The Russians are Coming!

A Rocky Start

The Livschiz visit had a bit of a rocky start. Due to events that no one could control their visit intersected with Glenn and Judi's so they had to wait for us in Sydney. To start with, there was a cyclone that changed the weather to rain and cold and by the time we saw them they were tired and sick of Sydney. It was a little bittersweet for me to see them, as seeing Lena and Lenya made me miss my parents even more. We had to have a late start leaving Sydney because we needed to do an oil change as a condition of our warranty and we didn't get on the road until about one in the afternoon. As we were driving through the city, a guy one car in front of us decided that he missed his exit and slammed on the brakes almost causing an accident and scaring the life out of us. It took several minutes for the situation to resolve itself and everyone in the car was on edge. We then got stuck in a tunnel where there was an accident and got to sit in a hot car with the windows up for a little while. The hits kept on coming as I got a massive migraine that evening and had to skip dinner, then we needed a jump to get the car started the next morning, and finally as we made it into Melbourne right before rush hour the motorway we had gotten on had to be closed down completely due to a gruesome accident there. It took us three extra hours to get out of the city. Not the best start to a trip :(

The Great Ocean Road

Our car failed to start for the second day in a row without a jump so we had a late morning because we had to get a new battery. It cold have been much worse than it was, but we could get to a mechanics and be seen right away. We had a new battery and were on the road faster than some of our gas station stops. After days of bullshit we were finally at our first road trip destination. The road kept getting more and beautiful as we started on the Great Ocean Road. According to one of the signs we saw along the way, The Great Ocean Road was built as a monument to the Australians from Victoria who died in WWI. The project started in 1919 and was only completed in 1936. It's the best war monument that I have ever seen, although I don't think Australia does a particularly good job advertising it as such. 

Our first stop was at "Separation Point Lighthouse" and that is what really made it feel like the "Great Ocean road" rather than just a "Good Ocean Road". Even with the crazy amount of tourists there it was still somehow peaceful and serene there. To me, going to the lighthouse was the real start of our journey. Even though we had a picnic by the lighthouse we had to make a u-turn and come back down the road when we saw a restaurant advertising fresh seafood on the pier. Those appetizers were absolutely delicious. We had oysters Kilpatrick (bacon over oysters with some amazing sauce on top), a crab bisque, and Thai style prawns. We polished everything off with a couple of beers and walked off our second lunch by a little mini hike to some falls we saw on the road. It was a very nice day and we stopped for the night right by the twelve apostles.

The 13th Apostle

The morning started rougher than our previous ones. It was our first day with the new battery and we decided to test starting the car before we left. Mike started the ignition without being in the car, and the car lurched and drove straight into the bushes before stalling out. Lenya made a run for it on the passenger side and tried to stop it by pulling on the frame while Mike threw down his coffee and actually managed to jump in. It turned out that even though the car was in park, it was in first gear rather than in neutral and so when we started it, it lurched forward against the parking break. All in all the only casualty was a bush and everyone got mild heart attacks. The park didn't even charge us for the damage to their shrubbery. Apparently no day can go by without some kind of bullshit. Mike and I started getting worried that the Livschiz visit is cursed.

Once everyone managed to slow down their pulse we made it to the Gibson Steps and took a walk in the sand. Originally we thought we had gotten to the 12 apostles, but later found that we didn't quite make it there yet. It was an amazingly beautiful place and a lovely walk after our morning ordeal. We walked around in the cold ocean water and took some pictures before heading to the real 12 apostles. The day was sunny and absolutely beautiful and we could see surfers nearby catching big waves. As we were coming up to the staircase to lead us back to the car park, Lena suddenly appeared behind us soaking wet. Apparently she found a shell and was trying to clean in the water when a wave came, knocked her down and started dragging her in. She managed to get back up, but was pretty shaken by the whole thing. The worst part was that none of us saw it because she was walking behind us. One second she was with us, and the next she was running up to us dripping water everywhere. Unfortunately she also took her purse and her camera with her so everything got ruined in the process. 

Thankfully that was our last unfortunate event of the day. Lena was OK once she changed and got her bearings again. We spent the rest of the day walking around an awesomely beautful place and taking in "The Twelve Apostles" and "The Loch Ard Gorge". We finished off the day by eating a delicious meal in Port Campbell at a restaurant called "The 12 Rocks" where the Livschizes finally tried some kangaroo. It turned out to be a very successful day even though it had all of the potential of ending up an absolute disaster. I will also add here that I was dealing with my Chicago renter who had not paid rent for April yet, so my spirits were slightly dampened, but I got a text the next day that my very stern email worked and this was just a temporary issue.

Grampians National Park

We woke up to rain and were already lamenting the weather, but the skies started clearing before 10 so we had some hope that the weather would hold. We started the car with no problems and just as Lenya commented that our luck had changed I slammed my thumb knuckle in the door. I saw more stars then there are in the outback on a clear night when that happened, but since I iced it right away I hardly felt it the next day. Our campground gave our visitors their encounter with kangaroos, because it was completely covered in roo shit :). They didn't seem to mind too much, and we joked about it on our way to the park. I did see and photograph a wallaby on our hike later in the day, but I was away from the group so no one else saw it. The little guy was so fast I didn't even know what it was until it stopped. It was just a grey blur of fur.

After dealing with my thumb and getting our bearings we went into the town of Hall's Gap, got maps for the Grampians National Park which Lena was very excited about, and went for our hike. The weather was perfect. Once in a while the sun came out and it was a cool breezy day, which is perfect for hiking. The place that we hiked was really beautiful. Our hike took us to the "Pinnacle" which gave us great views of the surrounding area from up above. My favorite view was actually right by a narrow stretch of the hike called "Silent Street". The rocks in the area look like boulders that have been stacked up on purpose and there is an area that looks like Mayan ruins that have been taken over by the jungle.  Mike told me that he had the same association and we both reminisced about our vacation in Guatemala when we went to Tical to see the   on the hike was called "The Great Canyon". I feel like there were come illusions of grandeur with the people naming this particular portion, but it was very nice and very beautiful. I must go to the real Grand Canyon someday to compare :)

Mayan ruins. Lena said that to her the rocks look like reptilian skin and some rocks looked like snakes and turtles. It's was a very different landscape for all of us. I was really happy when Lena and Lenya both commented on the fact that I was in great hiking shape because I love me some validation once in a while and they are seasoned hikers :) The other great place

The hike was a moderately challenging one and it took us 3.5 hours to hike 3.5 miles (with breaks of course). At the end of the day everyone was very happy and very very hungry. We ended up eating dinner in Hull's Gap and then driving out as far as we could to make the next day of driving easier on all of us.

The Unplanned Winery

We had a very pleasant morning where no one got hurt and there was no car trouble and then started on the long drive to White Cliffs. Mike was trying to break up the drive so we stopped at a national park and walked a 15 minute "Nature Walk" loop. It wasn't very exciting but it gave us a chance to stretch our legs. Once we started driving again we saw a sign informing us that there are wineries in the area and stopped so that I could Google what was available. Imagine our surprise and delight when we found that Lindeman's, Lenya's very favorite brand of Shiraz was a mere 10 minutes out of the way! We were a little concerned that the winery would be closed, but everything ended up working out and we were in and trying wines faster than you could say boo.

I have never been to a tasting so generous! I actually had to cut myself off before the lady poured me more wine because it was before lunch and I got really drunk on an empty stomach. Everyone had an absolutely amazing time at the tasting and it ended up being absolutely free. The lady doing the pouring was really nice and pleasant to talk to and we even took a picture with her. Between the four of us we ended up buying 9 bottles which were super reasonably priced. My parents will be getting the 2012 and the 2013 Shiraz personally delivered by Lena and Lenya in the very near future. I really liked the Merlot, so Lenya bought a case for us to drink in the remaining 10 days. I think I will be permanently hung over :)

The winery find was the stroke of luck Mike and I had been waiting for. The unplanned side trip always turns out amazing because there are no expectations, and this was no different. I don't think we could have planned it any better. Unfortunately for me, the restaurant in the winery was closed for Easter, so I embarrassed myself a little in front of my in-laws and sang some drunken songs until we found something for me to eat so that I could sober up. I don't think they will hold it against me ;)

White Cliffs (again)

