Hi Everyone!
Sorry for the delay between blogs... we have been having a bit of an issue finding reliable email access. So I am afraid this blog will be a bit long again... sorry :(
Sydney (thought I would use some color)
We did a stop here because Bob's friend Tom decided to tag along on our trip up the eastern coast line . We had expected him to come into Sydney on the 22nd of June. We got into Sydney on the 20th. We figured that we would spend the day tooling around on the 21st and then go pick up our rental car on the 22nd at 7:30am and then go pick up Tom at the airport. Sounds like a good plan, right? Yah no...received a phone call from Tom bright and early on the 21st at 7:30am. I awoke mind you to the cellphone scaring the crap out of me and for whatever reason the alarm clock that was provided by the hostel didn't like the fact that the cellphone was going off and decided to alarm at full blast. We had screwed up the date in which Tom was suppose to come in and we got the great task of flying out of bed and running to the car rental place and then to pick up Tom... Tom had to spend 2 extra hours at the airport....OOPS!
Anyway, after that fiasco we decided to still continue on with our plan and hit the town. Spent the day touring around doing the bridge climb, looking at the opera house and we met one of Bob's friend, Shannon for dinner there. Very nice day and then out bright and early up the coastline.
Coffs Harbour
We did a layover stop here on the way up to Brisbane. We got up bright and early to try and drive to Gold Coast. We on the way we discovered the BIG banana. This I have to digress on just a bit. This country prides itself on creating large creations of animals or things and then they put a gift shop and a restaurant in and then they let the money roll in. We have also seen big prawn, a big mango, a big marlin,a big Capt. Cook, a big wool merino,and a big bull (this interestingly enough comes complete with all of his anatomy there was an issue of him being castrated by the locals that they had to have his boy bull parts disintegrate upon removal, ouch!). The list doesn't end there. There is an entire map devoted to BIG items.. gotta love this country.
Caloundra.
Next stop on the Rt one road trip.(Rt one goes the entire length of the eastern seaboard of Australia.. makes getting around without a map easy). This part of the trip was suppose to only take 4hrs to get there. For whatever reason it took 6hrs. We wanted to go to a koala sanctuary. This place allows you to hold and pet a koala and feed a kangaroo. We unfortunately got there at 4 and it closed at 5pm. So we did the hour a bridged version of the park. Gotta say it was worth it. Those koala's you just want to stick one in your pocket. The kangaroo's were in an open paddock you were able to get right in there with them and feed them like a sheep.
Australia Zoo
Drove the next day from Caloundra to Beerwah to the Australia Zoo...Steve Irwin's zoo. This zoo was started in 1970 by Robert Irwin, his father. The Irwin family are all conservationists and Steven spent his life with his dad capturing crocodiles and he took over the business when his dad retired. There was a sad memorial to him in the park. All kinds of letter and pictures from all over the world mourning his death, really amazing.
We got a great day there. It was the warmest day since we have been here. It was fun poking around the zoo with more koala's, kangaroos, wombats (Bob's favorite), and all the other native animals from Australia. The interesting part about this is that a lot of animals were brought here from England. The dingo, for example, was brought here for hunting. A settler decided it would be a good idea to bring over 24 rabbits to let loose and hunt. Not thinking about the consequences of such a thing, the rabbits mated like crazy and they are a huge nuisance to the plants and animals and are hurting the ecosystem. Brilliant huh! There are countless other things that were brought into this country that has turned very bad. They imported camels from Saudi Arabia to help build the railway. When they were done they had no more use for them so they just let them go. So, now one humped camels still roam Western Australia free and wild. The REALLY funny part about that now is that if Saudi Arabia wants camels now they have to get them from Australia, funny huh.
Rockhampton
Packed up the next day and headed to Rockhampton. My friend Angela lives there and was gracious enough to take us out for the night and let us spend the night there. Thanks Ang!!
Witsunday Island
We had at this point spent a ton of time in the car. We decided we needed a break and thought a day playing in the islands was just the way to do it. The Witsunday's are a bunch of islands about 800km south of Cairns. This is the beginning of the Great Barrier Reef. A beautiful area much like the cape at home. Took a ferry around the island and relaxed. Felt really nice!
