dingo at Lake McKenzie

A note on driving, this was my first time driving a four wheel drive, and although the clutch was heavy, it was a lot of fun. It was great to drive on sand tracks that are constantly changing. I had a "Goonies" moment driving along the beach, although having to keep an eye out for airplanes taking off and landing as the beach is also a runway was stressful!
We left Fraser feeling exhausted and very dirty (no showers for 3 days!), but having had a brilliant time. Fraser Island, another highlight to my time in Australia.

The journey back to the mainland

Photographs from the Tablelands

2008-04-11T04:34:00.006-10:00

The Tablelands is an area inland from Cairns, that actually resembles England's green countryside. Thanks to Tropic Days I did a one day tour, that took in a 500 year old fig tree, crater lakes and many beautiful waterfalls, the most famous being Mirra, Mirra Falls. This is famous for being the location of Peter Andre's Mysterious Girl video and the Timotei shampoo advert. You know the one, were the woman with long blond hair flicks her mane creating a perfect circular spray in front of an amazing waterfall. Something like this.

Okay nothing like this, but it was worth a try.

Cathedral Fig Tree

Photographs from Cape Tribulation

2008-04-10T23:21:00.009-10:00

Cruise on the Daintree

I was able to get two days off together at the start of my time at Tropic Days. This gave me the opportunity to do an overnight trip to Cape Tribulation. Cape Tribulation is where Rainforest meets reef, about 2 hours drive north of Cairns. The trip included a boat ride to spot crocodiles on the Daintree River and a swim at Mossman Gorge.

Aboriginals used to bury their dead inside these trees, this was until Captain Cook and his men cut one down to use the wood to repair a boat. Gaz - this has to work it's way into a script, if anyone can do it....

Croc in the Daintree

I met some great people on the tour and we went out for a few drinks in the evening. Our hostel was quite far from the "action", now I say "action", it was a bar and four middle aged men playing Fleetwood Mac covers. The tide was in so the walk back to the hostel meant walking on the road, traffic isn't a problem. However wildlife is, I was particularly concerned about seeing a Cassowary. They are incredibly rare and most people look forward to seeing one, but I had no wish to encounter a 6ft chicken on a dark road.
I had my torch in hand and was busily chatting away, when the guys walking behind us yelled out. It appears we had walked over a 2 metre long snake.

I took this photo from a safe distance and then ran, although it's hard to make out what type of snake it is.

Tribulation beach, a short walk from the hostel.

At Alexanders Point

On the drive home we stopped at Port Douglas

Your Very Own Jacques Cousteau

2008-04-10T04:16:00.008-10:00

"What do you mean I missed the briefing? I was sitting out on the deck the whole time."
I don't know how but I missed the intro dive briefing. Let me wind this back a moment. Thanks to Tropic Days I had a free trip to the Great Barrier Reef, with the tour company Passions of Paradise. Personally I think any tour with a name as wonderful sounding as Passions of Paradise doesn't need marketing, it should sell itself.
I wanted to do a dive as much as an Islamic extremist wants a McDonald's franchise. But it was free. I felt I HAD to do it, forget the feelings of claustrophobia, the fear of open water and generally being a poor swimmer, I knew if I didn't dive today I never would.
Thankfully after some sympathetic and not so sympathetic looks from the crew they agreed I could do a dive, if I went into the group for the "nervous" folk. Are you kidding I was made for the nervous group.
We approached our first stop, Michaelmas Cay. I joined the "nervous" folk at the back of the catamaran and we were each assigned a tank and actually I've just realised I have no idea what any of the kit is called. You see the briefing wasn't really a briefing at all, as everyone else knew what to do. The weight of the tank and "stuff" is incredible, when I first tried to stand, with flippers and a face mask, it was a tremendous effort not to fall back into my seat.
I made the most ungracious exit from the catamaran, kind of sliding off into the sea, all the while trying to cling onto a rope at the back of the catamaran.
Eventually having the courage to put my head under the water, I felt like Roger Moore in that Bond movie where he's chased by Jaws underwater. The sound of my own breathing filled my ears, I felt like I was watching a movie as a turtle swam by. In the "nervous" group, we stuck together with our own personal dive master, a guy I kid you not looked like a pirate, with a bald head and earring, he was just missing an eye patch.
Once I got used to the strange sensation of being able to breathe underwater, I had an awesome time. I'd heard from many guests, disappointed stories of how the coral is dull and nothing like photographs. This might be so (it has been damaged by pollution), but for me it was still incredible, but then it was a whole new experience.

Like I need the sign to make me look dumb...

Looking ridiculous, but I need photographic proof, of the dive, not me looking ridiculous

We went to about 10 meters depth, not far I know but for us nervous folk a great distance. I shivered from the cold and a little adrenaline I think. We saw all kinds of fish and turtles and of course coral.

I returned to the surface, giddy with delight. I invested in the "official" photographs, here are some of my favourites.

Michealmas Cay, our first dive spot.

It was one of my highlights of my time in Australia, a brilliant day.

Tropic Days Backpackers

2008-04-10T01:47:00.011-10:00

Behind the wheel

Before entering Tropic Days, please shave your head and if a smoker, quit now. Simple requests I know, but for some reason people just didn't want to comply. So a large amount of my time working as the cleaner/driver for Tropic Days was spent cleaning the hostel(people shed way too much hair in the tropics) and cleaning ash trays. The rest of the time I was collecting people from the airport and trying to memorise guests names. For example,
Frank - "What should I do while I'm in Cairns"
Me - "Sorry I can't answer you, I'm trying to memorise your name, Morris."
Kathy the co-owner of the hostel is a little OCD when it comes to cleaning. Tropic Days is the cleanest hostel I've ever seen. There is a rigorous cleaning routine to follow and Monday and Thursdays are bleach days, yes I know Mother you're thinking "Isn't EVERYDAY a bleach day?" But apparently not.
Although this created a wonderful environment for guests, even those smokers busy shedding hair, it meant come the end of the main clean on bleach day, myself and the other cleaners would stumble with streaming eyes about the hostel.
Tropic Days can only accommodate around 40 guests and for me this was a great number, it gave me a chance to know most people, after all I was working 6 days a week, 15 hours a day, so very likely to either be collecting new guests from the airport, train station or bus depot, and/or giving them a tour of the hostel. I loved getting passed the stage of "how long are you in Cairns for" and actually getting to know people. Although on particularly tiring days I would find it tedious to talk of Australia, I wanted to say "let's talk about pygmies", actually anything but Australia.

With one of my favourite guests, Kaz.

When the hostel had available beds (often in the low season) I would have to meet the buses arriving in town and try to "tout". I learned quickly that shouting "anyone need a bed for the night", would produce startled expressions and was better suited to Kings Cross. I went for the "Anyone need accommodation?" angle, sometimes with good results, but the majority of travellers book ahead. Much of my time was spent in the minivan waiting for the bus to arrive, reading and trying to stay awake.

Dan, me and Yuka wait for the Premier bus

Even having a floating light in front of me, didn't help me sell any beds...

With Yuka and Nicole

A perk of my job, was free meals at the Woolshed, one week I had fish and chips five times! It was great. I also got free soft drinks and 50% off alcoholic drinks, but never had the time to make the most of this. On my day off I was able to go on excursions for free. It's an agreement most hostels have with local tour operators. The theory is I would recommend particular tours to guests.

Stopping for a photo opportunity

The pool at Tropic Days

This was a typical day, you can see why I've fallen behind on posting.

7am - Open up the hostel, open doors, clean bathrooms and kitchens, etc.
7.30am - Drive guests to the reef terminal.
7.40am - 10am - Start stripping vacated beds, put first laundry load on. Pick up any scheduled arrivals from the airport. Get any empty rooms cleaned and ready for new guests.
10am - Cleaners start work until midday. Strip more beds, get rooms ready and then start clean of communal areas. At 10.30 drive guests to town. Possibility of airport pick-ups.
12pm - Time for the quickest shower in the world!
12.15pm - Drive to town
1.10pm - If beds available (quite often) meet Greyhound bus and tout beds to backpackers.
Free until 3.30pm unless airport pick-up scheduled.
3.30pm - Drive to town, on return to Tropic Days, do afternoon open, same as morning open.
4pm - Collect laundry from lines (if not raining), begin folding and putting laundry away.
5.20pm - Meet Greyhound bus (if beds available) and tout!
6.15pm - Drive to town, if no guests returning go to Woolshed for tea.
7.20pm - Meet Premier bus and tout beds.
8pm - Return guests from town to hostel.
9.30pm - Return guests from town to hostel, do close down, quick clean of bathrooms and kitchens, turn off lights etc.
10pm - Official end of working day.

I would try to take a power nap if there was time in the afternoon. I found 20 minutes was the optimum time, any longer and I just couldn't wake up again! I relied heavily on Pepsi Max to keep me going.
Although I was tired much of the time, I loved Tropic Days, I think it's the nicest hostel I've seen in Australia. The owners Kathy from Belfast, and her husband Gabe (a typical Australian in that he grew up in New Zealand and India) met while travelling and opened Tropic Days ten years or so ago. They have a second hostel, Travellers Oasis and I was lucky enough to know the staff at both hostels.
They have employed a long line of backpackers in the role of driver, most people stay for a few months, before travelling more or returning home. Gabe advised me early on to try and enjoy the job as much as possible.
I lived in the staff dorm room, with some great people. Yuka (Japan) was a constant, while other faces changed, Steph (Germany), Noa (Germany), Nicole (Sweden), Melanie (Swiss), Lucy (Swiss) and my replacement Mari (US). We got on really well and I was very sad to leave. Before I left Yuka told me about her first impressions of me, apparently "You are so tiny and have a really small head"! Always able to make me laugh, it was also great to have a rant to one another when things weren't going so well.
I'm now in Perth and it's strange to just be "another backpacker", I loved having a base for a while and although it's great to be travelling again, I was sorry to say goodbye.

Cinema Patrons Must Declare All Weapons

2008-03-30T00:29:00.004-10:00

Besides eating at the Woolshed and playing endless games of cards, Sian and I also discovered another way to pass some time in Cairns. We wanted to watch a movie, but this can be quite expensive in Australia ($15 admission fee), so when we saw a movie marathon advertised for $20 for three films we thought why not?
The three films were Sweeney Todd, I am Legend and Rogue, the latter is an Australian movie about a giant crocodile attacking unsuspecting tourists in the Northern Territories, it made Anaconda look like a work of art.
The first film started at 11.30pm, so we took a rucksack full of sugary snacks and fizzy drinks, the only chance of us falling asleep would be if we fell into a diabetic coma.
We arrived at the cinema entrance to a scene that suggested the sale of Nimbus 2000's, every teen in Cairns was queuing outside the cinema.
It was as we stood with some teens that we noticed the security. There was not only the cinema's own crack security team, but also police officers on patrol. Our first thought, "are they going to make us pore away the Pepsi?" Actually this was my first thought, being somewhat of a Pepsi Max addict. I thought "they can prize it from my dead cold hands".
Once we'd stood around for about an hour, we made it to the security post, an officer was checking all liquids for alcohol. One canny young scamp had filled his camelback with vodka, I thought he should have been admitted for his ingenuity alone.

Breaking through security

The timid looking officer searching Sian's bag was horrified to discover a mini pink Swiss army knife, he immediately impounded it, god knows what stabbing frenzy she may have committed if he wasn't so vigilant.
When we eventually made it into the theatre we were surrounded by teenagers all yakking themselves into a frenzy. A cinema official took to the stage and for the first time in my life I was warned inflating condoms and hitting them into the crowd would result in me being ejected from the cinema. Damn they were onto me, my usual entertainment was foiled. What could I do now, watch the movies and concentrate on staying awake? How boring.
I'm not sure if I did fall asleep or not, but I'm pretty sure I am Legend had no middle or end.
At almost 5am we walked in a daze back to our hostel, having collected Sian's collection of weapons and vowing never to return to a movie marathon in Cairns.

Cairns

2008-03-29T00:59:00.005-10:00

Sian and I arrived in Cairns (pronounced "cans" with a nasal accent, if you will) on a lovely sunny day. We returned the camper and checked into a hostel in the city centre. Now I say city, but if you are reading this from the UK think town, if however you are one of my loyal American readers, think metropolis!
I needed to find work and Sian decided to take a week to hang out with me before heading off to Indonesia. I was very glad of the company, however the mocking of my series of crappy jobs was unwelcome.
I first found employment in a large food court in Cairns Central shopping mall. It was hardly a rigorous recruitment process, I asked if they had work, they replied "when can you start?"
I should have taken a closer look at the food outlet before I so eagerly agreed, but funds were so low I would have considered selling my spleen. The following morning I arrived at "Bucking Bulls" for my first day of work. You know you are off to an auspicious start when after 20 minutes of work, you are sitting on a upturned crate in a cramped kitchen listing your known health conditions.
I don't know if it was the heat, the relentless slabs of beef staring up at me from the hot counter or the fact I haven't maintained a job in a long time, but I felt faint. I had worked for approximately 20 minutes when I had to return to the hostel and lie down. Sian thought it was hilarious.
I woke the following morning, thinking, hey I can do this, it's just short term. I headed to Bucking Bulls, donned the synthetic baseball shirt that made my hair stand skywards, the black Bucking Bulls cap that flattened my Einstein hair down and created a layer of grease. I was feeling and looking good.
The menu at Bucking Bulls largely consists of beef, pork, lamb (which to my vegetarian eyes all look the same), vegetables cooked to a soggy substance with no nutritional value, chips, wedges and gravy. The management frowned when I asked a customer, "would you like a heart bypass coupon with your Beef and gravy? Or perhaps a side of beef?"

Hard at work, got to sell that beef

Customers became frustrated watching me massacre a side of pork, and watched in disbelief as I then weighed the disheveled slice of meat, that after my efforts looked more like roadkill, before stuffing it in a bread roll and selling it at an extortionate amount. Bucking Bulls is a franchise, so every slab of cow has to be weighed. The company policy, when asked by an alarmed customer, "did you just weigh that?" is "yes, we at Bucking Bulls want you, the customer to receive a full and delightful portion of cattle", all with a vacuous tone and a wide gracious smile.

Welcome to Bucking Bulls, how about some cow?

I'm amazed by how popular the menu is with customers, even the baked potato with beef, peas, carrots, sour cream and gravy was a big seller! Actually I don't think I was meant to add sour cream, my mistake.
Let it be noted I lasted two whole days before I quit, but am still haunted by the experience, I feel faint when passing farm animals. Selling my spleen was a far better option than previously thought.
I soon found a job cleaning in a hostel for accommodation. Although I still needed paid work, I figured it was a start. Unfortunately I was working for a woman who has no concept of personal space and would give detailed instructions with her 60 a day fag breath blowing directly into my innocent pores. However this job did last slightly longer, I found the two hours of work a day fitted with my work ethic perfectly.
Sian and I had discovered the Woolshed at this point, a local bar with very cheap meal deals. For ten Australian dollars (today the cost of a Ford Galaxy in the States and a child's pocket money in the UK) we could gorge ourselves on a large and nutritious meal, dessert and a drink (not so nutritious but very tasty), in an agreeable setting. It became the highlight of our day, we would spend hours deciding on the evening meal, will it be fish of the day or filo parcels? Oh but what about the Greek salad?

Self-timer madness at the Woolshed

Sian was now considering extending her stay in Australia, the idea of leaving behind the Woolshed was so difficult to comprehend. Somehow she managed to board the flight to Bali.

North to Cairns, Bowling Green NP, Jourama Falls, Mission Beach and a night in a car park, oh and the town Hollywood forgot

2008-03-25T02:00:00.014-10:00

Sian and I set off from Airlie Beach in the camper van Sian had travelled up the East Coast in with her parents. The plan was to take a few days, trying to stop at "cheap" or free sites, before arriving in Cairns, where I would look for work and Sian would head to Bali from.
We spent the first night at an idyllic campsite in Bowling Green National Park, wallabies hopped around the site and finally it stopped raining. On the way to the site we stopped in Bowen, or at least close to it at a really beautiful bay. Baz Luhrmann was meant to make a film in Bowen with Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe, it was going to be the biggest thing that ever happened in Bowen. The town erected a welcome sign to the cast and crew and changed the large Bowen sign to the one below, all rather prematurely. Unfortunately the film was never made and the investment expected never arrived, but the signs remain.

Australia's Hollywood, Bowen!

Rose Bay, near Bowen

Townsville

A giant mango! Australia has a strange obsession with enlarging ordinary things to give ordinary places something to make them less ordinary.

We found another great campsite the following night at Jourama Falls. The falls were a short hike across a stream (I almost lost a flip flop to), the views were really spectacular.