This time as we made out way to White Cliffs there were very few kangaroos on the road. Our luck continued to hold as we managed to get two rooms at the Underground Hotel on Easter weekend. The one strange thing was that while we were talking about whether or not to drive out to White Cliffs Our phones showed that the time was 30 minutes earlier than what the clock in the car showed. This 30 minute difference made the Livschizes opt for the long drive and the stay in the hotel rather than stopping for the night in a different - but much less awesome town. I assumed that the problem was with the car clock, updated it, and made the reservations. As we started on our drive the time suddenly went forward by the half an hour on the phones and I again had to update the car clock. It's almost as if something wanted us to stay in White Cliffs. (My real explanation is that the phone company towers had the wrong time in the town that we were passing where I had enough reception to reserve the room, but isn't it more fun to think that it was meat to be?). Mike was really upset because  wanted his parents to experience the roo obstacle course, but a combination of heavy truck traffic and weather kept most of them out of the headlights. Lenya did count around 20 that he saw so it was't a total loss :). This time we saw a lot more foxes on the road though. Apparently the colder wetter weather suits them better then the roos. Lenya also saw some Emus so I feel like overall our start at the outback drive was pretty successful. We got in to the hotel late but it was really really nice to sleep in a big warm bed. Lena loves the hotel. She has compared it to Hobbitton and it's great to see her so excited. She has told me that she has photographed every portion of it, so I recommend tracking her down when she returns for detailed documentation of our stay. In the morning Mike took his parents opal mining, and I stayed in the hotel, relaxed, and caught up with the blog. It's still important to write it as often as possible, even though I can't really post anything for a while :( 

The Road to the Reef

We opted to drive through the outback with the  and saw all sorts of animals to their great delight. There were emus, kangaroos, wallabies, wild goats and black cows, foxes, eagles, and rabbits. As we drove closer to the coast we even saw read headed cranes and pelicans. The road brought all sorts of excitements as we knew it would so mostly it was very successful (I think). On our second day of driving I started the day by checking the oil and coolant in the car and topping off the oil, and later taking over as driver for a little while. This was my first time driving a stick left handed and I am proud to say that I did not stall out, although everyone in the car may have needed some fresh underwear by the time I was done. I originally wanted to avoid driving stick with while we had visitors, but the road forced my hand as it was either drive or stop and regain some semblance of normalcy from the car sickness. 

I have noticed a pleasant development that I am attributing to this trip, I am no longer as scared to fail which

makes learning new things, or doing something new much easier. Even with my in-laws in the car and the fact that I have never driven a stick shift minivan with no power steering on the left side of the road before, I was not as nervous as I thought I would be. I think that this travelling year has not only taught me that its OK to not be the best, and that it's OK to fail at first, but also to give me the confidence to do it in front of people that I want to like me (AKA my in-laws). I need to give them credit, they were very supportive of my efforts, and I hope that I didn't scare them too badly. I repeated the driving experiment the next day as well and this time there was a steep downgrade in a mountain range that I had to get through. We are all alive and that's what matters. Mike decided to let me know while I was driving that I didn't have to go own the slopes as slowly as I was going, and I told him that I knew that I didn't have to, but i wanted to. Take that husband! When he relieved me at the wheel I sucked down half a bottle of water, so it's not as f I'm completely at ease with everything, but I m getting better at this stick thing.

If me driving wasn't bad enough, towards the evening the GPS took us to a road that tapered into one lane in places and then became a dirt road periodically. Trucks have complete right of way on the road which meant that we would have to pull over to the grass and watch a truck speed by us. Lena and Lenya thought one of the trucks was a little close, so they had a little bit of a fright at some point. I will also confess that we met a suicidal rabbit on the road. We were trying our best to avoid him, but he rushed back under the wheels at the last moment and there was no time to do anything but run him over. I really hope that this is our one and only mammal kill. (there have already been a couple of frog casualties)

The Adventure of the Great Barrier Reef

We ended up going much further north this time around and Mike and Igot a chance to compare the reef tours. The Whitsundays tour had only a couple of  things against it - it added several hours to our already very very long drive and there were not as many different types of fish and no sea turtles. That is the only thing that I could put on the minus side. In the pro column were the following:

• It was a better boat - barf bags were not already folded into the seats
• It was a smoother ride - the reef protected us from a lot of the turbulance we experienced on the Lady Musgrove tour
• The reef itself was absolutely stunning - I don't think its even fair for the Lady Musgrove tour to say that they show the reef. Although technically that's true, its not the same as what we saw this time around. There was coral of all shapes and sizes and colors. My favorite were the corals that looked like underwater trees that had phosphorescent tips on the ends of each branch. Mike and I asked if we could swim right above the coral (the water is only a couple of feet deep - and it was amazing. I even saw that poisonous fish that looks like a rock while I was snorkeling. Once again I felt calm and
  
  happy. It was also really cool to snorkel in the rain. You can feel the drops hit your wetsuit and the water all around you, and the fish come out and frolic more. It was a lovely day. Nothing could be complete without some adventure, so on the way back we hit a storm and it felt like we were riding a mechanical bull rather than a small cruise boat. Mike was nice enough to pack extra slothes for me to wear so I wouldn't be cold, but he got completely soaked by the rain. We polished off our day with a nice thai takeout meal. Overall, it was a lovely lovely day

Noosa and Brisbane.

Our original plan was to drive to Noosa on Friday, drop the Livschizes off at the beach, and get our necessary oil change while they are splashing around - but we didn't know that Friday was ANZAC day and all of the mechanics are closed. ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in case you are curious. Friday morning we had a flurry of morning activity trying to find ANYONE who would do the oil change - but no luck. I finally found someone in Brisbane who not only picked up the phone, but told me that he would do the oil change at some point on Saturday - but we would have to leave the car. 

On one hand this was great news because we wouldn't void the warranty, but on the other hand it could cut significantly into our busy day and potentially we would have to give up on something that we had planned on one of the remaining days of the trip. We took what we could get and drove to Noosa which reminded me a lot of Miami. The other awesome thing about driving to a resort town on a three day holiday weekend is the insanity once you get there. We dropped Lena and Lenya at the beach and then took forever to find parking a mile away. By the time we found parking it was time to get the Livschizes and continue to Brisbane, so Mike went to get them and I stayed int he car and read for a little bit. The day soured for me when I got another migrane as we pulled into our campground. According to Mike the rest of my companions made friends with a local couple who were staying there and were slightly too chatty. Perhaps the migraine was not so bad....

The next morning we got up at 6 and were at the mechanic's at 7:30 am. He told us he would do the best he can in terms of time and we went to a lovely cafe and had an amazingly delicious breakfast. The interior was very quirky cool and even though we were the first customers they filled up early and quickly early on a Saturday morning. The best news was that at 8:40 am the mechanic called and told us that the car was

ready! It basically meant that we were leaving Brisbane earlier than we have left anywhere else on the trip - no time was lost at all. The mechanic filled out the necessary paperwork and only charged us 50% of what we paid previously because he only did the basics and no other frills. This was the best luck we have had on the whole trip. We had a pleasant journey with a nice lunch on the road and stopped at Port Macquaire for the night. Right now everyone else is at the Billabong Koala Sanctuary petting cute animals and feeding roos and I am at a coffee shop finishing this blog. Life is good. I probably won't post this until we are back in Sydney so the blog continues for you, as for me - I will be finishing my soy latte and watching the rain from my table.

Goodbye
The last couple of days were pretty uneventful. We drove down to the Blue Mountains which looked absolutely beautiful with the colors changing, but didn't get there until very late at night. The next morning we attempted to do a proper hike, but the place we went to was closed for maintenance so we had to scramble at the last second and did a short walk in a different spot. The walk was nothing special and I think by this point everyone was just tired and ready for a break. We spent the last night with the Livschiz clan eating thai takeout in our hotel room and we saw them off at the Sydney airport the next morning. Thank you guys for coming and sharing our adventure with us. We miss you!!!!

Our First Visitors

Glenn and Judi came to visit us a week after we got the van, so our adventure could finally begin. Our plan was to make a big loop taking in the coast, Great Barrier Reef, the outback, an underground city, an aboriginal town, and a hike in the Blue Mountains - a busy two weeks. It has been a great adventure so far.

Glenn and Judi arrived with very little jet lag so we just took them around the big sights of Sydney. We had a big day where we hit Circular Quay, looked at the bridge, walked to the opera house, cut back through the Botanic Gardens and ended up in CBD. They were troopers and didn't really start getting tired until dinner time. We had them stay in Kirribilli - across the harbor from the CBD (central business district) and just had dinner there before leaving them to rest and spending our last night in the Lane Cove Campground. 

I don't think I really talked about the campground before, so let me just fill you in. The animals seem to rule the entire area, and I mean rule. There are very cute possums there (not the American rat looking kind, but the Australian marsupial kind) that have basically taken over the facilities. The kitchen is out in the open, just under the canopy, and they make themselves quite at home there. They climb up on tables, walk over the drying dish rag, the stove, the grill. Mike and I tried to have our dishes not touch anything once we washed them, especially the rack which the little critters like to lounge on. There is one possum that is not doing very well at the campsite, I'm not sure if he's been in a fight, or is very sick, but he is not like the furry cute possums that run around the place. I heard the ranger say that normally he would have died, but the backpackers, and the scavenged kitchen scraps keep him alive. The possums sometimes fight in the night, and have even jumped on top of our van at one point (we were parked under a tree). They have a very heavy step so it sounds like a person is walking on top of the van. We have also seen very colorful parakeets and parrots flying around, some kind of wild Australian turkeys walking around and a Kookaburra (I think that's the bird that repeats everything). We were not sad to leave the campground because the facilities were not that great and we could not wait for the real adventure to begin.