Cairns
The last leg of our trip with Tom. We are here now. The place is very touristy. Lots of tour buses, of all different ethnicities all trying to capture the pictures of the different tourist attractions. I think on this trip we have learn to appreciate the non- touristy things more. They are harder to find and usually worth the trip. Don't get me wrong the Great Barrier Reef is amazing and scuba diving there is something that you cannot measure anything against, but there are times on our trip that we have pulled over to check something out and it has been such a joy to find it hidden in amongst some trees. The nice part I think that it is untouched and there are no crazy tourists trying to jockey for a position. It makes me wish, we had more time to find those spots. Our trip has thus far been a very fast pace. We are not in a place for more then a 2-3days, which makes finding the unfindable a little bit harder. I guess, if it was easy then it might lose its mystery to finding it in the first place.
-Gina
Uluru/Ayers Rock
And a quick update from Bob. Today is the fourth of July and our last day in Australia. We are currently at Uluru, otherwise known as Ayers Rock. We can't post pictures from here, but here is a photo of it. I am sure you will recognize it straight away.
http://www.zetleins.onau.net/photos/uluru.JPG
Uluru itself is just as amazing as you might imagine from the photos. It took us three hours just to walk around it, and it's about 350 meters high. The sunsets are absolutely stunning, with the rock changing color by the minute, finally erupting into a blazing red just at sunset before dimming completely when the sun goes away. It has been worth it to come here, despite the annoyances that we have encountered.
First off, understand that the Australian outback is a pretty fantastically remote place. The main train line through the middle, from Adelaide in the south to Darwin in the north, was started in 1877 and the first train finally rumbled down the finished track in -- ready for this? -- February 2004. Uluru is right smack in the middle of this place.
Once this place became an international symbol of Australia and started attracting visitors in numbers, one company decided to cash in. So they built a purpose-built town just outside the national park, with three or four hotels. As you might imagine, the whole thing is built to twist the knife into tourists' wallets as best they can. There is no competition here, just this resort. For example, a ride to the Rock and back costs $35 (it's a fifteen minute drive).
So we are staying in this resort and trying to do it on a budget. Dorm beds go for $110 in this place, but we booked early and got them for $41. There's a self-catering kitchen.. but it has one frying pan, no spatulas, no plates, no cups, and no silverware other than butter knives. There is a 1% surcharge on all credit card charges at the resort. Needless to say we are a bit put out that it's so expensive to be here and they can't even charge my credit card without a fee, or provide me a fork. So the lesson of Uluru is, if you have the opportunity to gain monopoly, take it.
Bottom line - Uluru is amazing, but seeing it is a tourist trap of epic proportions. The thing is though, it's totally worth it.
Internet cafe time is fading fast (internet: $.20 a minute here) so I'm going to sign off. Tomorrow, off to Bangkok and then to Angkor in Cambodia.
Showing posts with label australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label australia. Show all posts
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Playing Catch Up - Please Bear With Me
I apologize for the bewildering last post, but I was a bit flustered by the internet cafe time ending and I was annoyed that I couldn't post pictures. It's been a while so this post will catch up on all the things I've been meaning to write, and recap some of the stuff from our last post.
So this'll be a long post, please bear with me. There's a prize at the end.
The previous blog was titled "Due to the risk of kangaroo attack..." I did not make this up. We did actually see that on a sign at the Anglesea golf course near Melbourne, which is known for having kangaroos lounge around on the golf course. We stopped to take a photo.
Kind of reminds me of the Leo J Martin course back home, which is overrun with geese. I wonder what the local rules are if you hit a kangaroo.
The golf course was out on the Great Ocean Road, which I kind of slammed last time but did have some nice scenery.
One other thing about the Great Ocean Road - it's pretty rural. At one point there were cows on the road. Funny thing was, this wasn't the first time we had encountered this - it happened in New Zealand as well.
After the Great Ocean Road, we drove through a resort town in Victoria called Lakes Entrance. The motel we stayed at delivered breakfast through a hole in the wall in the back of your room.
From there, we made our way to Canberra, the national capital. Here's Gina in front of Parliament House.
We got to watch Parliament live in session. Government is lively here, as we were able to watch an hour and a half of "Question Time", which we found enoromously entertaining. Various ministers were asked questions live in Parliament, and the opposition party made loud and obnoxious noises while the ministers answered. During the 90 minutes, 30 opposition ministers were warned for their behavior and a half-dozen were kicked out - one for eating lunch.