Sian saves my flip-flop! It was touch a go for a while

Jourama Falls

We were the only people at the campsite, the National Park sites are often pretty empty. We did have to drive through a stream to get to the site, had it rained heavy we would have needed to drive out and fast, a ranger had warned us the stream can leave campers stranded for days.
The facilities were basic, the toilets are really glorified holes in the ground, but there was running water and an outdoor shower, that after the hike to the falls was the perfect temperature.

Jourama Falls Campsite

For our final full day in the camper, we arrived at Mission Beach, named after a group of missionaries that lost there lives in a, eh big storm, some time in the eh, past. My research skills are unfortunately deteriorating.
The weather changed again and the sea looked less inviting. You can't actually have free reign to swim off Mission Beach because of the stingers at sea, they do have a giant enclosure for swimmers, but it didn't look inviting.

Mission Beach

Unfortunately for our last night in the camper, we couldn't find a good camp site (by good I mean free) so we ended up in a car park, in the ugly town of Innisfail. We were happy to be only an hour or so drive from Cairns and the next day returned to the camper van. It was a great little trip and we were able to see so much more thanks to having the freedom of a camper, in my opinion the best way to travel.

Airlie Beach

2008-03-21T23:01:00.004-10:00

The rain continued to fall, but my bus arrived in Airlie Beach without a hitch. I met up with Sian and her parents and we all ended up in the same hostel.
Airlie Beach is a springboard to the Whitsundays, a group of islands with white sandy beaches and beautiful clear waters. Or so I'm told.
I didn't make it out to the islands, in part due to lack of money, but also because of awful weather I hung around Airlie Beach instead. The week before the area had been cut off due to flooding. Although this is the wet season (December to April roughly), record levels of rain have fallen. A few weeks ago a yacht sunk off the Whitsundays, there were no casualties.

The Marina near Airlie Beach

I met some great people at the hostel I stayed at, but apart from that my stay in Airlie Beach was uneventful. I chatted with an Australian girl travelling the East Coast (something of a novelty) and she told me to try Moreton Bay Bugs. They are a local seafood speciality, she described them as being similar to mini lobsters.
Moreton Bay Bugs are not within most backpackers budgets, but thanks to the offer of lunch with the Harrisons (yes still on the "monsoon tour") I was able to try them.
I can't say they reminded me of lobster, I think they were more like prawns. I had them in a really spicy sauce and they were delicious. Sian's parents were leaving later that day and from Airlie Beach, Sian and I would travel to Cairns in the camper van.

Me and my Morton Bay Bugs.

The Harrisons!

Mackay, unlucky seat 8A and the Harrisons.

2008-03-20T18:03:00.005-10:00

47 hours or so on the Premier coach (the cheapest way to travel the East Coast) from Brisbane to Mackay and it rained most of the way. I understand it's the rainy season, but expected this to change upon my arrival in the region or for the rain to only fall at night, someone didn't get the message. Of the 48 seats on board, I managed to choose the one with a leak above it. I woke up at 3am from a dream about falling into a waterfall to focus on a steady stream of water dripping onto my knees from a vent above.
I managed to climb over the person next to me, who had set up home somewhat like an underpass dweller in some inner city, who regarded me with disdain as I struggled past her and her belongings. I told the driver, who was wearing the regulation uniform of ridiculously short shorts, (what is it with Australians and Benny Hill style uniforms?), that I had a leak above my seat. His reply, "8A? Yeah I know the one." Great.
The driver had two empty seats behind him with his personal belonging on. I asked (being English and ridiculously polite) if I could remove myself and my belongings from the wet seat and move to one of the lovely dry seats behind him. He crumpled one side of his face and told me that the seats behind him are reserved for emergencies. I scowled and didn't wait for a reply, but collected my things from 8A and tried to get back to sleep (unsuccessfully) in my new seat.
We pulled into Mackay at around 8am. I have never before seen so much rain, getting off the bus and stepping onto the pavement had the same effect as taking a plunge in the Thames.

The rain falls in Mackay, check out the uniform.

I couldn't get a seat on the coach leaving Mackay for Airlie Beach, as the road had been closed due to flooding the day before and too many people where waiting to get out of Mackay. I was about to see why.
I checked into the oddest hostel yet. As the rain continued to fall and the ground water rise, I waited in a communal room of the hostel trying to watch a TV that kept loosing it's signal because of the rain. Yes it was raining THAT much.
I discovered no other travellers in the hostel, only miners. Everyone was friendly, actually in a "friendly way" that borders on obsession and causes a deep seated fear for one's life.

Another photo that fails to capture the amount of rain falling.

Sian and her parents where staying at a campsite on one of Mackay's Northern beaches. After some texting back and forth, Sian suggested I stay with them that night. I ran for my life, okay slight exaggeration, but it really was a creepy hostel. I even left without informing the management, I was so shaken, or was that concerned about having to pay for a night?
Anyway the rain stopped, so Sian and I walked around Mackay and discovered there really isn't much to see in Mackay, sorry Stu I know you want your "namesake" to be a hip and interesting city, but it just isn't. It was obviously founded by the uncool arm of the Mackay family, with little imagination and a genuine love of the grid system.
I met Sian's parents, who kindly took me in. I had to hide in the back of their camper van as it is illegal to have more than 3 adults on board. I felt like a hostage and began to try and memorise the glipses of passing scenery I could see from my hunched position on the floor by the sink, the Harrison family were surprised when I rolled out the back of the camper bound and gagged.
The campsite was by a great beach, the tide was out and a huge expanse of sand and creatures were on display. I don't know why but I have no photo's, so you can use your imaginations.
The rain started again and there was real concern we would be trapped in Mackay! I was due to take the Premier bus the following morning to Airlie Beach and the Harrisons (calling them that makes them sound like a 70's Folk band on a revival tour) would leave in their camper van.
Sian and I intended to sleep in a tent next to the camper van, but after a few hours and several feet of water, we feared we may be carried into the sea and moved into the camper van. We slept in the "children's" area above the main bed, while Sian's parents tried to sleep below. Despite the storm going on outside and sleeping on my back with my legs bent at the knee, I actually had an amazing night's sleep.
Thankfully we were not trapped in Mackay and could make our separate journey's onto Airlie Beach. To be continued.

Brisbane

2008-03-08T18:06:00.007-10:00

I arrived in Brisbane in need of a job. I managed to do a little sightseeing while sending out emails and resumes. The central business district is like any other, with a few interesting buildings. The majority of the cities museums and galleries are on the South Bank. I'm not sure if the South Bank was based on London's South Bank, but the buildings are very similar. Not particularly attractive, concrete blocks, but a style I like none the less.

State Library Building at Dusk

Brisbane at Night.

I was feeling rather indecisive about staying for a number of weeks in Brisbane, even though I had some good responses on the work front, I felt I would be spending a lot on accommodation. It's also not so easy to get to a beach or a national park without your own transport, so I would have to spend much of my time in the city. So with that I decided to take a bus to Airlie Beach and meet up with Sian. Sian had been travelling up the East Coast with her parents and had offered me a ride in their camper van from Airlie (where her parents flight departed) to Cairns.
Before leaving Brisbane I managed to visit the world's largest book sale, Bookfest! The event was in aid of charity and took over a huge exhibition centre, I have a rather out of focus shot below. This was one of 8 areas selling second hand books.

I picked up a few bargains and managed a night out in Brisbane before catching a bus north.

Free Champagne for the Ladies at Tinbilly's

Sjenjana (yes trying saying that after a few champagnes) and a really funny Japanese guy.

Sydney to Brisbane Road Trip: Byron Bay

2008-03-07T22:50:00.008-10:00

I'm trying to recall Byron Bay, I really need to get up to date, once and for all. I have a million excuses, none very interesting, so here goes.
We drove into Byron Bay (I think I remember that), and booked in to a campsite on the edge of town. It had a large security fence and required a $200 deposit, we wondered what we were letting ourselves in for. A lot of the campground (huge area) was flooded and unfortunately the rain continued to fall.
We set up camp, as usual Paul cooking a great meal and played a game of cards. The following day I decided to do the walk a few people had recommended to me to Cape Byron, to the point where Captain Cook landed and the Eastern most point of Australia. It is also possible to spot dolphin pods, but unfortunately they evaded me.

Byron Bay

The walk was really beautiful and I spotted my first snake in the wild, but didn't stick around to identify it.

Cape Byron Lighthouse

Byron Bay itself is a beach town, with some upmarket "artsy" shops and a lot of bars and restaurants. If I wasn't on a budget I probably would have liked it more.
The guys decided to hit the town for the evening, but I felt like a quiet one, so stayed back at the campsite. Unfortunately it all went a bit wrong at this point. That evening Paul (after a few shandies) got into a fight with a wooden post and lost. The following morning I was really shocked and concerned to see a Paul I didn't recognise, with a swollen mouth and wobbly teeth.
I felt really bad for Paul, but when he looked in a mirror to check out the damage himself and said "I look like the 80's TV character Alf", all I could do was laugh and then feel guilty and then laugh some more.

Gary, Jelmer and Paul at the gates of our campsite in Byron Bay

Gary and I decided to take a little trip to Nimbin. Nimbin is a very small town with a big reputation. In the early seventies a bunch of hippies arrived in the rural community for a festival and never left. They decided to create the good life for themselves. Today Nimbin is famous for being the only place in Australia where the police turn a blind eye to the selling of marijuana. We arrived as many of the day trippers were leaving and some of the scarier looking residents where out and about.

The Streets of Nimbin

I did spot this, and thought of you Mum,

From Byron Bay we drove to Surfers Paradise, which is an Australian version of Benidorm, high rises and a busy beach.

Surfers Paradise

It was at Surfers Paradise that I parted company with the guys and made my way to Brisbane, with the plan of finding work and staying for a while.

Sydney to Brisbane Road Trip: Port Macquarrie

2008-02-17T19:55:00.007-10:00

Our next stop was the town of Port Macquarrie, unfortunately we couldn't find any free camping so we booked into a caravan park for two nights. The guys wanted to hire jet ski's, I preferred a visit to the Koala Hospital, yes the more sedate option.
From the caravan park it was only a ten minute walk, but with all short walks in Australia, the heat made it a test of endurance.

Koala takes it medicine

As everyone knows, Koala's are the cutest animals in the world. It is a common misconception that they are very lazy and do very little. But reading the white board of sick Koala's it became clear they do have enough energy for one thing. A very common reason for admittance is Chlamydia, it seems that the average Koala likes to get around.
Unfortunately Chlamydia is deadly to a Koala if not treated and even if treated it needs to be caught at the early stages.

The White Board of Sick Koalas

The Koala Hospital is run by volunteers and often the volunteers take a sick Koala home as they require 24 hour care to get back on their feet, so to speak. On the white board I noticed the rather odd names given to some of the sick, the names are actually a combination of where the Koala was found and the name of the person who found it. Byron Peters for example, sounds like a Koala getting above its station in life, but is in fact a combination of place and person.
Often Koalas are involved in road accidents (they are out for a walk, not a drive you understand), it's very easy to usher an injured Koala into a box, you simply push it gently from behind in the direction you want it to go in. Although they appear very docile, you wouldn't want to upset a Koala, they have sharp claws and aren't afraid of using them.
Some "patients" have returned to the hospital several times, even after a few road accidents, it seems the Koala community needs some road safety talks, or of course humans need to slow down.

Helpful Hints

After a tour of the Koala Hospital I headed back to the caravan park, the guys where still out, so I decided to read for a little. Unfortuantely I wasn't alone. I heard a rustle from a near by plant and decided to take a closer look. I saw one huge lizard!
While I fetched my camera the lizard decided to inspect our camp site.

The lizard poses

Unfortunately the lizard didn't understand my boundaries with all wild creatures. It's OK as long as they don't make any sudden movements. I decided I didn't like how close Mr Lizard was getting, so made a loud stamp of my feet in his direction. However Mr Lizard misconstrued this as some kind of challenge and ran towards me. I ran in the opposite direction, fast.

Warning:Spam Comments

2008-02-16T19:31:00.002-10:00

Please all be aware for some reason this blog suddenly has a few "regular" spam commenters. If you read a comment and all it says is see "here", please don't click on here. It will take you to some naked people in the act or infect your computer with a virus or both! So however tempting it is don't click here. No, please really not, here.
For those of you dear people leaving real comments, please continue to do so. I will try to delete any spam comments before anyone succumbs to temptation and clicks here.

Sydney to Brisbane Road Trip: Port Stephens

2008-02-14T00:05:00.007-10:00

From Katoomba we headed towards the coast so we could join the Pacific Coast Highway, that runs right along the East Coast. Our destination for the day was Anna Bay, Port Stephens. We'd all heard it was a beautiful area to visit, with sand dunes, dolphins and amazing beaches. But more importantly there is a free camp site at One Mile Beach, Anna Bay. On our road map, it looked like we would have a short journey, but it actually took a long time. We seem to drive through a forest for about three hours. By the time we made it to One Mile Beach we were all pretty exhausted.
We set up camp, and took a look around. This is what we saw.

One Mile Beach

We also discovered the camp site had a resident Koala, well at least that week it did. Paul christened the Koala Eric, I'm not sure why. Eric didn't move a whole lot, like all Koalas he was doped up on eucalyptus. However at night he made his presence known. Surprisingly Koala's make noises like wild pigs and are incredibly loud.

Eric.

We also discovered we had camped by many ant nests, the Australian ants are huge.

Giant Ant Carries Peanut!

We spent two nights at One Mile Beach, it was such a lovely spot and we had great weather too. Jelmer did some surfing and Paul and Gary went for a couple of runs along the beach. When they reached the nudist part of the beach they removed an item of clothing as a show of support.

Jelmer, Paul and Gary at Anna Bay camp site.

Sydney to Brisbane Road Trip: Blue Mountains

2008-02-09T19:28:00.000-10:00

The three sisters, Katoomba.

I had hoped to keep this blog regularly updated, but when I set out from Sydney with Paul (a friend from back home) and two guys (Jelmer and Gary) he had met while in Sydney, it felt good to be away from a computer for a while. But yes I did mean to update sooner, however I'm now working in Cairns and one of the perks of the job is free wi-fi. So it went something like this.
I met Jelmer and Gary for the first time just outside Sydney where the three guys had been camping. Jelmer owns a great jeep, that he had already driven from Perth to Sydney. We had two tents, a camping stove, a table, some chairs and most importantly it would prove, a deck of cards. We drove to the Blue Mountains to begin our road trip.

One well packed boot!

After referring to a few guide books and maps, we noticed a free campsite, near Woodford, called Murphy's Glen. Jelmer was particularly excited about the drive to the site as 5k of it is off road. We left the highway, and started the descent to Murphy's Glen. There is no way a regular car could have used the track. We really didn't know what to expect of the campsite, as we drove further and further away from the highway.
As you can imagine it was quite a surprise when we finally made it to the campsite and found about ten families who had also set up camp. Obviously Australians are hardy travellers. Unfortunately a few hours after we arrived, it started to rain and continued to do so until the following morning. Luckily rather than leave us to sit inside the jeep all evening, one of our neighbours invited us to use their gazebo. But before that Paul decided to dig a river around our tents, to stop them from floating away!

The Blue Mountains get their name from the blue haze from the Eucalyptus trees. I think we were all amazed by the scale of the area. Although the main viewing area at Echo Point is very well developed for tourists, the views are so immense, as far as you can see are trees and nothing else.

Blue Mountains.

At the three sisters. I'm not sure if the hat has shrunk or my head has grown.

We woke early the next day, but had to pack away our tents wet. We were booked into the YHA Katoomba, for the next night, but decided to extend our stay an extra night when we realised how much there was to see.
The YHA is also a great hostel, it felt like checking into a hotel when we arrived.

Another game of cards, at the YHA Katoomba.

We spent the next day exploring the area a little more, we were joined by our dorm mate Chris, who we discovered is from West Kirby, about 5 miles from my hometown.
We decided to take the cable car to the start of a rainforest walk and then take the furnicular railway (the world's steepest) back to the start.

Paul, Jelmer and Gary in the cable car.

Rainforest Walk

The furnicular railway was extremely steep. You don't have any kind of seatbelt, instead you are expected to rest your knees on the padded bar in front. Panic set in when I realised my knees slid under the bar and left me clinging onto the chair, Gary took some photo's with my camera, while I concentrated on not tumbling to my death. Not to be dramatic or anything.

This doesn't really show the steepness of the railway.

We also visited Katoomba Falls, incredible because it is possible to stand on a plataeu halfway down the falls, the views were stunning.