The Koala preserve

 We stopped at a campground after our first day of driving and I saw a brochure for a koala sanctuary in the office so we decided to swing by. It made for such an amazing day! We started with the koalas and got to pet the shit out of one. When we first came in to their area they were all sleeping and they sleep like they got drunk and just passed out in the trees. They started waking up just before the ranger came in and talked to us. The koala we got to pet was named Stony, and he definitely looked pretty stoned! The fur felt very woolly but soft to me and I loved watching Stony's little face as he was petted into oblivion. I had heard a lot about how smelly Koalas are, but I didn't think it was all that bad... Perhaps the cuteness factor trumps any olfactory negativity :)

Once we petted Stony we went to the kangaroo and wallaby area. We had all bought kangaroo food (aka dried corn) and proceeded to feed them. They were so much fun. The roos were very tame and friendly and would eat out of our hands. If we happened to have our hand up to high, the wallabies would pull on the hand with their cute little front paws. The roos also like to get their chests scratched and lean in like dogs do when you pet and scratch them. It was just a lovely lovely time!. For me nothing in the preserve beat the koalas and roos, but we also petted a small crocodile (the keepers put electrical tape around its jaws so that it wouldn't bite us. It was still a little unsettling to me because if that tape didn't hold I am sure we would have lost at least part of an arm to the beast. There were also dingos and wombats in the preserve. I was very excited to see the wombat poop which supposedly comes out in cubes, but I'm here to tell you friends that the Australian tame wombat poop is nothing special. For some unknown reason the preserve also had red pandas and snow leopards. We spend 4-5 hours looking at and petting different animals in the preserve. There were also a lot of interesting looking birds, but I'm not really bird person so I didn't care too much.

Australia - where you meet everyone you have met in NZ

we stopped off at another campsite that night and were in the process of making dinner when a guy came up to Mike and seemed very excited. We didn't recognize him right away without his beard, but we had met and chatted with him and his girlfriend (or wife) in Abel Tasman during the Great Walk. They were the Canadians that told us about the knife making class that we took on the South Island. We were so surprised and pleased to see them again. Their recommendations were really awesome and they were a really nice couple. What are the chances that we would run into them again in a different country and some random campground? The BM vibe continues to follow us in OZ and I like it!

The Great Barrier Reef

We ended up getting a package cruise out to the great barrier reef. Basically the cruise provides transportation to Lady Musgrove island, snorkeling, glass bottom boat, semi submarine, and a nature walk on the island itself. I love being on boats partially because I never get seasick and damn was I lucky that I never do! Part of the safety briefing talked about what to do with barf bags, which I thought was a little excessive, but I was wrong. Over the course of an hour and a half, many people around me needed to use those bags. The ride was very very bumpy and I think most of the people who did not end up loosing their breakfast to the ocean, barely hung on. We were told that the ride back will be a lot better because we would be going with the waves instead of into the waves and it was true to the great relief of the passengers.

The boat doesn't actually dock at the island, but at a pontoon that's pretty close by because the water there is really shallow. Glenn and Mike opted to do a SCUBA add-on, but I st opted for the snorkeling. I liked the snorkeling so much, that I didn't even do any of the other optional activities! It was so beautiful and peaceful to float around and see the beauty below. I saw starfish, sea cucumbers, colorful fish of all types, a manta ray and a whole tribe of sea turtles. The turtles were huge and they occupied what looked like a basin of coral. There were five turtles in the basin floating in the basin but all facing out in different directions. As I was floating by one of the turtles swam past me and so close that I could probably touch it if I wanted to. It was just so calm and serene and happy to be there. I'm not sorry that Mike and I have to come back there with his parents ;)

Mike and Glenn had their intro dive with a German instructor who used Australian sayings, but with a heavy German accent. Imagine the Terminator saying "No worries mate". It was super hard not to burst out laughing. I was a great day all in all. The town we stayed in that night is called 1770 because that's when captain cook landed there. How cool is it to live in a town that's a number. 

The Outback

The next leg of our journey went through the outback. It's kind of funny because at some point you just pass a sign on the highway that says "Welcome to the Outback". I didn't think that it was an official place, but apparently it has borders. The outback has a smell, and its the smell of decay and rot, the smell of roadkill. I am not being dramatic when I say that. It's a pretty constant stench of rotting hot kangaroo flesh. They are everywhere and they are very numerous. In the three days that it took us to drive from 1770 to the underground city of White Cliffs we saw cows, wild goats, emus, but more than anything else we saw kangaroos. They are nocturnal and even though you can see some in the daytime, the majority of them come out at dusk and take over the road. Driving becomes a different kind of an adventure. We drive about 20-30 kilometers under the speed limit and the whole car becomes kangaroo spotters. They dart across the road, they are constantly on the shoulders, they are in the middle of the lanes. They don't seem to run away until the van is within 10 feet of them. We love them and we hate them. They are really cute and really dangerous at the same time. 

Having read up a little beforehand and after talking to some locals we follow big semis down the road once the sun goes down. The roos seem to be weary of the trucks, and if not, the truck takes the hit. Some of the roos are over 6 feet tall and the resulting accident would be no joke. We try not to drive too much after dark, and once our guests are gone and we don't have a schedule to keep we will likely stop driving at night at all. It's strange that the kangaroos still own the roads to such an extent and by the smell and look of it they die in staggering numbers. Its not just the smell, you can see decomposing bodies and skeletons on the side of the road. I don't think anyone cleans up the roads... If the drive down the coast feels suburban, the Outback - although greener than I had anticipated still looks more or less like I had pictured with the red earth, the stunted trees, and the hundreds of hopping roos and wallabies. This is true adventure.

One of the nights, we were pretty far away from any caravan parks so we stopped at a free rest area type of place - basically a field with a public bathroom/shower building. This is the first time that we were introduced to the flies in the outback. I don't think I knew what a swarm was until now. The good thing - they don't bite, the bad thing - they are on you flying into your face, your mouth, your eyes, just everywhere. One day we stopped on the road to have a snack and I ate it while running around the van so that the flies don't interrupt me. Why do they swarm you might ask - they are looking for water. They want your sweat, they want to drink and they just keep coming. Construction workers wear nets over their hats and heads to protect them. I don't think you could stay sane for long standing still. If you stop moving you will easily get 30 flies to land on you in a minute, but back to the free campsite...

Once we understood the plight of the flies we set up for the night and I went to use the facilities. Say what you will, but I think that I have toughened up in the last couple of months and all I really want from a bathroom these days is to not have mosquitoes attack me when I'm on the toilet or any bugs to fly into the stall while I'm there. This bathroom did not fit these requirements. When I first came in, I could hear a scratching noise that I couldn't place for a little while, but I finally found the culprit - a giant beetle slipping around in the metal washbasin. It was so large that I could hear it's feet scrape on the metal. I pulled it together and marched into a stall where I saw another giant beetle swimming around in the toilet - I can do this I said to myself. I flushed and saw a frog almost fall from a place in the toilet basin where the water rushes out. That's when I lost it, screamed like a little girl, ran out of there, and peed outside where there was a smaller critters per square foot ratio. I will report that I did use those facilities in the morning when I didn't have the cover of darkness and the frog was still there. I tried not to pee on it :).

White Cliffs

After three days of driving and a whole lot of kangaroo spotting we made it to the town of White Cliffs. It's a small mining town, but a lot of people live in bunkers underground to get away from the heat. The last 200 kilometers of the drive was insane. We were warned by the hotel staff of White Cliffs that there is an insane amount of roos out on the road but we have never seen anything like it. There were portions of the drive where it looked like a kangaroo and wallaby obstacle course. We had to drive 20/30 km under the speed limit just to have enough time to stop when a kangaroo would hop onto the road in front of our car. Some were already on the road and would not be in a big hurry to move. You could have cut the tension in the car with a knife, but it was so incredibly exciting. We were also warned about goats (which we saw in great numbers) and black cows which you supposedly can't see at night until you are almost on top of them, but we have only seen them in the daytime.