I stand by my previous comments on Canberra as a planned city. It was growing on me when, just as we were leaving, we drove down their equivalent of the National Mall. There was not a soul in sight. It was kind of sad. This photo illustrates my previous comment that everything is behind a layer of trees:
From Canberra we made our way to a town in the Blue Mountains with the wonderfully Australian name of Katoomba. The Blue Mountains are a range close to Sydney, not terribly high but astoundingly and deceptively rugged. They are called Blue Mountains because the eucalyptus gives them a blue tinge. Here's a photo of the "Three Sisters" formation:
Thereafter we visited a tourist attraction thoughtfully called Scenic World. It was nice, and we took the time to take some photos mimicing the fantastically dorky and stupid poses the Japanese tourists make when posing in front of a tourist attraction. Here's me with a miner statue:
And here's Gina on the world's steepest railway:
Anyway we had fun, suffice to say it was a bit campy. We're in Sydney now, where the internet is mercifully only $2 an hour. You all know me. I am an internet addict. This is a little slice of heaven for me.
Since I have some time, I have some thoughts on Australia if you are willing to hear me out. It strikes me as a country where the "No Worries" principle governs everything. As I mentioned before, Australia was only federated in 1901 and before then was governed as six separate countries. Being here has challenged the way that we tend to think, which is that everything is as it always has been. Australia as a country is barely 100 years old and the wild west spirit is alive and well here.
The feeling that people should be self sufficient manifests itself everywhere. Gambling and alcoholism are rampant here, civil litigation is almost nonexistent, and people live in horrifically remote places and think nothing of it. Aborigines are left to themselves where they are amongst the world's most destitute. I am left with the thought that Australia is very much a rough and tumble because it is such a young place. It's a country not long detached from its founding by convicts and hearty sailors, yet is very British; these two opposites very often come to a head. This is a very hard thing to describe. They drink tea and play cricket, but have a Marlboro man ideal that is very tangible, manifested in Australian rules rugby - perhaps the most smash-mouth sport on the planet.
Get this - in the late sixties, the Prime Minister, a guy named Harold Holt, went diving off the coast of a peninsula not far from Melbourne. He went under and was never seen again. Only in Australia can the head of state simply go missing. Theories abound, but most likely he was taken by a shark. Nowadays the guy's practically forgotten, having been Prime Minister for only two years - and the only memorial to him in his hometown of Melbourne is a private swimming pool. Only in Australia can they lose a head of state on a semiurban beach and memorialize the guy in such a tongue-in-cheek manner.
We mentioned the story to a security guard we were chatting with at Parliament House in Canberra. His comment? "These things happen."
I mentioned to the guard that I found it fascinating that you could walk into Parliament House, go through airport-style security and thereafter have pretty much free reign of the place. The guard made a comment that we can feel safe now that we're in Australia, implying that we were able to flee the violent day to day life of America. This is a comment I have received several times here in Australia - they have a perception of America as a very violent place.
Here's the thing that was really galling: that morning, one person had been shot dead in downtown Melbourne during rush hour. A man had gotten in a fight with his girlfriend and was literally dragging her through the streets by her hair; when two men went to her aid, both men and the girlfriend were shot. It was kind of like someone getting shot in Government Center during the 8:30 AM rush hour. And this Melbourne shooting wasn't terribly out of place - in 2002 a student at Melbourne's Monash University went nuts in a dorm and killed two people; and in 1996 at the Port Arthur historical site in Tasmania, a gunman killed 35 (!) and wounded 37. Now what's the more violent place?
Anyway, sorry for the ramble but despite having these thoughts kicking around my head for several days I am not sure I articulated them very well. We have been reading Bill Bryson's brilliant book "In a Sunburned Country," which is much more astute at describing all this. We highly recommend it.
In closing, here's your prize - a photo of Gina feeding the birds in Tasmania.
So this'll be a long post, please bear with me. There's a prize at the end.
The previous blog was titled "Due to the risk of kangaroo attack..." I did not make this up. We did actually see that on a sign at the Anglesea golf course near Melbourne, which is known for having kangaroos lounge around on the golf course. We stopped to take a photo.
Kind of reminds me of the Leo J Martin course back home, which is overrun with geese. I wonder what the local rules are if you hit a kangaroo.