Jelmer

Paul at Katoomba Falls

The town of Katoomba is a real delight. So far I've found most Australian towns to be very similar, all built on a grid plan, with little variation. With the growth of chain stores at times it can feel very American. Fortunately Katoomba has kept a large number of independent stores and eateries. I really enjoyed our time in the area.

Wine Tasting in the Hunter Valley

2008-01-04T02:10:00.001-10:00

The Hunter Valley, lies two hours by car from Sydney, it is one of Australia's lesser known wine making areas. It's wineries are less pretentious than those of the Barossa Valley. The YHA offers a tour of four vineyards, cheese tasting and in the evening a stone baked pizza. What more could you want? The tour suited me perfectly as I know very little about wine and haven't tasted much either.
It was also nice to get out of Sydney for a few days and back into the countryside. I feel I've posted a lot after a long absence, so I'll leave it at that for now. Tomorrow I head to the Blue Mountains and then on up the East Coast. I'm looking forward to travelling again and experiencing new places. I'm travelling in a group and we are hoping to camp out much of the time. I think it will be a different experience and one I'm really looking forward to.

Me, Sian and Jacinta.

Me, Jacinta, Kerry and Sian having breakfast in Cessnock

Pizza at the Hunter Valley YHA

A little sampling

Christmas and NYE in Sydney

2008-01-04T00:17:00.000-10:00

I spent Christmas day at Bondi Beach. The plan was to take shelter from the blazing sun, eat salads (because what else can you eat in the heat), drink a few beers discreetly as it's illegal on Bondi and generally have a typical backpacker Christmas in Sydney.
Sian made plenty of great food and her friends Lauren and Ghasson brought the beer. Unfortunately the weather didn't co-operate, it was freezing! Okay it was about 17 or 18 degrees, but the wind felt really cold. We took shelter in a roofed picnic area and set up lunch. It felt a little like celebrating Christmas in a bus shelter, what with the graffiti on the wall and having to hide our beer from the police patrolling the area.

The Christmas Look.

Lauren and Sian pose with the bins on Bondi Beach

Thankfully the weather improved come Boxing Day and onwards. I managed to do some sightseeing, with a trip out to Manly, another great seaside town within Sydney.

Manly Beach

New Year's Eve was spent at a house come street party in Balmaine East where we had great views of the Harbour Bridge and the spectacular firework show.
Happy New Year.

Alice, Sian and me, NYE

The Working World

2008-01-03T22:55:00.000-10:00

I took an overnight bus from Melbourne to Sydney, admittedly not the best way to arrive in the city. Gabi whom I met at Iguazu Falls (Argentina) back in May lives in Coogee, a gorgeous beach suburb of Sydney, she kindly put me up for a few nights while I found somewhere to stay for the holiday period. Most backpackers know to book in advance for accommodation over the festive season, many places are booked by September. So I was hoping to find something fast.

Coogee

Coogee has the feel of a seaside town, but is only a twenty minute bus ride from the city centre. I felt a little stressed first arriving in Sydney knowing I had to find a job and somewhere to stay, but it was always a relief to be able to walk down to the beach and relax for a while.
Many hostels put up their prices over Christmas and New Year, and many expect a 7 or even 10 night minimum stay. Thankfully I found the Coogee Beach House. It's a really well run hostel, with local staff, that amazingly remember every guests name. Many guests are working, so most people stick around for a while. I've met some really nice people here and it was a great place to be over the holidays.
I signed up with quite a few agencies in the city and within a couple of days had a job in a call centre. Thankfully I wasn't harassing people, but rather answering calls for a publishing company for magazine subscriptions. Unfortunately it's a very busy call centre, before Christmas we would have 20 calls waiting constantly, so many of irate customers.
There are many fellow backpackers working in the call centre, at times customers can wonder if they are calling England, Ireland, Canada, Wales or the US. But then I think Australians are used to the foreign influx of workers. One rather elderly customer asked me, "What part of the Old Country are you from?"
It made me feel like I'd arrived on a boat...He was quite pleased with my answer. He told me he doesn't like some of those "other countries" and if it was up to him he'd shoot the lot. It was a lovely conversation.
When I first started training I sat by an America girl. It sounded very funny when she'd ask "You want to buy your Mother a copy of Gardening Australia?!!" As if it were the dirtiest magazine on the planet.
I've mostly been fielding questions about diaries and other free gifts. It amazes me how angry people can get about a free diary, it's like they are chasing the holy grail.

The Cherries of Wrath and How Hayfever Thwarted the Greatest Cherry Picker That Never Was; and the Tale of the Killer Pine Cones

2008-01-03T01:09:00.000-10:00

I gained a job picking cherries through the Harvest Centre in Lilydale, a small town in the Yarra Valley about an hour by train from Melbourne. The plan was to become physically fit, alter my fat to muscle ratio, turn a deep caramel colour and earn incredible amounts of money being the fastest cherry picker on the farm. I could see no obvious flaws in this plan when I left Melbourne. I figured a month on the farm and I could also write that novel I've been meaning to get around to.
On arrival at the Harvest Centre in Lilydale I met with Kevin the centre manager and he promised me a lift to the farm where I would be accomplishing said goals. I picked up some provisions at the local supermarkets, having spoken to the farmer and found there would be cooking facilities on site.
On the drive out to the farm, I chatted with Kevin and asked him about the other workers. He'd mentioned on the phone I would be joined by two other backpackers, but when I asked about them he said he was no longer sure they would be coming. This is when I got the flashbacks. For those of you loyal readers out there (Mum), you will remember the debacle at the organic farm in Hawaii. Although on this drive it was daylight and I had no reason to believe I would be the only person on site, the fear began creeping in.
As I began to shift uncomfortably in my seat, countryside zoomed by, Kevin received a call from his friend Phil. Phil is a cherry picker himself and he and his wife Joy, both work on a farm in the Yarra Valley, in fact in the area we were driving through. Phil and Joy have a young son Jack (14 months old) and at the time a Korean nanny they were about to dismiss. Kevin asked me how would I feel about babysitting young Jack, instead of picking cherries?
Quite suddenly the idea of looking after a child became really appealing. I didn't commit straight away, but Kevin suggested he drive me to meet Phil and Joy. They were both working on a local farm and actually had Jack with them.
I had rather romantic ideas about working in a field picking fruit, even though I'd only recently finished reading "The Grapes of Wrath", somehow it had evoked a sense of romanticism in me. However as I walked over to Phil and Joy and noticed the flies swarming around them and the intense heat of the sun on my back, I suddenly felt a strong desire to look after their son.
It surprised me they didn't want any references, Joy later told me she just gets a good sense of people on meeting them. I think this is rather naive, but luckily for them her gut instincts were right.
I understood they lived in a caravan, on a small campground next to a farm and I would be living in a tent next door.

The caravan is hidden behind the car, no really it was that small.

Jack

Joy and Phil started the day early, so I would be needed from 5am to look after Jack. I was very concerned the first morning that on waking and seeing me (really a stranger to him) he'd become upset and Joy had said to phone if this was the case. Thankfully (and a testament to how many people have looked after Jack, or maybe because of my delightful face) he didn't cry at all and quite quickly was smiling.
Within a few hours I realised the biggest problem with my "new job", keeping Jack occupied and myself sane, the latter always a problem. There really was very little to do. I found myself on a muddy campsite (the area gets three times the rainfall of the surrounding counties), with a tiny caravan (that I quickly discovered Jack hated) and then I sneezed. One sneeze you think, big deal, surely you could still find time to write that novel?
I've always had hay fever, but lets be honest, by staying inside or taking some tablets or nasal spray it's a very manageable complaint. Don't get me wrong I still do complain about the symptoms relentlessly. However on the farm I found there was no escape, especially sleeping in a tent. I think also I was so bored it became hard to focus on anything else. However I felt I had to stick it out.
When I first spoke to Joy about what Jack likes to do, his routine etc, she warned me about the tall pine trees that line the far end of the campsite. Joy told me how the falling pine cones could kill Jack, so I should always be on the look out. I tell you the damn pine cones became an obsession! I couldn't turn away from him for one moment without hearing a pine cone fall. I think it was one of those irrational mother fears, but Joy certainly transferred it on to me.

The hand grenade pine cones.

So you've probably guessed it by now, no I didn't last long on the farm, three days I think. I have to say the longest of my life. I grew fond of Jack, but the boredom, isolation and sneezes all became too much. I told Joy and Phil how I felt and made plans to travel to Sydney to look for work. I still have to work on the fat to muscle ratio, but feel I have time and of course time to write that novel.

Photographs of Ballarat's Sovereign Hill and Phillip Island

2008-01-01T23:04:00.000-10:00

An Australian Lake...

While in Melbourne I had the opportunity to visit Trevor, who I originally met kayaking on Vancouver Island. Trevor was kind enough to show me Ballarat's Sovereign Hill, a re-creation of a Gold Mining Town. We also visited Phillip Island, this is famous for the arrival each evening of thousands of penguins. Flash photography frightens the penguins, so no cameras are allowed. So no photo's I'm afraid. However take a look at the Koala's we spotted at the conservation centre.

It actually took me longer...

Redcoats keeping order.

Me with a giant portion of fish and chips.

Trevor tries bowling.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

2008-01-01T21:57:00.000-10:00

Lucie and I catching up at a rooftop bar in Melbourne.

Australia has so far given me the chance to catch up with some old friends. Lucie and I went to university together and I was excited to see her in Melbourne, while she was travelling and visiting her brother Adrian.
For those of you not familiar with the novel "Picnic at Hanging Rock", it is the story of a group of Edwardian school girls who go missing while on a school trip to the rock formations, Hanging Rock near Melbourne. Peter Weir made a really atmospheric film adaptation, that I'm a fan of, so when Lucie invited me to join herself, Adrian, Tash (Adrian's girlfriend) and Serj (Tash's cousin) for a picnic at Hanging Rock, I said yes please.

Views from the summit of Hanging Rock.

Adrian had jokingly suggested we wear Edwardian costume, but I was surprised to see young girls dressed in costume, eating picnics when we arrived.

Adrian and Tash, hold up Hanging Rock!

We hiked up to the summit of Hanging Rock, after taking some photo's we hiked back down for our picnic. We were joined by wild parrots that became very friendly.

We also spotted a Kangaroo in the car park and were even more surprised when we noticed a joey in her pouch. Normally young mothers would be far more cautious of humans. It was great to see a Kangaroo in the wild. A cricket match was going on at the same time, it felt like the quintessential Australian scene.

Mother and Joey.

It was great to catch up with Lucie and hear about her trip. At times it felt like being back in London.

Tash and Serj.

Lucie at Hanging Rock.

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

2007-12-29T23:23:00.000-10:00

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.

2007-12-25T23:39:00.000-10:00

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

2007-12-25T22:15:00.000-10:00

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

2007-11-25T22:09:00.000-10:00

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

2007-11-25T20:41:00.000-10:00

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

2007-11-24T20:13:00.000-10:00

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

2007-11-24T14:02:00.000-10:00

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!

2007-11-18T20:56:00.000-10:00

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

2007-10-23T12:14:00.001-10:00

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

2007-10-23T11:52:00.000-10:00

Dorm with a View, YHA Kaikoura

Sea Lion on the rocks.

Milford Fjord

2007-10-22T23:33:00.000-10:00

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.

The Bottom Bus - Part II

2007-10-22T23:18:00.000-10:00

Kim collected me from my hostel in Invercargill. He informed me I would have four fellow passengers today. The four had been over to Stewart Island. Rather than sit up front with Kim, I climbed into the back. Kim used his mic, it suddenly became very official!
Unfortunately the four passengers where all really young lads, who seemed to like nothing better than to complain. As soon as we made a stop Kim whispered to me, "if you want to sit up front with me, I'll make some space." So that is exactly what I did.
We drove a large part along the coast from Invercargill towards Te Anau, the night's stop. From Te Anau I was signed up for the trip to Milford Sound.
Our first stop of the day was at the fishing town of Riverton. Normally we would have made some jewellry, but the guy who runs the workshop was away. So instead we had a wander around and then Kim showed us his favourite surf spots along the coast.
We stopped further along the coast at McCracken's Rest. Given the name, hordes of Kiwi Experience passengers normally line up to "pose" on the sign. But the boys were very shy and I had on the wrong type of trousers to pull a mooney (always a good excuse), so Kim kindly posed for me. I told him not to worry, it's not like I'd post the photo on my blog or anything....

Kim

The Bottom Bus - Part I

2007-10-22T14:04:00.000-10:00

My pass with Kiwi Experience included, the "bottom bus". Oh that wacky marketing department, they know how to appeal to the kids. Well as it turns out they don't. I was the only passenger. I was collected from Queenstown by Jason, after a terrible night of sleep, well actually of no sleep. I was sharing a dorm with some people from my West Coast bus, who decided to talk all night and then around 5am one of them locked himself out of the room. After that I gave up on sleep, I thought I can sleep on the bus to Dunedin tomorrow. I felt sorry for Jason, the "tour" from Queenstown to Dunedin takes about four hours. I managed to chat for a while, but before long I was asleep. This blog seems to be turning into my version of how I slept my way around the world. Jason still felt it necessary to stop at the required points, so he'd wake me when we approached a dam or a field. I would groggily get out of the empty 20 seater bus and take a photo and then drop back off to sleep. I think Jason finally realised I wasn't interested in seeing anymore dams, so he drove straight through to Dunedin. I'd arranged to stay at the Manor House hostel where a couple I met in Hawaii where working, while they looked for something more permanent. I arrived earlier than expected and Sarah gave me a tour of the hostel and told me about the washing machines that don't really need tokens to work. We arranged to go out that evening to a small Moroccan style bar, where her boyfriend Iain works. I'd pretty much caught up on the sleep I needed, so I hit the very streets of Dunedin. Unfortunately it rained the whole time I was there. However I didn't let this stop me from taking a tour of the Cadbury's factory in Dunedin. Yes something else the Kiwi's have stolen from the English. But I can honestly say it doesn't taste as good, although I will continue to test chocolate for the good of mankind. The tour of the factory was a little bit of a let down. I had imagined it would be like the episode of the Simpsons, when Homer visits some kind of Candy World (I need my favourite skinny animator to confirm this) and eats everything in site, dogs, houses, lampposts, everything. Well I thought Cadbury's would at least have bowls of chocolate and the odd Umpa Lumpa. Unfortunately, the guide was a woman in her 60's who only seemed to give chocolate to small children. I think I came away with 4 chocolate bars, which considering the entry fee is pretty poor. After a good night out with Iain and Sarah, I set off on the next leg of the "Bottom Bus". Jason wouldn't be my driver, but he had told me more people may join the tour. He was wrong. Kim collected me from Manor House at 7am, so we could start the two hour drive to the Catlins nice and early. Naturally I had my reservations about being the only person on the tour, but thankfully Kim is a really guy and struck the right cord, of being friendly but still informative. The day before Kim had taken tourists on a tour of the Catlins and it had poured with rain the whole day and they hadn't seen any seals, sea lions or penguins. He hoped today would be better. The Catlins are one of New Zealand's best hidden treasures. It's an area of natural bush, rugged coastline, antarctic waters frequented by sea lions and penguins and wild fauna, waterfalls, petrified forests and spectacular nature trails. Kim explained to me for many years the Catlins was only ever frequented by those living in or around Dunedin, looking for a weekend get away. But word is getting out and the Catlins are starting to appear in all the obvious guidebooks, but hopefully the local council will find a way to deal with the extra tourists, without spoiling the natural beauty of the area. Our first stop was at a lovely pub/cafe at Kaka point for a hot drink before we headed to the world's most southern lighthouse, at Nugget Point. The vertical lines on the land show the incredible pressure beneath the surface to create the land. Kim explained the lines would have originally run horizontal, would the incredible force had turned them. The lines on Nugget Point Kaka Point As you can tell from the photographs the weather at first didn't look very promising, but we were in fact very fortunate, as the sun broke through the clouds later in the day. Kim then drove to Cannibal Beach. He explained it got the name, when European sailors found human skulls on sticks as either a warning or from a ritual, planted into the sand. Thankfully we found a handful of tourists on the huge expanse of sand and a sea lion taking a nap in the reed at the edge of the sand. Kim explained it's important to keep one's distance from a sea lion, they can easily out run a man and inflict a nasty bite. Kim said it was okay to sneak up on the sleeping sea lion for a photo, but if it stirred slowly walk backwards.

Sleeping giant

Sea Lion with his flipper in the air.