We splurged and stayed at the largest underground hotel in the world (no supporting beams or anything but rock that was jackhammered into a labyrinth of rooms. The only natural light in the room comes from an air shaft in the ceiling. It's a really cool place to stay (literally and figuratively). The walls have been drilled into the hill, sealed with bondcrete and painted white. There is a staircase that you can take up to the top of the hill where you see all of the ventilation shafts for the rooms and the town below. The hotel started out at just a home for a miner. His son built his dug out right next to his and so several generations of a family lived in a large underground multi-room enclosure. The family extended and joined the two dwellings, and eventually converted it into a hotel.Not all of the buildings are underground, but some are. In the morning Glenn and Judi found a pilot that would let them fly their plane (they are both licensed pilots) and Mike went along with them. I decided to take some me time and read a book in the general store/post office/cafe/gas station. 

After everyone came back from their flight and the tour of the opal mine we ate at that same general store and proceeded to close out the towns only pub, at 10:23pm on a Wednesday :). We met some of the locals who were colorful characters. One told me about a snake he killed outside of the towns health clinic and the other told of a group of guys that had recently found opals worth 50 million dollars (I think this is just a story they tell people to add to their White Cliffs experience) The pub also had the town's notice board with the schedule of health professionals that will be coming in. In that town, everyone has a dentist appointment on April 23rd  and a podiatry appointment on May 6th :). They get their medical care via the Flying Doctor which is a big thing in the outback. The towns are really remote so there is a doctor who flies around to give medical assistance. The towns raise the airplane gas costs to help the Flying Doctor come in.

The next day we got up and went to look for opals. There is a public area here where visitors can look around. Of course all of the really big opals are got by digging in the ground, but there is enough on top for you to get a souvenir of your visit. We were warned to make sure that we don't cross over into private claims which are right next to the visitor area because some of the owners don't take too kindly to such things and could potentially shoot at you. Once in a great while a visitor can find something that is worth a couple of thousand dollars, but obviously that's rare. Mike told me that the mine tour is a Tom Sawyer kind of a setup. A man takes you to his mine, you dig where he tells you, anything you find is his, and you pay him for the privilege :) we found a couple of small opals and maybe I will make a ring out of them to remind me of this time forever more. If you are serious about the life of an opal miner you can get a claim out here for 200 a year and you can live there and work there. The night before at the pub a townie told me that most people out in White Cliffs go on unemployment while they are mining. They just tell the government that they are trying to find a job here and get money for quite a while which is more than enough to live on if you live cheaply and in your mine dugout (which most people would do anyway because of the heat). 

Western Plains Zoo

We were going to stop by an "aboriginal town", but it was just a small town with nothing really special about it other than that 75% of the population were aborigines. Instead we drove town to Dubbo to visit a zoo that was recommended by Frommer's. This turned out to be the most humane zoo that I have ever seen. There are no cages as there would be in an American Zoo, rather there are very large fields that is sectioned off by a fence where the animals live. For the animals that can't swim there are islands that they live on and no fences at all. The good part of the zoo is that the animals look much happier. They actually graze peacefully or frolic with each other instead of sadly looking out at the hundreds of people that are pointing at them and yelling (the lioness that we saw still paced, but in a very tiny part of her enclosure so I'm not really sure what her problem was). The bad part is that the zoo didn't actually think about how the visitors can see the animals better. I would expect that for the full price of the ticket, which is nearly 50 dollars, every visitor would get a pair of binoculars, but we didn't. We could barely see some of the animals they were so far away.  I fully support the idea of the zoo, but it was not well executed. The highlight of the zoo for me was seeing three different types of rhinos including the one that looks like it has plates of armor under it's skin. A second favorite was watching a family of monkeys interact on an island. Overall, after our other adventures everyone was pretty underwhelmed by the zoo. After the zoo we drove to Sydney and because we got too close to the city, ended up not finding a campsite and all 4 sleeping in the van. I kept waking up and hoping that it was morning, but seeing nothing but darkness. Glenn and Judi somehow rigged it so that they could both sleep horizontally in the back, but Mike and I just curled up in our seats up front and tried our best to get some form of rest. In the morning we just had enough time to get breakfast and get Glenn and Judi to the airport and checked in on time. It was sad to see them go, and we hope that they had a good time.

We're in OZ!!!!

After about 3.5 years of planning and saving we have finally made it to Australia! I am so excited to write these words that I can barely stand it! Sydney is a beautiful city and in a different life I would totally live here. It's amazing to walk around in.

First Day

Our first couple of days were spend in an actual hotel room (not an ensuite, but those things don't matter too much.) The hotel was in the neighborhood of Kirribilli which basically gives you a great view of the Sydney CBD, the Sydney Harbor Bridge, and of course the Opera House. We allowed ourselves the luxury of taking a cab from the airport with 4 giant bags and two backpacks - money well spent.

We were pretty hungry by the time we got to our hotel, so we dropped off our stuff in the room and started exploring the hood. We ended up walking to the Sunday market that we saw out of the cab and it was a total win. They had food from all over and a (no so great) jazz band playing in the background. The highlight of the food for me was a Russian blintz filled with farmer's cheese and sour cherries!!!! It was truly meant to be, because I even had my lactaid pills with me. That Russian comfort food was just what the doctor ordered and it made me think of my grandparents (they fed me and Mike binchiki when we stopped by their house on the way to the airport in the US.

We were both pretty zonked so the only other thing we managed to accomplish was to get a local SIM card, and set it up, an walk around the neighborhood for a little bit. It is so pleasant and beautiful. I can't imagine feeling sad in a place like this. I will also say, that we saw some Australian wildlife right off the bat, including bats that screech at night  and are the size of a baby!

Birthday celebration

Our next day we finally officially celebrated my birthday. The day started with a a pleasant lunch in Kirribilli followed by a walk over to "Luna Park". Apparently the one in Sydney is the original of the brand. I was curious about this because the word for amusement park in Russian is 'lunapark' and apparently the reason for this is that in the early 20th century this was a worldwide chain! Wikipedia specifically talks about the fact that 'lunapark' is the word for amusement parks in a lot of languages. The reason it's called 'Luna Park' in the first place is there is a ride called 'fly to the moon' there and the owner named the park to reference that ride. Another weird thing: there is a section of the park called 'Coney Island'. This is a straight up reference to the us where the owner first saw this type of an amusement park. The park is very kitchy and old school and makes me think of childhood. 

We spend the rest of the day seeing some of the closer sights. We walked the famous Harbor Bridge, strolled around the Circular Quay and inspected the Sydney opera house. Jessica told us the check out the roof, and we saw that it is made out of ceramic tile. We finished my wonderful day with a very fancy dinner at a seafood restaurant that was across the water from the Opera House. The dinner was absolutely delicious: we ordered a giant hot seafood platter for 2 (or 4 depending on your idea of portion size). There were scallops, prawn, lobster tail, muscles, fish, just everything under the sea. The dinner came with fries ,which I don't really understand since seafood and fries live in different worlds in my book, and salad. There was an insane amount of food, but we left no sea creature uneaten! Mike even had room for the salad, and the fries were left untouched. It was a lovely birthday dinner courtesy of my dear dear friends back in the states, and we were both glad for the long walk back so that we could metabolize some of that goodness.   

Moving Day

We wanted to extend our hotel stay another night, but they were fully booked, so we made reservations at the only campground in the city of Sydney, Cockatoo Island. In order to move we would have to take 2 ferries which was a lot of fun :). We left half of our things at the hotel and took a nice ride to the island, and during our stay, but I sure didn't feel like a winner when my prediction came true.

then back and forth again. I would love to live in Sydney and have to commute by ferry. There is no way you can be in a bad mood riding a ferry to work. Sydney gets 300 days of sunshine a year, so imagine blue skies, sunshine an maybe some salty spray as you ride to work in the morning and come back at night! It would be glorious. The ferries also provide 30 minutes of Internet, although no power outlets so you could catch up on FB during your time on the boat. I mostly preferred to ride up front and look out at Sydney. It's only when we really set up on the island that we realized how low on room we would be. Camping in NZ was different, because we could leave most of our stuff in the car, but we no longer had a car, so our two person tent ended up with 2 people, 4 giant bags and 2 little backpacks. It was so tight in there that neither of us could straighten our legs and we also had to synchronize our turns in the night. At the time, I didn't realize what a difference this would make, but then again, we also thought that this arrangement would only be a couple of days. Another not so convenient thing about living on the island: the ferry does not run all night, so you end up having a curfew. I bet Mike that we would miss the ferry at least once

We Bought a Van

One of the main tasks that we had in Sydney is buying a car. Our requirements were pretty simple: Needs to seat 4 for when people visit, needs to be able to have a bed/mattress in the back, and our budget based on research was between 4-8 thousand dollars. The reason the range is so wide is that we were not sure if we would end up with a van or with a station wagon. We did research online and basically there are two ways to buy a car for backpackers in Sydney, you could either go to the private sale car market in King's Cross, or you buy from a van rental company. My research online brought a lot of horror stories from the car market. People were swindled in so many different ways, from the registration, through to horrible car trouble, and so the consensus online was - unless you know cars very very well, and do all of your research on NSW car laws, you are playing Russian roulette at the King's Cross car market. That left the option of buying from a van rental company.