The golf course was out on the Great Ocean Road, which I kind of slammed last time but did have some nice scenery.
One other thing about the Great Ocean Road - it's pretty rural. At one point there were cows on the road. Funny thing was, this wasn't the first time we had encountered this - it happened in New Zealand as well.
After the Great Ocean Road, we drove through a resort town in Victoria called Lakes Entrance. The motel we stayed at delivered breakfast through a hole in the wall in the back of your room.
From there, we made our way to Canberra, the national capital. Here's Gina in front of Parliament House.
We got to watch Parliament live in session. Government is lively here, as we were able to watch an hour and a half of "Question Time", which we found enoromously entertaining. Various ministers were asked questions live in Parliament, and the opposition party made loud and obnoxious noises while the ministers answered. During the 90 minutes, 30 opposition ministers were warned for their behavior and a half-dozen were kicked out - one for eating lunch.
I stand by my previous comments on Canberra as a planned city. It was growing on me when, just as we were leaving, we drove down their equivalent of the National Mall. There was not a soul in sight. It was kind of sad. This photo illustrates my previous comment that everything is behind a layer of trees:
From Canberra we made our way to a town in the Blue Mountains with the wonderfully Australian name of Katoomba. The Blue Mountains are a range close to Sydney, not terribly high but astoundingly and deceptively rugged. They are called Blue Mountains because the eucalyptus gives them a blue tinge. Here's a photo of the "Three Sisters" formation:
Thereafter we visited a tourist attraction thoughtfully called Scenic World. It was nice, and we took the time to take some photos mimicing the fantastically dorky and stupid poses the Japanese tourists make when posing in front of a tourist attraction. Here's me with a miner statue:
And here's Gina on the world's steepest railway:
Anyway we had fun, suffice to say it was a bit campy. We're in Sydney now, where the internet is mercifully only $2 an hour. You all know me. I am an internet addict. This is a little slice of heaven for me.
Since I have some time, I have some thoughts on Australia if you are willing to hear me out. It strikes me as a country where the "No Worries" principle governs everything. As I mentioned before, Australia was only federated in 1901 and before then was governed as six separate countries. Being here has challenged the way that we tend to think, which is that everything is as it always has been. Australia as a country is barely 100 years old and the wild west spirit is alive and well here.
The feeling that people should be self sufficient manifests itself everywhere. Gambling and alcoholism are rampant here, civil litigation is almost nonexistent, and people live in horrifically remote places and think nothing of it. Aborigines are left to themselves where they are amongst the world's most destitute. I am left with the thought that Australia is very much a rough and tumble because it is such a young place. It's a country not long detached from its founding by convicts and hearty sailors, yet is very British; these two opposites very often come to a head. This is a very hard thing to describe. They drink tea and play cricket, but have a Marlboro man ideal that is very tangible, manifested in Australian rules rugby - perhaps the most smash-mouth sport on the planet.
Get this - in the late sixties, the Prime Minister, a guy named Harold Holt, went diving off the coast of a peninsula not far from Melbourne. He went under and was never seen again. Only in Australia can the head of state simply go missing. Theories abound, but most likely he was taken by a shark. Nowadays the guy's practically forgotten, having been Prime Minister for only two years - and the only memorial to him in his hometown of Melbourne is a private swimming pool. Only in Australia can they lose a head of state on a semiurban beach and memorialize the guy in such a tongue-in-cheek manner.
We mentioned the story to a security guard we were chatting with at Parliament House in Canberra. His comment? "These things happen."
I mentioned to the guard that I found it fascinating that you could walk into Parliament House, go through airport-style security and thereafter have pretty much free reign of the place. The guard made a comment that we can feel safe now that we're in Australia, implying that we were able to flee the violent day to day life of America. This is a comment I have received several times here in Australia - they have a perception of America as a very violent place.
Here's the thing that was really galling: that morning, one person had been shot dead in downtown Melbourne during rush hour. A man had gotten in a fight with his girlfriend and was literally dragging her through the streets by her hair; when two men went to her aid, both men and the girlfriend were shot. It was kind of like someone getting shot in Government Center during the 8:30 AM rush hour. And this Melbourne shooting wasn't terribly out of place - in 2002 a student at Melbourne's Monash University went nuts in a dorm and killed two people; and in 1996 at the Port Arthur historical site in Tasmania, a gunman killed 35 (!) and wounded 37. Now what's the more violent place?