I jumped back onto the beach, in time to witness another male sea lion coming out of the sea. Kim had explained the population on the South coast is very small because hunters drove the sea lions away and they only started to return 40 or so years ago. Most of the sea lions remain on the islands further south. But there are now seven females who make the trip to the South coast to breed.We watched the amazing spectacle of the sea lion coming ashore. They can be dangerous, but we felt safe as there was an old man watching close by too, who the sea lion would surely catch before either of us. From Cannibal Bay we continued to make our way further into the Catlins. At Surat Bay I was lucky enough to spot one of the female sea lions watching her growing cubs take a swim. Kim had told me earlier how sometimes the sea lions eat rocks and he'd once witnessed a sea lion being sick. Kim explained they bang their stomachs on the beach over and over, until they are finally sick. I couldn't believe when around around corner I spotted a male sea lion banging his huge stomach on the beach. It was quite unpleasant when he finally threw up, while shaking his head from side to side so it went everywhere. We drove further along the coast. It was great being the only passenger, I was able to ask loads of questions and I felt like I got to know Kim. He told me how he was born in Scotland and moved to New Zealand when he was ten. When his new school friends asked him if he wanted to play football he was delighted, until they threw a rugby ball at him. After a lunch stop we drove to Purakaunui Falls. Kim parked the minivan and then we took the trail down to the falls. Kim was able to identify all the birds we could here singing loudly up above. It's hard to imagine the news of the birds in New Zealand when the first explorers, Maori or European arrived. Birds in New Zealand, like in Hawaii had no natural predators. That's how flightless birds like the Kiwi evolved, they had no need for wings.

Kim also took some time to show me native trees, that are now protected. Before Europeans arrived in New Zealand, the most common plant was Flax. Maori's used it for practically everything. Making rope, clothes, a broth and as a natural defense against the weather. Okay I'm not sure they actually made a broth from it, before I didn't have enough examples. I'm sure it would be a tasty broth. This first day tour of the Catlins would be the longest. To see the penguins comes ashore at Curio Bay we would need to wait until around 5.30. After that we had an hour drive to Invercargill. As soon as we arrived at Curio Bay we spotted a yellow-eyed penguin a native of New Zealand. The penguins are extremely shy and if you get too close they panic and freeze. Although I wanted to see this, as it sounds so cute, I realised it would amount to cruelty to penguins, so we kept our distance. The penguin was up on a hillside. Kim explained they can jump to their own height and have surprisingly strong legs. The bay is made up of a 180 million year old petrified forest. It's easy to make out the giant tree trunks, now rock, that form the base of the bay. We crouched down low and watched another three penguins in the bushes. Unfortunately we didn't see any make there way out of the sea. But I felt lucky to have seen so much, especially knowing yesterday Kim had struggled to find any penguins or sea lions. We arrived in Invercargill around 8pm. Kim had explained to me this is where Burt Monroe had raced his Indian motorbikes along the beach. If you haven't seen the film, The World's Fastest Indian, check it out.

Wanaka

2007-10-21T20:07:00.001-10:00

From Franz Josef we set out early (too early for me) to Wanaka. The latter is a picturesque town nestled in the Southern Alps, described as Queenstown before it became so commercial.
We stayed at Wanaka Hotel, that has a few dorms at the back of the hotel set aside for backpackers. We all got rather excited when we found we had a TV, balcony, en-suite and mini-fridge in our room. Ah such heady delights. Unfortunately the photo's I have don't really do Wanaka justice, but for anyone heading to the South Island I would highly recommend a stay in Wanaka.

Wanaka Lake

The main attraction beside Wanaka Lake is Puzzling World. They have the world's only two level maze, which we ran about, until we found it was actually really hard to reach all the corners, the object of the maze.

Overview of the maze

The toilets...

They also have "illusion rooms", with slanting floors and 3-d portraits, that make your head spin. Outside Puzzle World, there are lopsided building, just waiting for ridiculous photo's to be taken.

Franz Josef Glacier Hike

2007-10-20T21:24:00.000-10:00

The South Island was formed by glaciers, creating some very dramatic scenery. It is possible to hike the Franz Josef Glacier on the West Coast of the South Island. Everyone I've met who has done this hike recommends it, so with a sore throat and feeling rather sorry for myself I signed up.
The guide company provided boots, crampons, coats, and waterproof trousers, all of it ill-fitting.
Kitted out we headed to the Glacier, five minutes drive from the village of Franz Josef. We hiked without our crampons to the start of the glacier and then fitted the crampons to the soles of our boots.

Franz Josef Glacier

I got talking to our guide Lee, who as it turns out is from Warrington, about 20 miles from my hometown.
The start of the hike is reminiscent of a step aerobics class. The crampons made it easy to get a grip on the ice, but at the start of the Glacier there are also handrails. I was surprised by the number of people working at the ice with pick axes, to keep it safe. Unfortunately it rained a good deal while we were on the Glacier, but Lee explained it is the rain that creates this unusual environment of rain forest and Glacier.

I need to photoshop this to get rid of the bag in the background.

While we on the ice, we were visited by Kea parrots a number of times. They are the world's most intelligent bird, with the I.Q of a 4 year old child. They can identify over 120 different types of berries. They fly up close to hikers, hoping to get some food. We didn't feed them but it didn't stop them from following us. The sight of green parrots on the blue ice was an odd spectacle.

A Kea Parrot

After a short lunch break on the ice (it was still raining) Lee led us to a crevasse. It was a really tight squeeze and required sliding sideways through the narrow gap in the ice. We asked Lee afterwards if anyone ever gets stuck, but he said he'd been sizing the group up to make sure we'd all fit through. He did tell us one lady had fallen in a hole so deep the cold water came up to her neck. From then I was very careful of my footing.

Tom and Gemma in a tight spot.

It was while we were taking a break again that I bumped into Sian and Sarah (they were in an earlier group) and found out they knew two of the girls in my group who I then got acquainted with. Again, it's a small travelling world. That night after a long wet day we all got together to help Sian celebrate her birthday.

The Voyage of Sleep

2007-10-20T20:42:00.000-10:00

Having spent a few extra days in Wellington, I was now on a coach with a different group of people and of course a new driver. We drove the ten minutes to the ferry terminal, ready to board the Inter-islander to Picton on the South Island.
The ferry between the two islands takes three hours and can be quite rough. Although the ferry is huge, with several decks, restaurants, bars and a cinema I'd heard the choppy waters can make for a rather unpleasant crossing.
I'd bought some "Sealegs" tablets the day before, and took two the obligatory thirty minutes before we set sail. I found I knew one of my fellow Kiwi passengers from my first bus, so we were able to catch up.
There are many comfortable reclining seats on the ferry and we found a spot and settled in.
This is all I remember until our arrival into the Marlborough Sounds was announced over the tannoy two and a half hours later. I have no idea if the crossing was rough or not, but I had a terrific sleep!

Somehow I managed to take a photo.

Unfortunately I still needed to sleep when we boarded the bus at Picton and made our way to a Vineyard for a wine tasting. I managed to wake myself for this jaunt, only to fall fast asleep as soon as we boarded the bus again.
I should mention, I don't really like sleeping on buses, or planes, or trains, for fear of my ridiculous jerky movements in my sleep. I once fell asleep on a bus listening to music on my headphones and woke up clapping, with people staring at me. I can only assume I woke to hear clapping on my ipod and felt the need to join in.
I imagine I made a bad impression on the Kiwi bus, having slept for the 5 or so hours I was travelling with this new bunch of people.
We stopped in Nelson for an overnight and I'd planned to stay an extra night. As it happens I woke up the next day with a sore throat and was glad of the time out. It was in Nelson I bumped into Sian and Sarah again (originally met in Maui, then Fiji) and took a day trip to Abel Tasman National Park with them. The park is named after the Ducthman who first sighted New Zealand, but never landed, silly Dutchman.
The travelling world is very small, if I'd wanted to avoid Sian and Sarah it would be impossible, we continued to meet up through out our separate tours of the South Island over the following weeks.
Sian and Sarah had hired a car, so we drove out to the start of the Abel Tasman trail and walked the a hour and a half to Appletree Bay. It was another beautifully sunny day.

Wellington the Windy City

2007-10-20T20:08:00.000-10:00

Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, is a really beautiful city with historic buildings, a great harbour, cable car and steep hills that provide dramatic views. At the southern tip of the North Island, it's also the place to catch the inter-islander ferry to the South Island.
On arrival I was nearly blown over by the ferocity of the wind. I spent my first day trying to see as much of the city as possible with Silvia, as she only had the one day in Wellington.
The Te Papa National Museum is the city's main attraction and offers the most comprehensive exhibits of New Zealand's history. It really is a terrific museum, easily one of the best I've visited on my travels so far. It's a huge building (we had 4 hours and didn't see everything), with exhibits and galleries spread over six floors in a purpose built facility right on the harbour.

The Te Papa Museum, so big I couldn't fit it all in frame.

I particularly enjoyed the exhibit on immigration (obviously a big part of the museum), in one video clip an elderly Scottish man talks about his arrival in New Zealand. He and his wife couldn't afford to emigrate to Australia (it cost 10 pounds), but New Zealand was free, so that was that. There was also an interesting display on young Polish children who had survived concentration camps, to be sent on long voyages as orphans to a new life in New Zealand.
They also house a very comprehensive art collection. What impressed me most though was the way all the exhibitions had been put together. Every form of media was in use and yet it didn't feel overwhelming. The artefact's were diverse but never irrelevant. Displays appealed to young and old alike.
From the Te Papa we headed to the cable car that takes passengers from the city centre to Kelburn Village, where the botanical gardens, observatory and small cable car museum are.

Kelburn Cable Car

Botanic Gardens

The weather was perfect for Silvia and I to wander around the botanical gardens, they are spread over a few steep hills. From here we headed to the Parliament buildings. The distinctive Beehive, houses the offices of the Prime Minister, Helen Clarke. Designed by an Englishman it really is quite a hideous building, surrounded by confused looking tourists taking photographs.

The Beehive

Cuba Street is one of the main streets for shops and coffee houses. It unfortunately has the feel of any provincial English town centre, but was on route to the Film Archive. I was keen to watch some films by Kiwi directors but unfortunately I always seemed to arrive at the wrong time to enter the viewing library.
I spent a few more days in Wellington, searching for thermal underwear to take to the South Island. No photo's necessary.

Update

2007-10-20T19:57:00.000-10:00

Since arriving in New Zealand (12th September) my posts have been rather sporadic. This is mostly due to travelling on the Kiwi Experience bus. My days have been packed, with excursions, meeting new people and of course travel.
For me the tour finished on Friday and I'm now back in Auckland my starting point, having covered most of the highlights of the North and South Islands. I'm currently trying to get hold of Qantas (harder than it seems) so I can fly out to Australia a week and a half earlier than originally planned. My intention is to look for work in Melbourne (yes it's a budgetary requirement!) and once I have some money together travel a little and really just keep moving about in this fashion. I hope to make it to Sydney for Christmas and New Year, as I have friends planning on doing the same.
So I'm going to try and recall the past 6 weeks or so, factual errors will abound, I'm sure!

Lake Hawea, near Wanaka, South Island.

New Post

2007-10-12T23:40:00.001-10:00

There is a new post further down the page, I started writing it a while ago, but only just finished it.

Lake Mahinapua

2007-10-09T16:59:00.000-10:00

Les, New Zealand's oldest publican at 83, stepped onto our coach. After berating our driver for not producing a mic fast enough he welcomed us to Lake Mahinapua, his pub and hostel.
The hostel is legendary on the Kiwi Experience circuit, it's been a stop for fourteen years and Les and his staff have catered for 3000 coaches. The inside of the no-nonsense pub is covered with Polaroid photo's of previous Kiwi passengers. Each group stopping usually has a meal and then it's over to the pub in fancy dress to "get to know one another", aka drink the bar dry.
Our driver, Darren asked us all to make costumes from plastic bags, I tried to contain my excitement.
I decided to make an Osama "BIN" Laden costume, from chocolate scented brown bin bags. Some people created pretty amazing costumes and I couldn't help feel they'd perhaps given the evening more thought than I.

I was trying to keep in character.

We had a meal in an extension off the pub, Les was in charge of meat. This included steaks and venison stew. Thankfully there was a vegetarian option. I particularly liked it when Les, trying to offload what was left of the venison, abruptly asked one girl "Do you want some venison?"
With a frightened look she replied, "Oh okay I'll try a little"
Les then covered everything on her plate with a huge dollop of venison stew.
For all my concerns about the evening, it was actually a good opportunity to get to know some more people. I've stopped off at a number of places en route, so keep changing buses and drivers. I remained with this gang for much of the West Coast and we are now all in Queenstown getting ready to go our separate ways.
Travelling around New Zealand isn't giving me much opportunity to get online and update here, so apologies for the lack of posts over the past few weeks.

Angora Bunny Shearing Massacre!

2007-09-28T23:03:00.000-10:00

Before we arrived in Waitomo, our driver took us to a little angora shop. Lovely you think, imagining knitted cardigans, kiwi broaches and other fine souvenirs. But oh no there was something far more sinister going on.
We were all ushered into a small room, with some machinery in one corner. A lady came out of a side door holding an adorable, white angora rabbit. Everyone oohed and ahh'ed.

One Angora Bunny

Still smiling the small lady placed the rabbit on a metal table, where it scrambled about trying aimlessly to get a firm grip. The kind looking lady then took the rabbit's back legs and stretched them out and held them in place with bungee cords and then did the same thing with it's front paws. As the rabbit's heart visibly shook, the lady explained the rabbit was feeling quite content. I took a look around at my fellow travellers faces, we all looked rather concerned.

The shearing begins

The lady explained Angora Rabbits originate in Germany and have to be shaved every 3 months otherwise they will overheat and die. She gave the impression this is just something that simply occurs in nature and kindly old women step in and shave rabbits in the wild.

Does this look like a happy bunny?!

The rabbit looking like a pig on a spit, was then spun around, while the lady commented, "see she's enjoying it".
We then stood and watched in disbelieve as the rabbit was shaved and mounds of angora fell on to the table.
As we walked dazed from the room, we entered another room full of retirees buying angora cardigans and slippers. It was all very surreal.

The Final Look

My Nemesis, the Rubber Ring

2007-09-28T00:38:00.000-10:00

I'm not writing these posts in order, the past ten days or so on the Kiwi Experience have been jam packed, so I'm jumping around, chronologically speaking. From Taupo, myself, Suzanne and Silvia joined the "East As" tour. There were only two other people on this section, Miranda (FYI Rosie she's from a tiny village 20k from Deventer) and Lauren. Our guide was called Renee Kiwi, no I couldn't make up a better name.
One of the main reasons Suzanne and myself booked with Kiwi was for the "East As" leg. No other company offers tours to this part of New Zealand. The area is fairly remote and unpopulated, yes even by New Zealand standards. The leg also includes Napier, a city destroyed by a huge earthquake in 1931, a massive 7.9 on the Richter Scale, the city was rebuilt using the popular Art Deco style of the time. I have seen photo's of Napier and was keen to see her beautiful buildings for myself. The first news Renee Kiwi gave us was that from 21st September (the day before) Napier was no longer included in the tour.
None of the Kiwi Experience publications or maps show this change or even mention it's possibility. Suzanne and I explained how for us Napier was paramount to the trip's success. Okay not quite as dramatic as that.
Renee Kiwi (I want to include that name as often as possible!) phoned her boss and suggested we spend the last day doing a walking tour of Napier's famous buildings. We agreed to this and later found out this is actually more than the original itinerary included. Usually the bus would arrive in Napier around 6pm and leave early the following morning.
Our first day involved a visit to Whakatane to pick up supplies and a coastal drive to Te Kaha. The East As leg strays from the usual hostel accommodation and on the first night we found ourselves in a homestead.

View from the hot tub at Te Kaha Homestead.

This is run by the O'Brien family, proud of their Irish and Maori ancestry. A traditional Maori welcome involves touching noses twice. Paul the owner (an intense fellow) strode up to me and I thought "he's getting kind of close". Luckily at the last minute I remembered the nose touch, kept eye contact (as is respectful) and touched noses. I had a very cold nose, it hasn't warmed up since arriving in New Zealand.
I can't say I really enjoyed my stay at Te Kaha. The evening seemed to revolve around drinking as much as possible and singing rude songs. I have no problem with having a laugh, but it all felt slightly contrived, the owner and his friends drank as much as possible and then sang really filthy songs. From what I can tell women don't receive a lot of respect in Maori culture, even though our guide kept trying to tell us otherwise. Although I don't think the evening's entertainment had anything to do with Maori culture.
We did have a lovely meal prepared by Paul's wife and mother, but the women had little else to do with the guests. Which was a shame, because I imagine they would have been interesting to talk to.