We searched and searched, but only one company name kept coming up - Travellers Autobarn which I will refer to as TAB from now on. We decided that we have to see the cars before we decide on car vs van and so we went to TAB with the rule that we would not buy anything that day. We ended up dealing with a guy named Sean, who seemed very knowledgeable and answered all of our questions. I really wanted a van more than a car, but all of the vans had the back seats removed, and in Australia you can't have a passenger who doesn't have their own seat belt. It would be illegal for us to drive with other people on the bed. We told Sean, that we had this issue, and he told us that they had a van that they just bought were the seats were not removed yet and if we would like to see it. We agreed that we would come back the next morning and check out the "apple van" named that because of the logo that was still not removed from it for "apple city printing"

When we got home we talked and decided that if the van can be modified in the way that we need we would buy it. We knew that we were not in the greatest bargaining position since we only had the one place to go to buy, but we were determined to try our best.

The next day was really really long. I think we spend 4 or 5 hours talking with Sean. We started off going to look at the van and talking to the mechanic who would also make the modifications on the inside. The dream was to have a foldable seat that the bed frame could go over. Unfortunately the van did not have foldable seats. As we were examining it, I saw that the seat back was a completely separate part from the bench so I asked the mechanic if we could unscrew the back for when we want the bed to be unfurled. We talked through the logistics for a while and then went back to the office to talk about a potential sale. At the end Mike and I are pretty happy with what we got. Our van will have an advantage of versatility over other vans on the market (4 seats capacity) and we hope we will be able to sell it for a good price. If not, TAB guaranteed to buy it back from us for 40% of the price, so the worst case scenario is still not too bad. We were extremely tired by the end of the day, and the worst part was that we have to wait for a week to get the van, they need time to service it and build it up to our specs. 

How we missed our ferry.

We had been on the island for almost a week and got the hang of the whole ferry thing. The last ferry is at 11:37, but we never shoot for the last one, always the second to last one, in case our commuting back to the wharf takes longer than expected. Unfortunately, part of being a traveller is that you don't know what day it is. Every day seems like a Saturday and usually there is no problem with that. Unfortunately, the day of the week really matters on Sunday, when the last ferry to our island leaves at 7pm.

After spending a lovely day out walking around Chinatown we came back to the wharf to catch the 9:37 ferry back to the island. We were early for god's sake! When we got in to the wharf and looked at the monitors to see how long we would have to wait, we did not see anything in regards to our ferry line. We came up to one of the workers, and he told us that since it's Sunday, there are no more ferries to our island and the only thing we can do is take a water taxi.

Upon further investigation we found out that the water taxi companies were now closed, but if they were open the ride would cost us 75 dollars. Since a room in our original hotel only cost $15 more, we opted to just stay in the city and enjoy. I was on the phone with the hotel when I saw a familiar face walking by and sure enough we ran into Steve Bayliss who was in Sydney for business! In a city of 4.5 million people we ran into the one person we know, who is also not from Sydney and is only there for a couple of days. We chatted for a while, and made tentative plans to meet up, but Mike and I had to run to the hotel before their receptionist left for the night (10pm) and we would be locked out. Sometimes the funniest things happen when you least expect them...

Our clothes are in jail!

One of the days on the island we wanted to do laundry and apparently there are free facilities on the island that are available for the use of the guests, but the office has to unlock the area. I didn't realize this, so they unlocked it before I had detergent and you couldn't buy any on the island. Mike and I made a plan that we would take the ferry to the mainland, buy detergent and then he would stay in the library and do research and I would head back to do laundry. By the time we actually went on the ferry, I had already ran and was more than ready for a shower, but it was also time to recolor my hair, and you are supposed to do it when it's dry, so I was purposefully holding off. 

We bought the detergent and I also stopped by for some hair color and went back to the island. My plan was to put a load in, and do some ab exercises, and then put in the second load and go color my hair while one load washes and the other dries. Everything went fine for the first load, but then when I wanted to put it in the dryer I realized that none of the dryers were working. That meant that I hung our first load on the fence and only then put the second (of three) load in. That done, I went to color my hair in the camp shower. This was my second attempt, because for some reason the permanent color that I bought earlier that week just washed right off. The whole process along with my well deserved shower took about an hour and it was wonderful. I knew I still had a load of washing to do, but that would be fine. 

The first thing I did was take the previous load off the fence to make some room and free up some clothespins. I went back to the laundry facility and found that the door was locked! Our laundry had been jailed by the island. I tried to go  to the office to get the laundry room unlocked, but since it was a couple of minutes after 5:30, no one was there. Our laundry would have to remain in jail for the night :(. we did manage to successfully finish the laundry the next morning, but I will never get used to everyone being done with work so early here. 

When birds attack (and bats fly)

There are two huge fruit trees on the island that are full of bats at night. The bats are very vocal and I started out being kind of scared of them. I have already mentioned that they are much bigger than bats I have seen before, and they are very very loud which does not add to my comfort level. I had always just assumed that they live on the island so I was completely blown away when I just happened to be on the island around dusk and saw the migration of the bats to the tree. I was watching the last patch of sunset disappear when I saw a bat flying from the mainland to the tree, then they started coming in twos and threes, it was a very steady stream, and must have lasted for 10 minutes from the time I started watching. It was so beautiful and peaceful that I immediately lost my fear. I had just wished that Mike was there to see it, because he really loves to watch that kind of stuff, and is always stopping me to point out beautiful things. 

The bats are mostly a nuisance, since they are very loud at night, and they also eat fruit and spit the seeds down. There are some streets in Sydney that I don't want to walk after dark, for fear of being spit on. Since the trees were by the bathroom, I would take the long way around to avoid getting spit on by the loudmouths. I am telling you this, so you appreciate how beautiful it was to see them come to the tree. I forgave them for their uncultured ways immediately. I wanted to film them for Mike, but it was already too dark, but then again, that was part of the magic. 

On our last night we were on the island again as the sun started to set. I had told Mike about the bats and asked him to wait till dusk to go shower so that I could show him how beautiful their flight in was. He agreed, and as there was an absolutely beautiful sunset, decided to kill some time by taking pictures. He decided that the best view is closer to the rocks and walked over, but two tiny birds started screaming at him. As he continued walking they started flying very close to him trying to scare him off. They were really attacking him! He continued to stand there and try to take pictures of them as they flew at his head and tried leading him away. We think he unknowingly came close to their nest and they started freaking out. 

Eventually he came back to the tent, but even when he went by the water on our side of the slipway the birds

came after him. They had established a perimeter and he was clearly in breach. They did finally leave him to take pictures on our side, but would periodically do an attack flight (like a warning shot) that evening and the next morning. He had clearly made their shit list. 

I had almost given up on the bats when they started flying in. I was really happy that I got to show Mike how it was. we stood together facing the remains of the day watching the black silhouettes flying in. It was the perfect goodbye to our island. 

Moving Day - Part 2

It was a very hard day an we were completely exhausted by the end of it. The morning was spent packing all of our things and it took much longer than anticipated. Also we had to do it with no shade because apparently, Cockatoo Island does not believe in camping in the shade. I got a pretty nice tan as a result of the day. This time around we needed to take a ferry, 2 trains, and a 10 minute walk to get to TAB. Basically a one way trip was 1.5 hours, so getting all of our bags moved took 4.5 hours and we were both sweaty, smelly and exhausted by the end of that. The first trip I was carrying the cheap backpack with very poor weight distribution that was packed with mostly alcohol and papers, and had my camel back strapped to the front with the ipad, toiletries and kindle. I was not happy by the time we reached our destination. Not only was I tired, but I was also very hungry, and didn't think that food would be available anytime soon.

The second trip was much better for me, because we had some time to kill before the ferry and actually ate. On top o that, my second trip I only had to carry my hiking backpack (much better weight distribution) and some groceries. We were back at TAB at around 5:30 and finally the van was in our grasp. I was still a huge pain in the ass to our car dealer and made him explain all aspects of the warranty and logistics of everything. He even started to get offended and to tell me that he is not trying to cheat me, but I told him, that it's not about him - I just want to know what is and isn't covered, and do not want to be surprised unnecessarily. After a little over an hour of going over the paperwork and my incessant questions we had the van and the keys and were out of there! We parked our new home at a free parking spot our dealer Sean told us about, and celebrated with some Malaysian food (our last dinner out in a while I think).

Mike found it a little difficult to drive the van in the city - not only do you have to drive on the left and drive

manual, but the gearshift is also on the left. It was a tense ride to the campground, but we finally made it there around 11pm. Unfortunately the campground is gated and the sign on the door told us that they don't let anyone in after 10.... Here is where our luck became unbelievable: Mike went to look around and while I was siting in the car I saw a security guard! He told us that not only could he let us in, but also there was just one more unpowered site available and we could have it!! We happily filled out the paperwork and drove to our space only to find it occupied by another vehicle! After some back and forth with the guard and the people we ended up moving to a powered site free of charge and were finally done fr the night. We slept on a dry glorious mattress and the next morning I woke up and was not irritated for the first time in a week!

Our First Full Day in a Van

It felt like waking up in a palace, which made me think of that rabbi joke where the husband comes to the rabbi and he is unhappy because his house is so crowded and everyone is so irritable. I was so incredibly happy!! We needed to go to the city to grab some stuff at the mechanic's and have him fill up the wiper fluid for the back door and change a light bulb inside the cab and then our priorities were lunch and shopping. 

It was such a pleasure to buy household things for the van! It was the same feeling I had when decorating my first apartment! we had space so I could finally have some cutting boards, an even a salad bowl! No more trying to make salads in washed yogurt tubs!! we bought new sheets and pillows and at my very fervent request, glow in the dark stars and planets so that we could stick them on our ceiling at night. Mike asked me why I didn't put glow in the dark stars on our bedroom ceiling, and the only answer I could come up with was - no one cares if there are stars in the van and I am going for a certain look with the house. I don't know why I feel so limited in how we decorate the house, but I would never put glow in the dark stars on the bedroom ceiling. It would make me happy - but I would be embarrassed. Does that mean that when I decorate the house I do it for other people? I wonder what that says about me. Am I trying to have 'good taste' at the expense of having fun? This has been a fight with Mike inn the past. He always wants to put 'fun' things in, but they don't match the decor or the color scheme, or what ever else and we argue.

We'll miss you Kiwis (the people, the birds, the fruit)

I'm a little sad that this is my last NZ post. I waited a little before writing it because we have been having internet dificulties for a while, so I apologize if this is disjointed, but here goes:

Wellington

We decided that we needed a break from all of the camping and got a room share in Wellington for about the same price. Once we got to the house and checked out the room I realized that I have been changed a little by the trip. Our room had two twin beds pushed together, but it was not te cleanest. We also had the use of a gross refrigirator and microwave.  I loved sleeping in a bed, but overall I prefer to sleep in a tent, but cook and shower in facilities that are cleaned daily. I never thought that I would feel that way, but bed does not trump cleanliness. (and its not as if the place was filthy, imagine college living 'clean'). As a separate bonus Mike was able to renegotiate our rate for an additional night, and we suspect that the owner stole one of our spoons as payback! I'm not even joking about this, the spoon was on the counter and 2 hours later it wasn't. 

Wellington gave me a proper dose of the city, which I needed badly! It has a completely SF vibe to it. Even the look of the city is very SF. Houses are built in an older style, and painted different colors, they have a trolley, and there is a more bohemian vibe to everything. Mike and I just happened to arrive during the "New Zealand" festival and walk into a performance art section that was on the water and housed in shipping containers (Kiwis love to use shipping containers for things). The coolest thing in the art shipping containers was a 2 story installation. The second story houses a bathtub on display. People strip down to their underwear and sit in the warm water. The tub is overfilled so that it would leak through the foorboards down to the first story level. There are clear ponchos available and you cn put them on and stand in th "rain" created by the tub. 

There were other installations there, some were light and some were sound. There was an exhibit where people would be measured for "joy". It all gave off a BM vibe and apparently one of the light installations was from kiwi burn (but it was not as cool as some of the other ones). There was also a stage made out of a shipping container and there was live music by local bands and singers there. Walking around that area really grounded me a little. It was such a cool scene. I was told and one of the pubs there there was also an exhibit which was part flash mob, part silent disco. Random people are given headphones and have to follow instructions that no one else can hear. It seemed that the people with the headphones were instructed to move in the same way, so they became a silent instant flash mob, but Mike and I didn't see it.

One of the other days that we were in the city we had a nice brunch and then did what they call the hidden art tour. Basically you download a google map of locations and go into public buildings to see anything from bronze sculptures, to grafitti, to an underground ship that became moored and incorporated into the city as the warf was extended out. (+olga shafran very similar to the streeterville story). My favorite thing that we saw was had to be the exhibit of doctor tools from the early 1900s. They were on display at a bar called GP (general practiioner). I talked to the bartender, and he basically gave me the story of the building from a time it was a dctors office to when it was a "cathouse" to it's current state. I will admit that I thought that a cathouse was like a kennel for cats, which really embarassed the bartender, and which Mike found to be absolutely hilarious.

My last story about Wellington is about the homeless. There are a lot of them in the city. It's just one more way that it reminds me of SF. Most of the homelss are pretty crazy, but the ones that aren't are very nice and helpful. Our first night strolling the streets we saw a homeless man talking to a foreign backpacker girl, and I suspected that he was bothering her. It turned out that he was giving her a tour of the city and even showing her the art displays I mentioned earlier. Another time, Mike and I were looking at a wall of graffiti and a couple of homeless guys suggested that we go around to the other side to see more. I mentally placed the odds at 50/50 that their friends will be there to mug and beat us, but nope, just the awesome graffiti that was promised to us. I guess I'm a little jaded....

We had a final night of camping in NZ on our way up to Auckland at a campground that had a contraption named "The Flying Fox" which was basically a zipline for kids. I love all of the BM reminders  that we keep running into. In a way, it makes me feel more connected with all of my friends. 

Auckland

On our way to Auckland we had a very important stop, a repeat of our first hike three months before. The first time around I wanted to throw myself off the path and die multiple times. I needed to take brakes pretty often, and both Mike and I realized that we were in need of some training. The hike took us 3 hours and I was pretty exhausted when it was done. This time around we finished it in 2 hours! Not only that, but I have done much harder hikes recently. What a birthday present to realize how much more fit I am! As an added bonus, the hike let me break in my new hiking boots (a b-day present from Mike) and they were perfect! As we were driving back to the city, we saw waves of sheep running on sides of hills chased by sheepdogs. I know it's stupid, but I thought it was the coolest thing. We just fullled over to the side of the road and watched the dogs work. 

When we finally got into town we saw Steve and Olichka's new home. It is absolutely beautiful, and well worth the 5 month search. They have a view of a sunset over Auckland and the ocean from their bedroom window, which is amazing. It didn't really hit me that we were leaving until I got to the city. On one hand, I was really excited to finally go to Australia and get to the place we have been working towards for so long, but I was very sad to leave New Zealand. NZ is a very beautiful country, and I am going to miss it. We have had so many adventures there and made so many wonderful memories, that it will always have a special place in my heart.

I also wanted to say a few words about Olichka and Steve. They were unbelievable hosts! They put so much thought into hosting us and made our lives so much easier that I can't even begin to describe. They drove us to and from the airport at ridiculous times, they bought us phone cards before our arrival, they lent us guidebooks and set us up with places to live. They spent their hard earned vacation time hanging out with us, and Olichka let us borrow her car for 3 whole months, among other very very kind thoughtful and generouos acts. I only hope that one day we will be able to recipricate the huge favor. Part of why NZ will always be special to me, is because they live there. 

We spent our last couple of days catching up with friends and making OZ plan during the day and hanging with Steve and Olichka at night. Olichka surprised us with a "pump" class one of the days, so that we could really feel the burn. I was really scared to go, but found that it was a lot of fun altough I was sore for 4 days afterward. Neither Mike or I slept our last night on NZ soil, but the night couldn't last forever, and so the first leg of our journey was completed.

Final Personal Thoughts

I learned a lot in the last three months, and I'm still processing some of it. Recently I have been struggling a little because in my regular life I'm a leader at work, so I have been comfortable not always being on at home. I was used to knowing what the right thing in any situation is, and not needing anyone in order to act. At this point in the trip, with us spending so much time in nature, and with me not working, I feel a little out of balance. I am often wrong, or don't know how to proceed with something. I have learned that I am an experienced tourist, but not always a knowledgeable traveller. I have learned that there are times when I won't know what to do, and I am trying to be OK in that role. I find that I am trying to compete with Mike physically (in our exersice regimen) which is stupid, but I have no one else to compete with, and apparently I need that. I feel that the experince has been humbling, but I don't think its a bad thing for me to be taken down a notch or two by life. I will try to remember this feeling when I am again in the role of a teacher or a mentor. I will try to be more compasionate and patient. I don't promise miracles, but maybe I can keep some of this inside and change my perspective a little.

I also learned that travelling as a couple can be lonely. Mke and I don't really talk to many people. We don't really fit in with the backpackers, or the families. Since we are camping, we don't stay in hostels and meet new people. Sometimes we are too much for each other, but when we have separate days we spend them alone. I think he is more OK with it than I am. I need alone time, but I also need people besides Mike in my life. I think that this is a good thing, but it makes travel harder for me. It makes me miss all of my friends and family more than I tought I did.