The best thing about Te Kaha, the puppy Seeker.

I know Australia is famous for being a quite male chauvinistic society, but I haven't been there so I can't judge. It has surprised me however travelling in New Zealand, how many off hand comments are made as if this is the 1970's. I'd loved to know where this comes from, especially in a country that was the first in the world to give women the vote. Okay I'll get off my high horse and back to the journey.
The following day we travelled further along the coast to East Cape, where the mainland sees the world's first sunrise, they conveniently forget the Pacific Islands. Unfortunately the weather turned really bad as we arrived at a Dutch run farm, Eastenders. Miranda had worked at the farm (she's been in NZ for a year) and was returned for a few weeks before heading back to Holland. On arrival none of us could imagine why she would want to stay.
However the following morning, with clear blue skies we had a glimpse of the beautiful surrounding hills. It was here at Eastenders that we got to try bone carving. It's a popular way to make souvenirs, but takes a really long time, something like 3 hours for one necklace!

Silvia bone carving.

Eastenders Farmstay, Rangitukia

Now only Renee Kiwi and four passengers, we hit the road in search of Anglican churches. No not as dull as it may sound! Anglican missionaries arrived with the Europeans in New Zealand, ready to show the locals the error of their ways! Interestingly the Maori people quickly converted to Christianity as they mistakenly thought they were getting sick from diseases the Europeans survived because the "white" god was a stronger god.
The Churches here have a mix of typical Maori and traditional Anglican architecture, and some are really beautiful.

Anglican/Maori Church

Our third night was spent at a lovely homestay situated right on the beach, just outside of Gisborne. Renee Kiwi had described a natural rock slide in the near by hills we could boogie board down. For some reason, at the time this appealed to me. Only Lauren and I were up for the slide, but we all took the drive out.

Waterfall near the rock slide

Lauren and I were suited up in wet suits, thankfully this time they were comfortable and dry. Dean the homestay owner and local dive master guided us to the rock slide with his young helper, Shane.

The rock slide

We had to walk across the river and then Shane gave us a demonstration. He moved very slowly down the slide on a huge rubber ring. I thought this looks slow enough for me. Dean then suggested all three us (me, Lauren and Shane) climb on the ring and go down together. I did say, won't we just fall out at the end? But Dean insisted it was okay. Of course as soon as the ring started moving, I started to fall off, I tried to hold onto Shane, but by the time we hit the pool at the bottom of the slide, I had left the ring and ended up under the water. Again my system of swimming with my neck extended out of the water was badly compromised. I swallowed a load of water and felt quite sick.
I decided I would try on my own, pretty sure I could stay a float. The second attempt was a success and I enjoyed my rather sedate trip down the slide.
It was on my third attempt it all went wrong. Somehow I flipped up in the air as the ring hit the pool, from an eye witness (Suzanne) I hear I slipped through the middle of the hole, again touched the bottom of the pool, but popped up again in the centre of the ring.
At this point I decided I'd swallowed enough water, it was time to get dry.
That evening we had a lovely barbecue and toasted marshmallows. Silvia and I arranged to go out with Dean and Shane in the morning to feed stingrays. It was a great experience and another highlight to the East As tour.

Me, Silvia and Shane feeding a Stingray

I'm quite far behind with the posting, but should have more Internet access over the next few days to allow me to play catch up.

Jump off backwards you say?

2007-09-27T23:39:00.000-10:00

Well as I'm a little behind with posting, I think I'll write about my experiences in Waitomo. It's a very, very small town it's main claim to fame, a series of caves with glowworms in them. You can take a walking tour or do something called Black Water Rafting. Now the latter involves crawling into a tiny space and descending 60ft under the ground, swimming through freezing cold water and jumping off waterfalls using a rubber ring. Being afraid of enclosed spaces, water and eels, oh yes I forgot to mention the caves have giant eels swimming in them, I decided "sign me up!"
I think it is the effect of travelling with a bunch of really young people all bungee jumping and diving from planes and what not, that made me do it. Yes it was a poor reason. I keep thinking if I'm afraid to do these things now, I'll never do them in a few years. I think I need to think more along the lines, I don't need to ever go black water caving, or sliding down a rock slide, but we'll get to that.
In preparation for the Waitomo Caves, we had to don wetsuits. Not just any wetsuits, but ones that have been worn by hundreds of people before you and are still wet! I think it took me a little over three hours to put the suit on and I still didn't have the fitted look. We were given old thermals to put under the wetsuits that looked like rejects from a children's nativity play.

At the start of the cave system.

I was with about 5 other people from the Kiwi bus (others had paid for the longer session and a sensible few had opted to walk the cave system) and a few Canadian tourists. We were driven out to a stream (about a metre deep) with wooden steps and a platform on the bank. We were each given a ring and told we needed to jump backwards off the platform into the raging river, ok stream. But still, jump backwards? I actually laughed because I thought this was some kind of joke. It wasn't.
In turn everyone reached the top of the platform, put their backs to the ocean (okay river), wedged their bums into the rubber rings and either jumped or where pushed off the platform.
I couldn't believe I was going to have to do this, I mean how was I meant to use my system of always keeping my head out of the water when swimming?
I reached the top. I decided I just had to go with it, everyone else was and I didn't want to think the performance of putting the wetsuit on had been in vain.
I would love to say I gracefully jumped with my bum wedged in the rubber ring, but what do you think? Yes I was the only person to somehow become detached from my rubber ring and sink to the bottom of the stream! I came spluttering to the surface, spitting out water and coughing like a 40 a day-er.

I have no idea if this is me or not, but you get the idea.

I was freezing cold by this point, the water had been very cold. We started to hike towards the cave entrance with our rubber rings tucked under arms.
The cave entrance was really small, we had to pass our rubber rings to the guides and slowly descend into the cave. The sound of all the water running was very loud and made me want to pee.
We each wore a helmet with a miners lamp, the small light helped us through into the cave.
At first we were wading through water, up to our knees, okay mid thigh for me. Eventually we had to wedge ourselves into our rubber rings and float through a very narrow part of the cave. The water was high and we had to lie flat with our faces inches from the cave ceiling.

This is the publicity shot that makes you think, oh that looks lovely.

Floating inside the caves, we were able to see the glowworms overhead. Some sections of the caves are very high and it's like entering a cathedral. It's strange how light seeps through from above, creating a stunning effect.
We stopped further into the cave system, snacks were handed around. We were handed chocolate fish shapes filled with marshmallow, they tasted terrible, but I didn't want to drop mine in the water in case it attracted an eel, so I ate it.
Our first waterfall was about 3 metres high, I was near the front of the line. I decided it was best to get this out the way, I knew there would only be two waterfalls, the second being 5 metres high.
After Jade (another Brit from the bus) jumped, I followed. Once again I became detached from my rubber ring mid air and fell backwards into the icy cold water. Again I swallowed a load of water and came up coughing. By the time I got back to my rubber ring, which by now I was feeling a certain hatred towards, I was shaking with the cold.

I have no idea what was so funny, or even if I could re-create this expression, what am I doing?

As a group we were asked to get into the "Eel" position we'd practised above ground. This involved linking, putting your feet on the rubber ring of the person in front. That person then puts your feet under their arms, as each person does this it creates a chain. I created a shaking eel effect, as I was so cold.
For me this was the best part of the excursion as we slowly floated with our lights turned off, looking at the glowworms above and the sudden high cavernous ceiling.
Unfortunately there was still one more waterfall to jump off, backwards of course. Jade gave me some advice, that is pretty obvious but had escaped me. Lean forward! Of course that's why I was falling out of the rubber ring each time!! Why had I not thought of this? Okay that's rhetorical.
Knowing this would be the last time I would ever jump backwards off a 5m waterfall 60ft underground, I edged to the precipice, with bum wedged into rubber ring and thought of nothing else but leaning forward, I jumped backwards.
I floated.

Kiwi Experience So Far

2007-09-24T19:53:00.000-10:00

Apologies for the lack of posts, I've found it incredibly difficult to get online and the past week and a half has been really hectic. You'll be pleased to hear I haven't had to do the Macarana, well some of you.
We left Auckland early on 17th and headed to Mount Eden, to get a last look at the city before heading off towards Mercury Bay.
For a city of 1.4 million, Auckland seems to end very fast and we soon found ourselves on empty country roads, travelling through the odd small town. We stopped in Thames for lunch and I had my first taste (no pun intended) of trying to find something without meat for lunch. An Irish woman (Suzanne) I met on the bus is also a vegetarian, we searched together, but we ended up with cakes. Bakery's are very popular here, they mostly sell meat pies and cakes, it's kind of like the UK 20 years ago. Just terrible, there was no brie and grape pannini's in sight! Somehow we soldiered on to Mercury Bay.

Me at Mercury Bay

We hiked to Cathedral Cove and this gave us all a chance to get to know each other. I think there were about 20 people on this first part of the leg and at least 12 were from the UK. Everyone was very friendly (what else would you expect from Brits?) and keen to get to know one another.
Cathedral Cove is very beautiful, the boys played rugby (all anyone ever talks about here), while a few brave souls ventured into the water.

Cathedral Cove

We then headed onto Hot Water Beach. I think this beach is unique to New Zealand, because of the geothermal activity below the beach, if you dig a little hot pools of water are revealed. The water is incredibly hot, but if you create a pool and mix in some cold sea water it can be quite pleasant.

Me, Sylvia and Julie sample Hot Water Beach

We all stayed in a new hostel in Whitianga (Fit-e-ang-a) and had a meal together on the first night. It's nice to be travelling with other people, although it's strange to have no real say in what we do day to day. I do feel I'm learning a lot more about Maori culture than I would have done travelling on my own. I think travelling with Kiwi has been the right decision.

A School Bus Tour of New Zealand

2007-09-15T21:27:00.001-10:00

While in Fiji I met a lot of people who are on there way back to the U.K. They all had advice for what to see and do in New Zealand. I've been told by a number of people the best way to get around is to buy a fairly comprehensive bus pass for one of the hop on hop off services in operation. I thought I knew which company to go with, but found out they didn't go to Napier, an Art Deco town I'm really looking forward to seeing. A few people also recommend seeing the East Cape, which isn't traditionally on the tourist route, but is worth a visit.
So after much indecision, even a walk in the rain to Albert Park, I have finally bitten the bullet and bought a ticket for the Kiwi Experience.
This was the one company I thought I could definitely rule out as it has a reputation as a bit of a young party tour. I'm sure I'll be the oldest person on the bus (that's including the driver), but hopefully it won't be too bad. Although who am I kidding? The tour I've booked is called the "Funky Chicken". Is it too late to cancel?
My first day is Auckland to Mercury Bay on the Coromandel Peninsular. From what I understand, the bus stops at interesting sites along the route and even calls into a supermarket before dropping patrons at their chosen hostels. Each day you can ask your driver to book accommodation for that night, and with it still being the low season this should be quite easy.
I like the fact I won't have to cart my rucksack from hostel to bus depot, instead I will be delivered door to door. However this could be at the cost of having to perform the Macarana....

Auckland

2007-09-15T19:51:00.000-10:00

I flew into Auckland on Friday. I'm staying in a four bed dorm and typically sharing it with three fellow Brits. On Saturday I spent the day sightseeing in Auckland with my Welsh dorm buddy, Sarah.
The morning was lovely and clear (winter is just ending here, I guess an optimist would say spring is just beginning) so Sarah and I decided to go to the Sky Tower. It was actually a great way to orientate ourselves with Auckland and the surrounding area. I'm not a fan of heights, but managed to stand on the glass segment of the flooring for a little while, well long enough to take a photograph.

Sky Tower

Sky Tower's Shadow

Sarah and I made our way over to the Victoria Park Market, a collection of permanent shops. We both found it eerily quiet everywhere. I'm aware there are only four million people in New Zealand, but it felt like the 1.2 million residents of Auckland where all in hiding. Even the main drag, Queens Street was extremely quiet.
From the market we walked along the harbour (I feel like I'm writing about a harbour in every post at the moment), and decided to go to Parnell. Sarah was keen to see this suburb of Auckland, it has many quaint wooden houses.

View from Parnell Shopping Village to downtown Auckland.

Auckland seems to have a really good transport system, we made our way on the bus and wandered around Parnell before getting some lunch. We discovered a trail running from Parnell to the Auckland Museum, so decided to take a look.
I think I had been warned about the steep hills of Auckland, but like most facts had forgotten it on arrival. Some of the streets are as steep as those in San Francisco. We found we were both ready to collapse when we made it to the Auckland Museum.
We were a bit pushed for time in the Museum, which was a shame as it has so many interesting displays. There are some amazing reconstructions of Maori meeting houses, I'm looking forward to learning more about Maori culture on this trip.

Inside a reconstruction of a Maori meeting house.

They also had a temporary exhibit of Japanese street fashion, in particular Loli-goth. This is a cross between Gothic Victorian dress and school girl scandal. It was pretty interesting to look at, although it made me feel like I was in a gallery in London.
On the way back to the hostel we took a detour around Ponsonby, another trendy suburb with great bars and boutique shops.

The Great Hike

2007-09-15T15:38:00.000-10:00

Octopus Bay offers a hike to one of the highest peaks on Waya island. It's billed as a "strenuous" hike and it certainly is that.
Due to a death in the village we walked along the beach, rather than directly through the village. We were asked to remove our hats as a mark of respect.
We had been warned Fijian trails tend to take the most direct route, there's no meandering up a hillside using switchbacks, the path went straight up to the peak. The trail starts out in dense vegetation, with high humidity. We started with 24 hikers and soon lost 8. Don't worry there aren't eight tourists still wandering around the hillside, they all made it back to the resort. I think the scrambling over huge rocks and leaping over puddles deterred some folks.
I was concerned about an American couple in their early 70's. They were in Fiji to see their son's wedding. I thought maybe they hadn't heard the description of the hike.

The peak on the right is the one we hiked to.

The hike to the peak took about two hours, with a few stops for people to catch their breath along the way. Actually at the end climbing up the peak was really difficult, our guides had to help us all up, one at a time.

The last climb.

At the top we all took photo's and stopped to eat fruit and admire the view of the Yasawa islands (that Waya is a part of). Jim (our guide) pointed out Mafia island, where a certain Italian family opened a casino, that was quickly closed down by the authorities.

The now abandoned Mafia Island is on the left.

Me at the top of the peak, looking rather red.

I think we all expected to take a different route back down to the resort, but oh no this is a Fijian trail, so it was straight back down the vertical path. Unfortunately the dirt was loose on the path and I managed to get down in record time, thanks mostly to sliding down on my bum. I was concerned the older American lady might break a hip or something. But it turns out I had no need to worry, they were the bionic pensioners. They marched down the hillside and arrived at the bottom free of the dirt I was caked in. Just for good measure I managed to fall over when I reached flat ground too.

Fijian Time

2007-09-14T21:20:00.000-10:00

My flight from Honolulu to Nadi was a night flight, but for some reason they tried to feed us sandwiches when we boarded a little after midnight. I arrived in Nadi at 5.20am, loosing a day crossing the Pacific. It was all a little disorientating.
I waited with an Australian couple for the transfer bus to Octopus Bay Resort.
The bus took us the short distance to a small harbour (Hah-Bah, Gerry), where we signed our lives away before boarding a boat to Waya Island.
I was surprised by how small the boat was and how old it looked. Apparently they are about to replace it. I swallowed a handful of sea sickness tablets I found on board and found my spot on the horizon to focus on.
It was a fairly rough crossing, we seemed to land pretty heavy with each new wave and be jolted about. After one and a half hours of rough water we arrived at the idyllic Octopus Bay Resort. Each boat is met by staff members singing a welcoming song and gently swaying their hips from side to side. This was slightly spoilt on the return leg when an Australian family and a single German man decided to join in, it was all wrong.
Octopus Bay Resort had been recommended to me by Markus, I knew to expect delicious food and the nicest dorm room I'll probably ever stay in. However I forgot to imagine beyond the food and bed to what the island may look like. I was therefore blown away by the crystal clear waters and white sandy beach. The landscape of the island is green and rugged.
After our welcome drinks we were each shown to our rooms, it was then I spotted Sarah in the pool. I met Sarah and Sian in Maui and had mentioned Octopus Bay Resort to them. It was great to know I'd have some company. We are on similar routes so will meet up again in New Zealand and Australia.

Sarah, Sian and Me.

I found my dorm bed, with a welcoming flower and quickly got changed ready to, well I'd like to say swim, but actually to eat.