I have become less "girly". I dont wear dresses or skirts unless I'm in a city now. I have only worn makeup twice since we have started our travels. I don't blowdry my hair. Some people would find that to be a release, but more and more I miss these routines. It is one of the reasons that I feel a little out of balance in my own skin. It's a weird feeling, I can no longer predict how I will feel about something. It's a little unnerving. 

I have embraced activity and the outdoors. I jog and I hike and I walk. I have not really watched TV for months. I tried one day in Auckland, and just could not stomach it. I spend most of my time outdoors. I  also don't have a space that is entirely my own. I am without a cave or retreat. I can't run away to recharge anymore. Life is completely different for me now. In some ways its liberating, and in some binding. Since Mike and I travel together, no decision is enirely our own. We have to plan routes, shop for food, even make bathroom stops together. No research that I have done has prepared me for this. On one hand its a deeper form of  intimacy, but on the other it can be frusterating. 

I will finish by saying that none of this is bad. I am not making judgements for the most part. I am just trying to document how I feel. I like the challange of the unfamiiar road. I think all of these thoughts are very good for me. I hope that as a result, I will become a deeper, more interesting, and a more compassionate person (even a little bit)

Goodbye South Island!

Now that I have gotten the social issues blog out of the way, I really want to tell you guys about our final adventures on the south island. There have been lots of activity and not a lot of downtime, so I will get started immediately. I apologize for the length in advance :)

MTB

Mike has been wanting to go mountain biking for a while now, and Queenstown just happens to have a course with a gondola that takes you up to the top so that you only have to worry about going down. MTB has never really appealed to me because I think the pain that every fall would be very very painful, and for me the end doesn't justify the means, but Mike wanted to go, and he promised me that we would just do the easy track, and we would only go as fast as I was comfortable with.

I should have listened to the guy that we were renting our gear from. He asked if I had ever mountain biked, and I said no. At that point he seemed concerned, but I basically told him that I would be OK. We got all of our gear and rode the gondola up. I think that they need a bunny trail. Once I saw what the easy trail looked like I became nervous. It wasn't the end of the world, because at the worst case I could just walk the bike down the hill, but I knew that I was not going to be enjoying the day. We stopped about 50 feet from the very top, mainly for me to get my bearings, and when I tried getting on the bike (privately renamed "the undertaker" by yours truly) my shorts got caught on the seat and I fell twisting my ankle in the process.

I was very upset because this injury occurred in the very beginning, and I knew how much Mike was looking forward to the day. I was also upset because I wanted to still be able to hike another of the "Great Walks", but I would be lying if I didn't admit that a part of me was relieved that I would not be spending the day trying to conquer my fear. It took us a while to get down, and I actually convinced Mike to continue riding while I sat in a park by the bike rental and Skype'd with my friends. This was my Valentine's day to plan for Mike, and at that point I considered it a fail, but I think it was rescued by a nice dinner, on top of which Mike did enjoy his MTB experience, so we will round that up to success.

The first successful bike ride and hike prep

After staying off my ankle for 48 hours, we decided to do a bike riding test. Riding a bike is the perfect activity since you are not putting on as much pressure on it, and I needed to get back on the horse anyway. (well this was more like the pony version). Mike and I rented some bikes and ended up going for an off-road bike ride. I think more than anything this ride proved to him how unprepared I must have been for MTB. Even on the easy track that we chose, I found some parts to be challenging. We ended up riding 15 miles, with frequent stops to allow mike to pick wild plums, blackberries, apples, etc from the trees and bushes lining the path. He was in heaven! Overall, I think the day was very enjoyable and I felt that I was ready to proceed to walking. My favorite part of the whole thing was my cute basket :)

The next day we moved on to walking long distances. We went down the same track for the same 15 miles and timed ourselves. Our walk took 4.5 hours and would have been more of a success if I didn't wear my running shoes instead of my hiking shoes. My running shoes have open screens in the sole (for breathability) which let dust in when you are walking on an unpaved path. I ended up blistering my feet in a pretty severe way, but we decided that I was ready for our Routeburn multi-day hike and booked it. 

Due to the fact that transportation from the end of the track to the beginning is very very expensive, and only one of the two campsites that we needed was available, our plan for Routeburn was as follows:

day 1 - 15 mile round trip day hike from The Divide to Lake McKenzie Hut and back. Drive to Milford.

day 2 - kayak trip around Milford and potentially walk around

day 3 - 5 mile one way hike from Routeburn Shelter to Routeburn Flats campsite

day 4 - 15 mile round trip hike to Lake McKenzie Hut (from the other side)

day 5 - 5 mile one way hike back from the campsite to the shelter

It sounds intense, but we have been kicking ass and taking names, so that's what we decided to do. We left Queenstown the next day after doing some very laid back paddle-boarding. We have gotten significantly better at it and this time no one fell. 

The Routeburn day hike

I taped up and stabilized my feet and we started on the hike. I think the rain started falling as soon as we got onto the track, but we were in good spirits, and how long can a rain really fall? I was a little worried about the fact that we only started at non, but armed with the fact that we can walk the distance in 4.5 hours I thought that we would be safe..... dum dum dum

The trail took us through the most mossy forest I have ever been to. It looked like everything was covered in a saggy green carpet! There was round moss, and tree moss, moss on rocks, green moss, white moss, and even red moss (feel free to make the Forrest Gump shrimp parallel here). The rain made everything in the forest look extra bright and the fog lent it an alien planet quality. It was really pretty, but I wished that if wasn't so foggy because I knew that we were missing epic mountain views. There was a summit possibility as a side trip option pretty close to the beginning of the hike, but I nixed it due to the rain, wind, fog, and most importantly - because I wasn't completely sure that I could hike with the ankle and monster blisters for even the 15 miles, not to mention and additional side trip. The two highlights of the hike for me were:

- The insane waterfall we walked by (174 meters tall) - it sprayed mist all over us, but it didn't really matter at that point because we were soaked through our shoes and rain jackets anyway.

- a portion of the trail called "The Orchard" where gnarled trees covered by hanging moss stood in the fog. There was a very calm and surreal quality about the whole place. 

The trip turned on me a little when we were about 45 minutes from McKenzie Hut. The rain was getting heavier and my feet were getting really wet. I was fantasizing about getting to the hut, warming up, having some lunch and a little rest out of the rain before having to turn around. That did not happen for several reasons. First of all campers and day hikers are not allowed to use the hut facilities at all. The best that Mike and I got was to sit on a bench by the hut so that we would be covered from the rain while we ate. Not only was there not a dry stitch of clothing on us, but our day backpack was completely soaked as well, so we had no dry clothes to change into. The other problem was that the 8 mile one way trip took us 4 hours! We simply did  not have time to rest and enjoy our lunch. I started going back before Mike was even done eating since I was getting cold standing still.

On our way back to the Divide, we were beyond soaked. I would make fists every ten minutes or so to wring water out of my gloves. Every step I took produced a squish sound in my shoes, and I was getting tired, but we still had adventures ahead. On our way in we crossed several small streams carefully stepping on rocks. On our way back the water level and current had increased significantly so that a lot f the rocks we had used before were now submerged. Several times Mike had to find some big rocks on the trail and throw them into streams as stepping stones. 

We made it back to the parking lot cod and wet, but in good spirits and before dark!!! The 16 miles took us 8 hours. There was a changing room at the shelter so I got to put on dry clothes!!! I had to change everything including my underwear - there was not a dry stitch on me. As it was still raining Mike opted to stay wet because he would have to set up the tent in the rain :( His sacrifice turned out to be for nothing because the rain only got harder and we opted to actually get a cabin for the night. I would have normally enjoyed it, but I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. It was a tough, good day.

Kayaking at Milford

We could not believe that our tour did not get cancelled because though the rain had stopped by morning, it was cold, windy and foggy, but the show must go on I guess. Our guide waited to get a final all clear on the kayaking and then we all drove over to the dock. We were given all of the gear which included thermals, wetsuit vests, fleeces, windbreakers and spray skirts, we we were no longer worried about being too cold. The wind had also died down by then so we were excited to get started. Once we had all of our gear on we went outside for a quick safety briefing and finally got into the kayaks and away from the evil sand flies that were feasting on us.