My dorm bed

The food at the resort was really good, particularly the lunch menu. I'll try not to turn this into a girl eats world blog.
The resort puts on some entertainment in the evening, we had a movie night (for you cinefiles, it was The Escapist), crab races and quiz nights.
Waya Island is very small and before Octopus Bay Resort there was little future for the islanders. More and more Fijian Islands are being emptied as people move to the mainland to make a living.

Crab Racing

The owner of Octopus Bay Resort spent time on the island getting to know the villagers before building the resort. He discovered they would benefit from having access to a telephone and arranged a satellite. Now islanders can talk to relatives who have moved away. I don't think the resort intrudes upon the villagers way of life, but rather gives them a future. The resort has a scholarship fund, every guest is asked to donate $1 per night. This means every child is educated to the level they desire. There are now some local young people enrolled at the university on the mainland.

Pigs in the village

I took a tour of the Nalauwaki village, where most of the residents also work in the resort. Fijian custom means the woman of the home does all the housework and cooking. For some of the women this means they work full time in the resort and then return home to all the chores of keeping a home and family.
The village has one pre-school, unfortunately it was closed when we visited as there had been a death in the village. Once the children turn 6 they attend boarding school on another island. They leave home Sunday afternoon and return Friday afternoon. Once they reach high school age they have to become boarders on the mainland.

Local Girl

The Village.

We were told more of the customs of the village and then our guide mentioned attending church is compulsory for children. It's strange to imagine how the Methodist church fits into the Fijian way of life.
Fiji is the first country I've been too under a military coup (don't worry Mum I'm not aiming to visit more). To be frank had I not read about the coup before arriving I would have been none the wiser. It seems those revolutionary types are quite aware of the bloodline tourism provides for the country.
I can also now say I've tasted Cava. For something that looks like mud, it's not too bad. It actually reminded me of Coco leaves, in that it leaves you with a numb mouth.

Cava Ceremony

I can't imagine ever wanting to drink a lot of it though...

Flaming Peacocks!!

2007-09-07T18:41:00.000-10:00

For my last day in Hawaii (my flight to Fiji is later tonight) Markus and I decided to visit the Temple of the Valley. It's a replica Japanese temple just outside Honolulu. For some reason everything "just outside Honolulu" takes at least one and a half hours to get to by public transport. It actually took us three buses and over two hours.
Thankfully the temple was well worth the journey. We managed to arrive between tour buses and had the place pretty much to ourselves.

Temple of the Valley

Inside the Temple

Ringing the bell for luck.

We took off our shoes and wandered inside to look at the giant Buddha. The grounds are really beautiful too, with ponds filled with Koi, quaint bridges and Peacocks. I've never seen wild Peacocks before and was a little frightened of them. On leaving the ladies room, I found I was being followed by three of the damn things. I decided to "jog" away, but ran into at least another five, that were surrounded by tourists all trying to take the perfect photo. I think I ruined quite a few photographs, but managed to get away from the Peacocks, they were definitely trying to follow me, honest.

Peacocks!

Oahu

2007-09-06T19:30:00.000-10:00

Yesterday Markus and I took a flight from Maui to Honolulu. Although Oahu is a tiny island, 80% of all Hawaii's residents live here. Taking the shuttle from the airport to Waikiki it felt like most of them were driving.
Originally I intended to only spend a few hours here waiting on a flight to Fiji, however everyone I've met so far has recommended checking out Oahu, mostly for a visit to Pearl Harbour. For you American readers (I believe I actually have a few in Stigler, hello Stigler!), I'm afraid I can't bring myself to drop the "u" in Harbour, it looks all wrong. But Gerry just for you, I'm pronouncing a hard "r".
This morning I got up ridiculously early (6am!), having been woken by a girl late in the night, she had dropped her camera down the shower drain. My groggy response, "How? How? I mean, really, how?"
I still don't know, but I did make it out to Pearl Harbour. I had never seen photo's of the U.S.S Arizona memorial, so the design really took me by surprise. I think as far as memorials go, it's really well designed and very distinct. Like most U.S memorials and parks I've visited it seems to largely survive on donations. Having gleaned all my knowledge on Pearl Harbour from "that" Micheal Bay film, I learned a great deal from the documentary film shown before the boat ride out to the memorial.

U.S.S Arizona Memorial

I'm staying in Waikiki, which is probably a lot like Benidorm, the beach is crowded, there are many shops and high rise hotels. It feels odd to be here after the relative quiet of Maui, and the beautiful quiet of the Big Island. Roll on Sunday, when I land in Fiji. I'm staying at this resort, very excited!

Photo's of Maui

2007-09-04T15:23:00.001-10:00

Makena Beach.

Plants around the crater.

Sunrise at Haleakala Crater.

Giant Banyan tree in Haleakala State Park.

Happy 9th Birthday Harry!

2007-09-02T15:37:00.000-10:00

Hope you have a brilliant day!!

The Road to Hana

2007-09-02T14:43:00.000-10:00

I'm now on the island of Maui. It's more developed than the Big Island, but there are still some beautiful places to visit.
I've been hanging out with a Swiss guy, called Markus. Markus has hired a car, so on Wednesday we drove to Hana. The route to Hana is quite famous, it follows a coastal road that passes waterfalls, caves, lava tubes, black and red sand beaches and some beautiful forests.

Hawaiian Tree, okay that's my way of saying I don't know the name of the tree.

It reminds me of the South of France, everything is very green and lush. We stopped at Red Sand Beach, to sunbathe and swim. It was a hike to the beach along a cliff hugging pathway, but the beach was well worth the hike. I led the way to find a spot on the beach to lay down our towels, I didn't notice the middle-aged naked man when I decided to put my towel down next to him. Markus gave me a funny look, I thought what's wrong with this spot? It wasn't until naked guy got a phone call and decided the only way to talk is to walk back and forth along the shoreline, that I noticed his "lack of clothing".
It was getting very hot and I decided I'd brave the water. I had to wait until naked guy was at the other end of the beach before I could make a dash for the sea.

Red Sand Beach

The water was wonderfully cool and for a while I enjoyed swimming, that was until I noticed a dark shape moving close to my leg. Suddenly I no longer wanted to be in the water, but naked guy was blocking my access to my towel. I was stuck.
In the end I took my chances with the sharks. I'm tough like that.

See it's not just all in my imagination.

Markus is used to driving on tight winding roads, however no matter how far I travel, I still get travel sick. So on the way back to Wailuku, Markus pulled over for me to be sick. Unfortunately as this is a road chocker block with photo opportunities when the five cars behind us saw us pull in, they followed! Someone actually offered to take our photo, as I clung to the road railing, deathly pale.

Church made from coral and lava.

Ghosts and Surfers

2007-08-27T20:59:00.000-10:00

On Sunday morning, after a fantastic 5 days travelling around Hawai'i together, I left Anitra at Hilo Airport, to begin her journey back to Washington State.
My plan was to drive back to Kona, spend the night at Patey's Place and return the car the next day. No driving distance is that far in Hawai'i, so I made a few stops on the way.
First I went to Akaka Falls, it was very early (around 8am) so I had the place to myself. I was enjoying this until I took a photo of one of the Banyan trees in the park, when I looked on my camera display, there appeared to be some kind of cloudy "thing" in the middle of the tree. Rather than believe it to be my flash, I decided it was a ghost in the tree and ran along.

Akaka Falls

There are a lot of Mongoose here. Admittedly until last week I thought a Mongoose was a type of mountain bike, but apparently it's also a small cat like carnivore. I believe the British are also to blame for this infestation on the island (they were brought in to kill rats eating sugar cane), along with the mosquito problem. The latter only thrived after wild pigs (brought by you know who) destroyed fallen trees and created hollows where rain collected, perfect for mosquitoes to multiply. I'm still amazed as I travel to so many countries on this trip and hear of another British invasion, I mean expedition. I spotted a mongoose on the trail, so not only ran (from the ghost that is) but stomped. As we all know mongoose are afraid of noisy hikers. This is the Hawaiian State flag. It will be lovely to find a country without a footnote in British history, alas I think it's unlikely.
I continued driving to Waipio. Anitra had recommended a visit and she was right. Waipio Valley is at the north of the island. The view from the overlook is the sort of landscape I'd always thought of when I heard "Hawai'i". I decided to hike down to the beach. It's a popular destination on the island, so I was able to get some advice from a guy at the information stand before I started the hike.
There is a road down to the beach, but it's only suitable for 4 wheel drives, our little Chevy wasn't up to the task.

View from Waipio Overlook.

The road down was really tough. I understood it would be steep, but hadn't expected it to be so unrelenting. Finally at sea level the road turns back on itself, towards the ocean. The road here is particularly ragged. I watched a truck approach one of the many, huge puddles, afraid I was about to get an unwanted shower, I took shelter in the trees.
The driver shouted out to me, he was friendly and just wanted to let me know he wasn't about to charge through.
Down at the beach (which was full of surfers) I saw the guy again. He introduced himself and his dog as Marcus and Jeremy. Okay the dog wasn't called Jeremy, but I can't remember his name. Marcus offered me a ride back to the top of the lookout in an hour, I gladly accepted.
Marcus reminded me of David Carradine, a grizzly looking old surfer, but friendly enough.
When he'd finished surfing Marcus introduced himself and Jeremy again, I think he had a problem remembering names, I can't imagine what that's like. I took a seat upfront with Marcus and Claude jumped in the back with the surf board.
As soon as Marcus was on the dirt track he noticed two other people hiking up the hill. He pulled over and kindly offered them a lift too. I was glad of some company, Marcus's behaviour was growing strange. A few moments before he shouted "POY" out of the window. I had no idea why and really didn't like to ask.
The two hikers where a grandfather and granddaughter team. I gave up my seat (I had to be dragged) and stood in the back with Alison. I guess because the incline is so steep, Marcus started collecting huge rocks and loading them in the back of the pick up with Alison and I. The rocks where huge and it took all of Marcus's strength to lift them. Occasionally he would lift one and dance around, shouting "red ants, red ants!"
Alison and I clung on to the pick up for dear life, as Marcus accelerated up the hill. He managed to stop again for another hiker, but the rest of the way I heard him shouting at startled hikers, "sorry no room!"

Marcus and Jeremy

Tomorrow I'm taking a flight to Maui. I don't have any definite plans, although I'm staying here and will be taking advantage of the free tours of the island.

Volcano Village

2007-08-24T23:16:00.001-10:00

Has to be the coolest name for a village. On the way to Volcano we stopped at the U.S.A's most Southern point, I always thought it was in the Florida Keys.
The land was arid and hot. Huge waves pounded against the shore and there is no shelter from the intense sun, but a strong cooling wind.
I have about 30 mosquito bites on my legs (very attractive), so decided to dip my legs in the tidal pools. This was until I spotted the fish, I can eat them, but I can't swim with them.

Tidal Pools at Southernmost Tip of U.S.A

Anitra and I decided to hit the road. We stopped a little further on at a fruit stand and picked up some delicious pineapple, ice cream banana's (not quite ripe yet) and a dragon fruit.
Our next stop was Black Sand Beach. We decided we needed to relax after our night searching for cockroaches. It's surprisingly difficult to find places on the Big Island. There are few signposts and they are often confusing. It seems strange when there are obviously many tourists driving around the island each year. It takes about 7 hours to drive non-stop around the island. But we just did 40 miles to Volcano Village.
Anitra had decided beforehand to spend a day hiking in the Volcano National Park, to one of the remote campgrounds. After reading the official guide to the trail, I decided I probably wasn't up to it. It involves walking across a very open Lava Field, that can become really hot. We stopped by the visitors centre so Anitra could get a camping permit.

Anitra at the start of the trail.

As Anitra had already toured the Park, as she stayed at the military complex inside the park for her water conservation conference, I decided to use the day to explore the Park for myself.
I dropped Anitra at the trail head this morning, and hiked a little of the way. I have to say it looks like a difficult trail and I hope Anitra made it to the beach safely. I know she has plenty of water and is very organised.
Volcano National Park, gives the public the chance to learn about volcano's and see them up close.
I was looking forward to seeing some lava. For almost a 100 years lava has flown into the sea, as the Park has been developed a road has been added so cars and drive close to the lava. This was until June, yes June this year, there was another eruption and the flow of lava was diverted to a spot that can only be viewed from a helicopter. Great.
I did get to see some huge craters and walk through a lava tube.

This is the Thurston Lava Tube

Miss Parrot Learns to Relax in Good Company

2007-08-24T20:45:00.000-10:00

After a very dubious start here in Hawai'i, I'm pleased to report things have improved dramatically. At Patey's Hostel I had the good fortune to meet Anitra, it seems our paths crossed at the perfect moment. Anitra had spent the week at a water conservation conference (her line of work back home in Washington State) and was ready to explore the island. Unfortunately (but luckily for me) her plans were scuppered when she lost her driving license making it impossible to hire a car. I told her about my experiences and how I didn't have any plans, but would love some company. So on Tuesday morning we hired a rental car (Chevy Cobalt FYI Harry) and hit the road!

This is what the American's call a compact.

Anitra had found this site for what looked like a delightful guesthouse. Notice I use the past tense.
Anitra had spoken on several occasions to the owner, she understood she would be the only guest (until plans changed), but was looking forward to somewhere to unwind. It wasn't really the place for that though as fate would have it.
The Kaimana Guesthouse is on an old Lava Field, dating back to the 1920's. There is a lot of properties around, but still plenty of empty Lot's for sale. Although I'm not sure for how long, as apparently when Donald Trump was asked a good place to invest in property, his answer South Kona. The price of the Lot's has increased from around $7,000 to $47,000 in the last three years. It actually reminds me of photo's I've seen of Greenland. Painted houses, inhospitable land pounded by the ocean.
Anitra and I both agree it would be an odd place to live or even own a holiday home, the landscape is so harsh and there isn't much else to do, apart from look at the ocean, it's a hard place to imagine calling home.

Lava Field Homes

It was pretty cool be the only guests and have the place to ourselves. The owner, Solomon had told Anitra where to find the keys.
Our "dorm" was a mezzanine area, with three beds, downstairs there was a kitchen, and open plan living area. The guesthouse is about 100ft from the ocean, but the lava field is craggy and drops off into the ocean so is difficult to access.
It was not until the evening that things went a little off. I was using the phone when a giant cockroach jumped onto the kitchen counter right next to the phone.
We spotted a second on the counter top and started to panic. We discussed our options. We hoped the cockroaches couldn't make it up the stairs.

Attack of the Coakroaches!

My theory involved sleeping with the light on, as cockroaches don't like light. Okay I have no idea where this came from, I mean the light was on in the kitchen. But Anitra was happy to believe my "theory". We started the night with our beds pushed into the corners of the room. As we heard noises in the rafters we slowly edged our beds into the centre of the room.

Our "dorm"

Each time there was the slightest noise, we would both lift ourselves up with alarmed, "What was that?"
You'll be pleased to hear we made it through the night. We both felt a bit silly in the morning, but put it down to being tired. We hit the road again, we wanted to get to Holo Holo In in Volcano Village, which is close to the entrance to Volcano National Park.

Miss Parrot Freaks Out in Hawaii Part II

2007-08-21T15:43:00.000-10:00

I thought I'd break the post into two halves, so no one falls asleep. My flight arrived on time into Kona (one of the nicest airports I've ever used), I went to the luggage counter and filled out a form to arrange for my bag to be delivered to the farm I would be working at. I was told American Airlines staff don't arrive until the evening, so I'd receive the bag the following evening.
I gave Toivo (organic farm owner) a call (finding payphones was becoming a pain), he was waiting in the car park, so drove over to collect me. I expected it to be a little strange, meeting someone I'd only corresponded with via email, late at night. But I could see Toivo was very easy going, he was middle aged and told me a little about the island. We also chatted about Alaska, he'd lived on Kodiak Island for 15 years.
The farm was situated about 40 miles from the airport. We drove past some familiar fast food restaurants and then the roads became quieter. I asked if anyone else was volunteering at the moment. Not at this time. I knew this was often the case, there's a lot of work to be done, so there is normally a full staff and this is complimented during the year by Woofer's, as the volunteers are called.
Toivo started to point out a few small shops and an internet cafe, but we kept driving. I only had my daysack with me and that was mostly full with my laptop, camera and books. All the shops we were passing were closed so I knew I'd have to take a trip to one of the shops in the morning. I tried to keep track of where everything was located, but we continued to drive.
I became concerned when Toivo showed me the road he and his wife lived on, I was under the assumption they lived on the farm.
After a lot more driving we arrived at a small discreet unmarked driveway. Toivo explained "this is Evie's Farm". The car headlights lit up huge banana plants and other plantlife I couldn't identify.
The drive was only about 50ft. Toivo left his headlights on as there is only one electric bulb on site.
I guess when I hear the word "farm", I think sheds, fields, out housing that type of thing. Evie's Farm was very different. Toivo used a flashlight to show me around, I stumbled in the dark after him. Alarm growing, thinking what have I done?
I think Toivo hadn't been to the "farm" for a long time, he was surprised to see the tarpaulin covering the kitchen/store area had fallen down. He told me he worked on renovating homes and only a man worked on the "farm", but he wouldn't arrive until 4pm each weekday.

The kitchen/work area.

Toivo pointed his flashlight at the cabins, he said I could choose which one to stay in. But after he shone the light in one room, he quickly closed the door and directed me to a different cabin.
The cabin, had a large screened window, a double bed and a small table with a battery powered lamp.

The cabin.

Toivo muttered something about the last person leaving stuff behind, there were a lot of empty beer bottles and cigarette butts on the floor. The bed was filthy, with burn holes. I was amazed that neither Toivo nor his wife had checked the cabins out, between volunteers.
Toivo left me his flashlight. I'd shrewdly "borrowed" a blanket from the plane and lay this down on the bed. The realisation of my situation suddenly hit me, it was awful. Without the torch there was no light at all, yet I could here "things" scurrying about amongst the dry leaves under the cabin. I felt foolish for not saying to Toivo, I can't stay here. It was all a kind of delayed reaction.
I decided to try and get a grip, I just needed to get through the night and at first light I would start hiking to the nearest payphone.
Before leaving Toivo had told me to get around the island I could hitchhike, I had looked at him incredulously. But he said it was safe.
I can honestly say I've never been more terrified than last night. I bundled myself onto the bed and tried to think of nice places and firmly keep any creepy thoughts at bay. But who I am kidding? I have an incredibly over active imagination, thoughts raced through my mind all night.
What if the volunteer who had moved out was still around? What if some demented stranger broke into, I mean pushed open the cabin door. I had no way to protect myself and no idea how remote the farm was. The night crept by. I think it must have been fear, but I kept needing to pee. After trying to ignore my bladder for long periods of time, I'd eventually build up the courage to go outside. Only to find five minutes later I needed to go again.
I started to think, what if something did happen to me? No was even coming to the "farm' until 4pm, even then I'm not sure they would look in a cabin.
I'd ask Toivo what wildlife is there on the island. I had been surprised and pleased to hear there are no poisonous snakes. Mostly just wild pigs and rodents. I was so glad to hear Tovia say "rodents", had he said the other "r" word I'd probably still be in the cabin now, rocking myself back and forth. I can't explain why rats freak me out as much as they do, I know it's completely irrational, but that doesn't help.
I began to worry about the cabin next door, the one Tovio had shut the door to quickly, what had he seen? My imagination raced away with me.
I'd start to settle, when suddenly I'd hear a noise that sounded incredibly close and make me break out in a cold sweat.
I must have drifted off at times during the night, but when I started to hear the dawn chorus I felt elation. It was still fairly dark so I waited. It was then I heard a door shut. A human noise.
I was frozen in place, I slowly lifted my head to peer out the screen window, but all I could see were palm trees and the plantation. I heard coughing, it sounded like a heavy smoker had just woken.
Thanks to the little light, I started to think with some logic at last. It must be a neighbour I can hear. It was true, eventually I heard a car start and then drive away.

The driveway.

As light filtered into the room, I packed my bag and left Toivo's flash lamp on the table. Once outside the cabin I noticed owl's wings had been stuck to the side of the wall, as some kind of decoration. What the hell? It looked like something from a teen slasher movie.
I started the climb out of the drive, I didn't even try to get any water, the desire was so strong to get away from the place. Once I reached the road I realised the "farm" wasn't as remote as I'd thought during the night. In fact there were a number of properties along the road. I started to feel calmer.
Although there was no pavement along the road, I did meet a woman out jogging and an elderly gentleman out walking. My plan was to find a payphone and arrange a taxi to the airport. I wanted to get to my bag before it was sent to the "farm". Although I'm sure they couldn't have delivered to the address anyway.
I reached the first payphone after walking for half an hour. It was 6.30am. All the taxi numbers I tried I was greeted by answer phones. I decided to walk to the next payphone. At 7.45am I made it to a general store and managed to reach a company in Kona. It would cost $70, but they could collect me.
For some reason the dispatcher couldn't understand me when I said Karen, repeatedly. This happens all the time in the US.
The driver arrived about 30 minutes later, he was friendly and eager to tell me what to do on the island. We reached the airport about 30 minutes later, after I payed the driver he said "thank you Miss Parrot".
I have no idea how Karen, became Parrot, but there you go.
I had no trouble collecting my bag and then got a shuttle bus to the hostel I'm writing this from. I'm pleased to say there are other guests and no owls wings glued to the wall.

I have no plan for the remaining two and a half weeks I have on the island. I've met a friendly American guy in the hostel, he's hiring a car and has invited me to go to see some waterfalls with him tomorrow.
I'm sitting in a kitchen area, typing this, someone just walked in and I jumped out of my seat. I feel exhausted, I need to go to sleep.

Miss Parrot Freaks Out in Hawaii Part I

2007-08-21T14:56:00.000-10:00

The last 24 hours have been rough, actually that's putting it mildly. It's like describing the Titanic as a small boating accident. The last 24 hours have been terrible!
It all started in L.A and yes I've still to post about my visit to the City of Angels, which I actually really liked. But first let me tell you about leaving L.A. I booked a shuttle bus to pick me up from my hostel and explained my flight was at 3.15pm. They suggested a 1pm pickup, I said that sounds kind of late, so I was booked for a 12.30 pickup. I checked out and waited in the lobby with some other people. After a few frantic phone calls the driver arrived at 1pm. We then had to collect a few more people from the sister hostel around the corner. I explained to the driver I had a 3.15 flight, he told me not to worry I'd make it. He would also drop me off first. However when we got to LAX he somehow forgot this and made a stop at Air New Zealand first. I think I made it to the American Airlines check in for 1.45. Having taken quite a few internal flights in America I know getting through security alone can take two hours.
I reached the check in counter, only to find they had no reservation in my name. This flight was part of my round the world ticket, I have a printed itinerary with the flight details, but apparently that doesn't mean anything. The American Airlines stewardess was really helpful, she phoned Qantas (who are responsible for the Pacific part of my ticket) and passed the phone to me. The Qantas representative sounded like Stephen Hawkins. I seriously thought I was talking to a machine at first, but apparently this lady likes to enunciate every syllable. She told me I only had a flight booked from L.A to Nadi (Fiji), but I explained I had changed these details in June along with my flights in and out of Australia. Although STA charged me for this amendment it seems only the Australian leg of the trip was altered. I still don't know who is at fault, but I ended up having to pay again, before "Stephen Hawkins" would book a seat on the 3.15 flight for me. Finally at 2.35 I had a seat on the 3.15 flight to Honolulu. I was particularly anxious to get on this flight as I had the last connecting flight of the day from Honolulu to Kona on the Big Island. For some reason at LAX you can't simple hand over your luggage, instead they tag it and then you have to carry it to the x-ray area. After this I ran to the security check area, as is usual in airports everywhere there was a huge queue as people stumble in bare feet with belts, laptops and watches in hand.
Considering the size of LAX, the queue was amazingly quick, I couldn't believe it when I made it through security in less than 20 minutes.
All smiles I calmly strolled to my flight gate. Boarding hadn't been announced so I settled down to read for a little while. Later and still no announcement I checked the departure screens to see the flight had been put back to 4pm. I didn't have much time in Honolulu to make it across to Aloha Airlines, so I approached the information desk. I was told the plane had a mechanical failure, so American Airlines are at fault and therefore will do whatever than can to get me on that flight or put me up in Honolulu for the night.
I phoned Tovia my contact on the organic farm and told him not to leave for the airport, instead I'll call him when I know for sure what's happening.
The next update on the departures screen put the flight back to 6pm. I knew I would definitely miss my connection in Honolulu, so I called Aloha Airlines to re-arrange my flight, they told me they would charge for the change, unless I got a code from American Airlines. So I went back to the AA desk and explained the situation, it was then I was told of a 6.40pm direct flight to Kona. I was transferred to this flight, understanding my backpack would still be on the Honolulu flight and wouldn't be transferred to Kona until the following morning. I phoned Tovia arranged the pickup in Kona and boarded the 6.40pm flight. Thankfully it was running on time.
I had always thought of Hawaii as being closer to the mainland than it actually is, in fact the flight was five and a half hours and I'm now 11 hours behind the UK. Finally I was moving the right direction.

Good Intentions

2007-08-19T19:15:00.000-10:00

It's late here in L.A and I have a flight to Hawaii tomorrow. I had all good intentions to update this blog with my adventures in Tinseltown, but I've run out of time! Apologies now to anyone who has sent me an email and I'm unable to reply to.
I'm going to Hawaii to volunteer on an organic farm through WWOOF. I'll let you click on the website as I'm at the first hostel I've come across charging for wifi and I have little time left!
I will be working three hours a day, five days a week and my accommodations will be rustic, eh without electricity in what is described as a small cabin room with screened in windows, no glass. In return I can eat all the produce I can eat. After Hawaii it's onto Fiji, but only for five days before I fly to New Zealand.

When will I learn my lesson???

2007-08-18T18:32:00.000-10:00

Greyhound sucks! Rather than take a bus to the Emeryville train station (just outside San Francisco), a train to Bakersfield and then a bus to L.A. I decided to take the express Greyhound bus from San Francisco direct to L.A, taking seven and a half hours. Supposedly.
Well as you can probably guess, it didn't go to plan. An hour and a half into the journey I woke up to find us parked on the side of the interstate. The driver informed us the bus had overheated. A few moments later a State Trooper told our driver he had to find a safer place to park. Once the bus had cooled down enough he managed to move us a mile up the highway and take an exit road.
We were allowed to get out of the bus and step into the heat, to find, well, nothing. We were in the middle of nowhere. And there we waited for four and a half hours.

Middle of Nowhere.

Greyhound sent out two mechanics and even though they knew the fan belt had broken they didn't bring a replacement. They didn't bring any water either, even though there were a number of really small children and old people on board. So we had to wait while the mechanics went off in search of a fan belt.
Richard, the guy sitting next to me phoned the customer service helpline. He was told there is no refund if Greyhound get you to your destination. Apparently it doesn't matter how long that takes.

The bus going nowhere.

I'm so pleased to think I don't have anymore overland internal trips planned, I'm free of Greyhound!

The Streets of San Francisco and the Rock

2007-08-14T18:30:00.000-10:00

Sorry two screen references in one title is possibly over doing it. I arrived in San Francisco after a very long train journey from Portland, Oregon. The beginning of the journey was very beautiful, cutting through the Cascade mountain range. I wanted to get off the train and have a wander around, it all looked so inviting, huge pine trees, crystal clear lakes, under a clear blue sky.
San Francisco is an extremely popular place this time of year, so much of my time was spent finding somewhere to stay. After checking in to a hostel for a night, I've ended up in a hotel as ALL the hostels where booked through the weekend. It's the first time I've had such difficulties. Admittedly being the weekend didn't help.
I always like to walk around a new place, get an idea of where everything is and get a feel for a place. In San Francisco this is kind of difficult, unless your extremely fit (I'm not even slightly fit), the streets are so steep and the hills are impossible to avoid. It's great to hop on a streetcar, but with so many tourists often you are left watching another packed streetcar pass you by.
I managed to get a ticket to Alcatraz, no mean feat and sailed over in the late afternoon with what felt like every tourist in the city.
I was excited to see Alcatraz, could Sean Connery really break out? Even with the help of Nicholas Cage?

The cells

I imagine those brave souls entering Ellis Island at the beginning of the last century (notice how I avoid pinpointing the year?) to be prodded and questioned had it easy compared with a tourist arriving at Alcatraz! All fifteen hundred of us (do I exaggerate?) were herded up the hill after departing the ferry. There were too many people and too few staff, so a man stood with a loud speaker directing us up the hill to the "facility". Once there we were herded in a long line through passageways, eventually to pick up a set of headphones for the audio tour. The day before I had been mightily impressed with the audio tour at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where they hand out video ipods. Unfortunately Alcatraz isn't quite as advanced. But I enjoyed the audio tour (narrated by ex guards and ex inmates), which led me from cell to yard, to visitors galley, to cell etc. The only problem being as the voice in my ears would say "turn left and look at cell number 38" at least another 40 tourists would hear the same thing from their headphones. At each interesting point I'd find too many people all cramming to see the same thing. I guess the only way to combat this would be to further restrict the number of visitors. I do think the tour would really benefit. I was disappointed that the audio tour and a few mounted photo's where the only means of information. I think the island would really benefit from some kind of re-enactment you see at other museums, especially when there are so many young visitors.

I left the island a little disappointed. I did learn a few things from the audio tour and the views from the island to San Francisco are really impressive.
Tomorrow I'm off to L.A where I'll be until Monday when I fly to Hawaii. Can you believe I'm taking ANOTHER Greyhound bus to L.A! But unfortunately taking the train would mean also taking two buses, it seems easier to take one bus from here and Greyhound actually have a stop in Hollywood, where I'll be staying. The hostel was recommended to me by a fellow English traveller. Check it out here.

The Art of Photography

2007-08-14T17:20:00.000-10:00

Travelling on my own makes it sometimes difficult to get a photo of myself. After all the most important thing about this trip is having many photo's of myself, in front of famous landmarks.
This brings me to the Golden Gate Bridge, as far as landmarks go, it's impressive.
At the "photo point" by the visitors centre I found crowds of tourists. I took a few photo's of the bridge and then politely approached a woman and asked if she could take my photo for me.
This was the result.

Yes apparently it was too difficult to zoom in, or even stand up for that matter, so there's a lot of fence and a boy.

I decided I'd try the good old self portrait. But it's amazing how something as big as the Golden Gate Bridge can become elusive.

So I tried the other side,

Um, so how about portrait?

Okay so that didn't work. I approached another tourist. I was full of hope again.

Oh yes that's brilliant, I wanted it to look like the Golden Gate Bridge is growing OUT of my head.

I wandered off, found a quiet spot with a flat surface and set up the self-timer option on my camera. It's not brilliant, but there isn't a boy, fence or things protruding from my head so I'm happy(ish).

Discovery Islands Tour

2007-08-08T18:26:00.000-10:00

Sometimes I get a little behind on this blog. It makes it hard to recall all the facts and details. But I'm going to surge ahead with this account as tomorrow I set off on a nineteen hour train journey to San Francisco.
After another bad bus journey (from Seattle to Portland) that took only three hours but was running two hours late, I'm looking forward to a spacious Amtrak carriage. I also have a stack of books to read having visited Powell's City of Books here in Portland, and it is now my favourite book store. It also happens to be the largest independent, new and used bookstore in the world!
After boarding a number of Greyhound buses and experiencing the delights of my fellow passengers quirky ways, from the 500lb pyjama clad woman, to the couple with blackened teeth I was pushed over the edge by a teenage girl boarding my bus to Portland with balloon animals. Yes balloon animals. It took her ten minutes to negotiate her way along the aisle to her seat, fellow passengers were left in her wake with static hair and thoroughly annoyed expressions.
However this post is not meant to be about my grievances with America, I'll get to that in another post, no now I want to write about my experiences kayaking in British Columbia.
I arrived on Quadra Island with trepidation, having never kayaked before and not really liking the sea, I began to think, why have I signed up for a 5 day sea kayaking trip?
The shock really hit me as we began (as a newly introduced group) to load our possessions, food and camping gear into our kayaks and after a quick introduction by our guides Jesse and Sandra, walked our kayaks into the sea. The sea was cold.
I had not considered the cold. Only a small problem for most, I however have been known to develop hypothermia when the central heating is turned down a notch. In our flat in West London, Kev and Gaz would often come home and find me under a blanket with several layers on and a hot water bottle pressed against my body, trying to get warm. I can only blame my Dad for this, it is after all hereditary. My Dad once complained when a friend (sleeping over) left a window open a jar all night. My Dad swore he could feel the draft in the next room. It was June.
I was teamed up with Richard in a two person kayak. As a group we were unusually light on couples (only two) and required lots of single person tents. Something else I hadn't considered, I would be sleeping alone in a tent in the wild! I was suddenly very grateful for my flashlight and extra batteries.

How evil looking is this tent?!

Me on the water.