We found out some interesting things on the tour. The town of Milford has no cell service, which I guess is not that strange, but they also don't have electricity run to them. They use one of the waterfalls to power the entire town. We also saw a baby seal playing by the shore. Our guide said that the reason the seal was alone is that some male seals get kicked out of the colony when they are young. They stay in Milford Sound eating and getting stronger until they turn 3, at which point they try to fight their way back in. Apparently there are too many male seals, and this is how the colony handles this problem. I guess it's good to be a female seal :)

We were also told that Milford is actually a fjord, not a sound. A fjord is a valley carved by a glacier and hen flooded by the sea or the ocean, a sound is a valley carved by a river and then flooded by the sea or ocean. When Cook saw Milford he named it a sound because there are no fjords in England and he didn't know the difference. Rather than renaming all of the "sounds" in the area the kiwis just left the names as is and named the whole region FIORDLAND. (No I didn't spell that incorrectly, they did)

We had another treat on our tour, because the wind and waves had picked up we rafted the kayaks together and sailed back to shore. When I say sailed what it means is that everyone holds on to everyone else's kayak and the kayak passengers on the sides either hold a rope attached to a sail (if they are in the front position) or tie the rope to their oar and hold the oar up (if they are in the back position). The sailing was a lot of fun, but I got stuck holding the rope and at one point my kayak got separated from the on next to me, I let go of the sail, our kayak went perpendicular to the wave and we turned over. 

Thankfully, Mike and I had kayaked in lake Superior before and their safety briefing wasn't a 5 minute speech on what to do. In the good old U.S. of A they actually made us turn over into the freezing water and practice getting the spray skirt off the kayak and getting to the surface from under the boat. I will always be grateful to them for that safety demonstration because when you  hit frozen water your mind just goes into shock along with your body, but both Mike and I did exactly what we had to do and we were calm about it. Our guide helped us flip the kayak over and we both managed to get in again. The problem was that our boat was still perpendicular to the waves and water would roll into the kayak faster than we could pump out with the little hand pump that we had. 

I guide from a different tour company saw that we were in trouble and also came to help. With his  assistance we got parallel with the waves, and closer to the shore so there was less wind. I pumped until muscle failure in both arms, and then the tour guides also took turns pumping water out of my section of the kayak. I think Mike pumped past muscle failure by pumping with his whole entire body, but finally we could float reasonably well and were able to catch up to the rest of our group. 

This was going to be the time we would beach at an island and have lunch and hot drinks, and let me tell you, those hot drinks were very welcome. The tour was basically over at this point and all we had to do was just cross the sound again and get back to the dock. Once we did both Mike and I ripped off all of the wet clothes and changed into some wonderful warm and dry clothing. Final pronouncement - kayak trip with a side of adventure = great success. Our guide was more shaken up by our capsize than we were because we were his first sea kayak rescue. Hopefully his next ones will be better :) We were both dead tired so we just headed back to Queenstown for the night.

Routeburn multi-day hiking

DAY 1:Our first day of Routeburn was a cakewalk. Even with backpacks on we can walk the 5 miles in our sleep. It was finally a beautiful day and we took our time looking and the turquoise river rapids and walking  over swing bridges. It was a nice easy day and we were happy and relaxed by the time we made it to camp. 

The temperature at night dropped to about 5C and it was probably the coldest I have ever been n my life. This is what I wore to bed: t-shirt, ski thermal, fleece, jacket, 2 pairs of thermal tights, sweatpants, 2 pairs of socks, a hat, and some gloves. Just so you don't think it was just me, Mike wore: 2 thermal long sleaves, 2 sweatshirts, windbreaker, thermal tights, sweatpants, 2 pairs of socks, a hat and gloves. Until he went to bed, I thought that I was going to go insane from the cold. We both also covered ourselves completely with the sleeping bag. What made matters worse was that we both had to run to pee several times a night. It as so annoying that I even looked up why we pee more when we are cold. 

Apparently the capillaries in our skin constrict from the cold. This makes our blood pressure go up. Our body's way of lowering this heightened blood pressure is to get rid of the excess water through urination. Now you know :)

DAY 2: The day of our big hike was miserable. It was cold, and rainy and there was basically complete cloud coverage. We started hiking, but I was limping pretty badly and only hiked about a half mile before realizing that it was pointless. My blisters were hurting too much and there was no point suffering through such pain. I came back to camp, and told Mike that he could go without me - which he did. The bad ass hiked a hard 19 miles in 8 hours!!!! I was so proud of him. Unfortunately, the weather didn't let up the whole time he was hiking and he came back just as wet as he was on our day hike a couple of days before. I was really mad that my feet and the weather were not cooperating, but what could I do? I decided that I will just play it by ear the next morning (my feet were much better by the time mike came back). Our night was a little warmer this time around, so I felt downright rejuvenated when I woke up to a cloudless day and a much better feeling foot.

DAY 3: I think the weather of the day was every hiker's wild dream. It was a high in the lower 60s, a cloudless sky,and plenty of sunshine. Mike and I decided that we would climb up to Harris Saddle (the highest point of the whole track and then see how I feel. We could go around the side and look down on Lake McKenzie or do a more technical climb to Conical Hill which opens up amazing views of the area.

Mike warned me that the hike would be "interesting". I realize now, that what he means when he says "interesting" is very steep grade, and a path where you climb rocks, sometimes very steep ones. The hike up to the saddle was HARD. I'm glad that we saved this hike for last, because by the time all was said and done I was really tired. I can't believe that the climb up to the saddle was only 2.5 hours because it sure felt like 4. Thankfully, due to the weather we had some great views, especially in places where hiking was the toughest. At a point a vista of a deep blue lake surrounded by mountains opens up to the side of you. Just picture cloudless skies, sunshine, a very very deep, blue mountain lake, and mountains all around. 

We took a break at the saddle and had a quick snack to get more strength for the climb up to Conical Hill. It's a good thing that we ate, because that climb couldn't be very far, but took us an hour. The grade was very steep and I honestly could not imagine a view that would make it worth while. I am very  glad to report that I was very very wrong. As you finally make it up to the top a view that is nothing short of miraculous opens up to you. I saw snow covered peaks standing against a clear blue sky, valleys   flooded by the deep blue waters o mountain lakes, and off in the distance so far that you almost cant see it, a faint line of the ocean. We sat in silence at the highest point looking out at the view and just taking in that calm, peaceful beauty...

...Until a couple of Israeli guys came along, let out a victory battle cry and turned on music.... But we still had our moment :)

I think the climb down must have taken us about as long as the climb up, because it was relatively technical. Mike was trying to teach me where to place my feet so that I wouldn't slide down or fall, and he said I picked it up pretty quickly. We made it back to camp at around 7, but we still had to pack up and get out of there, so we got to work immediately. 

Before we left we spoke to the hut warden, who was the coolest warden we have met in all of the parks yet. He told us of a place we could camp on the way back (technically illegal) and wished us all the best. We had chatted with him in the past and he told Mike a bunch of interesting things. Apparently there is a place on the south island called gemstone beach where lots of gold, jade, and gemstones wash up. There are farmers in the area who go digging there to supplement their income in the winter by 20-30 grand. I wish we had time to visit it (although I doubt we would find anything more than a trinket, if that)

Our final descent to the car park was pretty quick, but it bordered on"death march" for me. Even tough Mike took almost everything out of my pack, I was tired and toward the end there, in the dusk, with the pebble road was close to hallucinating. We must have been back to the car a little after 9 with a total of 15 miles hiked that day in roughly 9 hours (if you take an hour out for all breaks). I was happy that we had some easy days ahead of us. We celebrated our hike completion with burgers and beers, and passed out.

Christchurch

It must have been a very beautiful city before the earthquake of 2011. We got in to town pretty late so we didn't get to explore until the following day, but even Mike thinks that one day was enough. Nothing has been rebuilt, but everything is fenced and structurally supported so it has become a city of scaffolding in my mind. I did not see a single historic building that was whole. There are whole city blocks where the buildings are ruined and abandoned. 

Since we were only staying for one day, Mike and I picked a river walk that started at the Botanic Gardens were e actually made me stop and smell the roses (in the rose garden). The rose garden was surrounded by dahlias which I also found very beautiful, although not particularly beautiful smelling. Outside of the Garden, my favorite part of the walk was Cathedral Square where there were pant and flower sculptures of different animals. 

The other part of the walk that was really cool was re:START. Basically since a lot f businesses lost their permanent locations in the earthquake, there was a project where shipping containers were brought in and modified with glass outer panels and painted in bright colors to serve as the new boutique locations. This spans a city block and looks very cool.

I was walking by a lingerie store and saw one of the mannequins in a sexy bra supposedly breastfeeding. Apparently there is a line of underwear that looks very sexy that makes maternity and nursing lingerie.  I was even more surprised that the website is a .com not a .co.nz but there are only 2 locations in the US here the product is sold outside of amazon... The company is called Hotmilk, and I have a question to all of my friend who are moms, is it a problem finding cute stuff when you are nursing? Why are there physical stores in Canada, NZ, Australia, and the UK, but not really the US?

I will leave you guys to ponder this. We have now made it back to the north island and are in Wellington. The plan is to stay a couple of days and then to start making our way up north to Auckland. Goodbye south island!