We left Rebecca Spit for lunch on a small island off Quadra. Throughout the trip Jesse and Sandra cooked delicious meals. After paddling for an hour or so, as soon as we stepped out of the kayaks into the icy cold water (only a slight exaggeration) all the heat I had accumulated paddling evaporated and I was covered in goosebumps!
The weather on the first day was decidedly British, dark skies, a little wind and a sense of impending doom. Thankfully by the evening we had the type of beautiful weather we experienced for the rest of the trip.
I think I was really lucky to be in a group with a large number of singles and very friendly people. We all got along from the outset (putting aside your snoring Trevor) and spent a great deal of time laughing.

Jesse and Sandra make a delicious meal and entertain!

After the first day the kayaking for me became a lot of fun. I'd find a rhythm and kind of zone out. The scenery is absolutely stunning, we spent our time paddling around Quadra and Reed Island making stops for lunch and to explore. We spotted Seals lazing on rocks and Eagles soaring overhead. Jesse would always inform us about what we were looking at, from Blue Herons to kelp made into popcorn by indigenous people.

Beautiful Clear Water.

Anna also spotted a dolphin, but no one believes her. Sorry Anna, but you can't be the only person to see a leaping dolphin, that would just be unfair.
Bret did find a snake in the creek right by our campsite on the first night at Open Bay. I was rather alarmed to see he'd just picked it up and carried it into the camp. But his wife Sue Ellen explained they had once had a collection of pet snakes at home, some had even gone missing in the house and been found months later by one of their children. When Bret and Sue Ellen later offered me a place to stay in North Carolina if I ever pass through, I shook my head from side to side vigorously.

Bret and a snake

Only joking Bret and Sue Ellen, I know you no longer have pet snakes so I'd love to visit! Did I mention I love to stay with locals for months at a time and observe?
On the second and third nights we set up camp at Freedom Point, this is on Reed Island (population 55) and juts out into the sea (hence the reference to a point in the name) towards Quadra Island. Beyond Quadra the snow capped mountains of Vancouver Island are visible.

The view from Freedom Point.

Campfire at Freedom Point

Gary helped me set up my tent on the second day. The camping area was in a wooded area with views on either side of the sea. As usual after setting up camp we all wandered around, chatted, took photo's and relaxed.
As dinner time approached we noticed Trevor hadn't returned from his nap. It was at this point our tranquil little world was suddenly very frightening. Richard came running into the kitchen area, he took Jesse to one side, Trevor was not sleeping but unconscious.
I don't really want to go into the details of everything that happened, as for one Trevor has only learned the details himself just recently. But I was very grateful for Sandra and Jesse's knowledge and how they dealt with the situation. Bret also did his part, even when sap fell from a tree into his hair while he was trying to keep Trevor awake! What a soldier. I'm making light of the situation because at the time it was very frightening for us all, particularly waiting for the coast guard to arrive. I'm very thankful Trevor is now well, although without prognosis.
We all missed Trevor (I didn't miss your snoring or Pommie bashing Trevor) and would always feel someone was missing from our little group.

The Group and no we weren't superimposed! It's my overactive flash and Zong-Wen has just run into frame from setting up his self timer too, he's not doing anything "funny". I'm sure he has a better photo of the group.

The group had a talented collection of singers too. Anna actually makes a living from singing and Sue Ellen has sung with professional choirs all over America. I myself cannot sing and not in the annoying way people say, "oh me sing? Oh no I can't sing" and then break into pitch perfect singing. No I mean I really can't sing, it even sounds bad to me. So it was a delight to listen to people who can really sing, although I had "O Canada" playing in my mind for the rest of trip.
Jesse also entertained us, not just by singing but recounting the tale "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert W. Service. It's an epic poem and Jesse gave a passionate account. I felt very inadequate, unable to sing or tell a story. I sat quietly and savoured every moment.
Even though I slept in a tent on my own, I'm pleased to say I only freaked out once, when I opened my tent at night, crept in and had the feeling someone was already in the tent. After shining my light frantically around the tent (it probably looked funny from the outside) I calmed myself and eventually fell asleep.
I feel very fortunate to have chosen this particular tour and at this particular time, as I really believe the people I met made the trip for me.
I got to hang out with Anna and Jenny a little longer, as we shared a hotel room on Quadra after the tour was over.
The next morning Bret and Sue Ellen kindly gave me a lift to Victoria. As a mother of six Sue Ellen obviously has a strong mothering instinct. Typically as they pulled up in front of the hostel in Victoria I had a reservation for, a group of very dodgy looking people where hanging outside. I could see Sue Ellen's look of worry. I pushed the homeless person's trolley aside and entered the hostel, very sad to say goodbye to my new friends.

Sky above Quadra Island, BC.
For those of you who want to check out more photo's from the kayaking trip, click on the Flickr emblem to the right.

Hostel Living

2007-08-08T18:17:00.000-10:00

This morning I woke up when a book landed on my head. Somehow it had fallen from the bunk bed above me and onto my head. Even stranger though, it was a copy of John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley In Seach of America", the book I am currently reading. It took me several minutes to come around and realise the book wasn't my own copy and no it had not hurled itself at me during the night, but the girl in the bunk above had dropped her copy.

Kayak!

2007-08-02T17:07:00.000-10:00

My 5 day tour of the Discovery Islands is over. I met some great people (and I'm not just writing that, because some of you may be reading) and found another beautiful part of the world. I will post more in the next few days.

The view

Vancouver and my plans

2007-07-28T15:03:00.000-10:00

I think Rio has been bumped from the top spot of my favourite cities. I think the top spot is now filled by Western Canada's Vancouver. I know the latter doesn't have the nightlife of Rio, but you may have guessed from this blog that's not high on my list of priorities. What Vancouver has, is well everything. From beautiful snow capped mountains in the distance, to close by Grouse Mountain, beaches, parks, a wonderfully condensed downtown and residential neighbourhoods with great shopping and outdoor sports shops galore. It also feels like everything is well designed in Vancouver, everything feels close, people even seem to dress better. Okay maybe I'm exaggerating but it's great to visit a large city, with all the amenities of a large city and yet find friendly people and natural beauty. I can see why it was recently voted as the number one place to live in the world. Can you believe I developed these feelings for the city in a day and a half?
I stayed at the Hi Jericho Beach. I originally booked here to have a few relaxing days figuring out what to do next. But as I mentioned in the last post, I'm booked on a 5 day sea kayaking trip from tomorrow, so I've spent all of today making the trip across to Vancouver Island and then across to Quadra Island, where I am now. This meant leaving the hostel at 6am, walking 20 minutes to a bus stop, taking two buses, first to downtown and then to Horseshoe Bay for a ferry connection to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. The crossing took about one and a half hours. I then waited two hours for a connecting bus service to Campbell River (another hour and a half journey) and from there a ten minute ferry ride across to Quadra Island. Thankfully I met some really nice people on the trip and have arrived with time to pack for my departure tomorrow. I've booked a taxi for the ride to Coastal Spirits tomorrow morning, I'm slightly concerned to see the taxi has been parked outside the pub next door for several hours. Oh well.
I realise I haven't posted about the Grand Canyon, but I've been particularly busy the last few days.
I did take some photo's of the ferry crossing, but for some reason deleted them while watching Spiderman. Well at least now I'll have plenty of room on my memory card for photographs.
Hopefully I'll be back online Friday or Saturday with some photo's and stories of my kayaking adventure.

Hoover Dam

2007-07-26T14:29:00.001-10:00

The white line shows how much higher the water used to be in Lake Mead

A long way down.

My Plans

2007-07-23T15:20:00.000-10:00

Well I came to Vegas to see the Hoover Dam and to take a three day camping trip to the Grand Canyon. Unfortuantely the trip was cancelled: not enough people signed up. So instead I'm doing a day trip to the West Rim tomorrow. It's not ideal, as it's quite a distance, but I don't want to be this close and not visit the Grand Canyon at all.
On Thursday I fly to Vancouver, as a compensation I've signed up for a sea kayaking trip. Click here for the details. Yes it looks pretty cool and I'm sure it will be as good as camping in the Canyon, well I hope.
Las Vegas itself is everything you can imagine and a little more. On the Strip hotels are being demolished and new ones spring up constantly. There are many shopping malls, bars and restaurants all trying to out do each other.
Some of the free entertainment is quite spectacular, but some is plain depressing, ie the tigers in the glass cage at the Bellagio.
It takes all sorts, and Vegas certainly has all sorts. It's unusually humid at the moment (it's been trying to rain each morning), so the 100 degree heat feels even hotter. I spent an hour today by the pool but even that was too much. Although I've heard about the flooding in England, so I'll complain no more.

Ummm...deep fried you say?!

Las Vegas

2007-07-21T15:53:00.000-10:00

I'm staying at a really nice hostel on Fremont Street. The temperatures often reach over 100 degrees in the morning, so having a pool becomes very important. They also have a water pipe draped some 20ft in the air with tiny holes cut into it to create a fine mist.
I decided to venture out of the hostel (I flew in from Denver Friday afternoon) and head towards the "Fremont Street Experience" covered part of the street. I think the part of Fremont the hostel is on is probably know as the "crystal meth hell Fremont experience". I soon realised this isn't the best neighbourhood when I overheard a conversation between two men on the street. One was saying, "I don't want to go to jail for someone right now". It was obviously something he was willing to re-consider in the future.
I walked a little faster, expecting a fairly leisurely 15 minute walk. By the time I stumbled into an air conditioned Irish bar I felt like Lawrence of Arabia, only hotter and slightly delirious.
I ordered water and decided I needed food too. A bucket of shrimp and chips arrived a moment later. Yes I mean an actual bucket, the silver coloured type usually used to hold champagne. As is the norm in American restaurants, a kitchen towel was on hand, not a few squares, but a whole roll. I decided in a sunstroke sort of way, I'm meant to make a plate. I began folding the squares of towel and placing some shrimp and chips from the bucket onto my "plate". Dispensing of the salt was equally challenging. It was in a Corona bottle, yes the sort that normally holds Mexican beer. I tried to prize open the top, thinking this is going to be a very salty meal. As the waitress arrived at my table with a plate I realised the top of the Corona bottle was a regular salt shaker.

Best Western Movie Manor

2007-07-17T19:25:00.000-10:00

This morning I drove from Durango to Monte Vista. The latter is quite a small town about an hour from most of the surrounding National Parks. But what it does have is a drive in movie motel. Yes people this exists in America!
Originally opened as a one screen drive in cinema in the 1950's, the Kelloff family expanded the business to include a motel in 1964, so they would have a year round business.

The main drive in screen.
Since then the motel has been expanded and a second screen was added a few years ago. It's a typical drive in cinema, with listening posts (as well as the soundtrack broadcast on a radio frequency), a snack bar and a motel. Each room looks out onto the main screen and the sound is pumped into the room. Each room is named after a screen star, I'm in the Burt Reynolds room, well I suppose it's slightly more glamorous than the Sally Fields room.

Burt was very accommodating.

The view of the screen from my room.

The films start around 8.30 to 9 in the evening. I didn't expect many cars to pull up into the drive in, with the improvement in home entertainment systems. I think most of the 8 or so cars parked seemed to be here for novelty value, everyone was taking photographs. Although I assume some locals still use the cinema.
The main screen was showing Die Hard 4, while the second screen played 1408, a creepy Stephen King story about a reviewer of ghostly hotels who finally experiences something hellish in a hotel room. I think the latter would be pretty frightening to watch in a hotel room (with an over active imagination at least), but only the sound from the main screen is pumped into the motel rooms. However all guests are welcome to get into their cars and drive the 50ft to view the second screen. I declined. Instead I stayed in my room, it felt odd to be looking at a screen through a window. I also got to thinking, what happens when it rains? Do people watch the film with their window wipers going back and forth? I asked at reception if bad weather will stop a screening, but apparently not. I did notice before the end of Bruce Willis' latest battle with the bad guys, only one car remained, but maybe that had something to do with the plot?

The Line Up

Speakers for a car.
It's been a cool experience to stay in such a unique hotel, but I can see why Drive In cinemas are disappearing.

Photo's of Ouray

2007-07-15T14:02:00.000-10:00

Here are some photographs of Ouray. It's a beautiful town nestled in the Rockies. It's know as the Switzerland of the US.

Ouray Hot Springs

Main Street, original buildings from the 1890's.

The town's library.

The Perfect Day

2007-07-13T11:15:00.000-10:00

I woke this morning to clear blue skies, in every direction there are amazing views. One of the regulars at the hostel had recommended a trip out to Turquoise Lake, so I drove the 4 or so miles out to the nearest point of the Lake. I parked alongside some RV's, that thankfully left my car in the shade.
Armed with my camera, water, insect spray and sun lotion I set off on trail that circles the lake. I knew I couldn't manage the whole trail, I'm still not used to the altitude. No serious trouble, just shortness of breath and incredibly thirsty all the time.

There were quite a few cyclists, horse riders, hikers and runners on the trail. The trail hugs the lake, I passed a number of fishermen and women. The lake is also used for wake boarding. Unfortunately this makes huge waves.

Flowers by the Lake
I saw a lot of wildlife too, they have a guidebook here in the hostel that's helped me identify some of what I saw. There are so many Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel, yes I had to look that one up.

They are friendly little things.

I stopped to chat to a friendly fisherman, he's been coming to Leadville since 1985, he spoke like Clint Eastwood. He told me all about his life as shoe store owner in Nebraska. Apparently I'd just missed another English person. I told him there's a lot of us travelling right now.

Clint with his catch, yes he put it back.

It was so peaceful out on the lake. I think I'll let the photo's do the talking.

Gnarly pieces of wood.

I snapped this from the car
I've been invited to join the guys at the hostel tonight to eat the catch of the day, a great end to a perfect day.

Thankfully I didn't see any of these.

Leadville

2007-07-12T12:34:00.000-10:00

I arrived in Leadville around midday from Granby. I'd heard Leadville was a good place to visit, it's an old mining town proud of it's history with great access to nearby mountains and trails. It also holds a lot of famous endurance races and bike contests.
The drive to Leadville took about 2 hours, but that was with a few stops to take photo's and take a look around.

And the rain came.
Leadville is quite a pretty town, that has plenty of hiking opportunities. The Leadville Hostel
is a really nice homely place to stay, it seems to be full of regulars, mostly retired guys interested in hiking the local area.
I was originally going to stay for one night, but as I have a six bed dorm to myself and they have a huge plasma tv, library, films, pool tables and a great kitchen I plan to stay two nights.

Lake near Leadville

It also started to rain when I arrived, luckily I got my stuff out the car before the hail and then the full on thunder storm. It was quite the spectacle. Being this high up (10,000ft) it's a lot cooler. Hopefully if the weather is clear tomorrow I'm going to take a hike around a lake nearby.

Dorm room, Emily they even have Barbie bedding!

On the Road

2007-07-12T05:24:00.001-10:00

I'm now using a hired SUV (f.y.i Harry a Hyundai) to travel around the state of Colorado for 9 days. I collected the car from a depot out by the airport. In a fit of terror I took full insurance and even have a Satellite Navigation system. It was nerve racking to find myself behind the wheel (which was on the wrong side of the car) about to drive on the wrong side of the road (lets face it the left is the best) to a destination that involved alot of numbers. I don't say this lightly, I hate numbered roads. In my mind interstate 36 becomes 38, 72 becomes 79. Throw in numbered exits and I'm all at sea.

The SUV

After clutching the door handle a few times, groping for the handbrake I got the hang of the SUV. I drove through Boulder but it wasn't how I imagined. I expected a post apocalyptic town of good people, but then I remembered "The Stand" is fictitious.
I had my camera at hand to take photographs of the amazing scenery, from lakes, bountiful forests, harsh tundra and looming mountains. Sometimes taking a photo involves a lurch to the left hand lane, but so far so good.
I've noticed other drivers seem to be giving me a wide berth. Is this something to do with my positioning in the centre of the road?
I drove through the Rocky Mountain National Park. This is quite the feat. The roads are well maintained, it's just there is too much to see and too many observation spots. At first I thought the small camera logo on my sat nav was warning me of a speed camera up ahead, so I'd drop my speed from the enforced 35 m.p.h to 30. Eventually I realised covert cameras hadn't been fitted into the trees, rather it was a perfect opportunity to take a photo.

Some of the amazing scenery.

I did manage to photograph some Elk, but I wished for a better zoom. After about three hours of stopping and starting in the Park, and feeling the effects of the altitude (some 12,000 ft in places) I drove out to the town of Granby.
I started to worry when I noticed a lot of "NO VACANCY" signs and realised it was 5.00, but I finally pulled into a typical American motel with vacancies. Today I'm heading to Leadville. I think the hostel I'm staying at tonight offers free wifi so I will try to get some more photo's online. It's a must as I took over 50 photo's yesterday alone.

Elk in Rocky Mountain National Park