Anyway, sorry for the ramble but despite having these thoughts kicking around my head for several days I am not sure I articulated them very well. We have been reading Bill Bryson's brilliant book "In a Sunburned Country," which is much more astute at describing all this. We highly recommend it.
In closing, here's your prize - a photo of Gina feeding the birds in Tasmania.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Due to the Risk of Kangaroo Attack...
I had hoped to be able to embellish this blog with some photos, of which we have taken several in the last few days, but alas this internet cafe will not cooperate.
More on the kangaroo attacks anon. Since Gina last blogged, a lot's gone on - we left Tasmania and came to the mainland. Melbourne is a pleasant city, orderly and clean, with businesspeople walking around everywhere with double windsor knots in their ties. In this way it is eerily reminiscent of Toronto. We spent a day toodling around there, where we dipped into some shops and tried out the local market.
We then set out for a day's drive on the Great Ocean Road, which the tourist folks absolutely fawn over, and has its highlights, but in reality is just a lot of fluff. We enjoyed the drive, though, and it was scenic, but they make you think it's another Pacific Coast Highway, which I can assure you it's not, not even having driven the Pacific Coast Highway.
We ended the day in a town called Warranabol, or something like that, which we couldn't learn to pronounce so we just dubbed it Wannamoveabowel. Then a day's drive through the south coast to a town called Lakes Entrance. This was a pretty boring day, and we killed ourselves braving the Melbourne city streets on our way back through because it costs $11 in tolls to pass through. Isn't that ridiculous?
At Lakes Entrance we stayed at a motel where the attendant, upon chatting with us, informed us that her uncle ran a motel in Siam Reap, Cambodia, where we were planning to go. She offered us a discount. There you have it, folks - the world's smallest motel chain.
We are now in Canberra, Australia's capitol city. Canberra is often referred to in travel literature with superlatives like "much maligned", but we came here anyway. We think we found out why it's so poorly regarded, though.
As you may not know, Australia was only federated into a unified country in 1901, and they decided to create a capitol in a neutral location - much like our own Washington DC. New South Wales helpfully ceded a kidney-shaped spot in the middle of nowhere, which is now known as the Australian Capitol Territory (ACT for short). Therein, Canberra was built as one of the only major planned cities of the 20th century, the only one I can think of other than it being Brasalia, in Brazil.
Canberra, being a child of the automobile era, managed to evolve into a city of 350,000 without managing to be a city at all. It's horrifically spread out, and all the roads are very wide, with at least one layer of thick trees between buildings and the road; Bill Bryson described it as a park with a city hidden within, and I think the description is apt. The result is a wide open, leafy, yet utterly characterless expanse of a city.
Then again, we just got here and tomorrow we're heading out to see what the city has to offer. We'll report back on what we find.
Anyway, sorry for the lack of photos but the internet cafe time is running out. Hi to all at home, hope all is well!
-b
More on the kangaroo attacks anon. Since Gina last blogged, a lot's gone on - we left Tasmania and came to the mainland. Melbourne is a pleasant city, orderly and clean, with businesspeople walking around everywhere with double windsor knots in their ties. In this way it is eerily reminiscent of Toronto. We spent a day toodling around there, where we dipped into some shops and tried out the local market.
We then set out for a day's drive on the Great Ocean Road, which the tourist folks absolutely fawn over, and has its highlights, but in reality is just a lot of fluff. We enjoyed the drive, though, and it was scenic, but they make you think it's another Pacific Coast Highway, which I can assure you it's not, not even having driven the Pacific Coast Highway.
We ended the day in a town called Warranabol, or something like that, which we couldn't learn to pronounce so we just dubbed it Wannamoveabowel. Then a day's drive through the south coast to a town called Lakes Entrance. This was a pretty boring day, and we killed ourselves braving the Melbourne city streets on our way back through because it costs $11 in tolls to pass through. Isn't that ridiculous?
At Lakes Entrance we stayed at a motel where the attendant, upon chatting with us, informed us that her uncle ran a motel in Siam Reap, Cambodia, where we were planning to go. She offered us a discount. There you have it, folks - the world's smallest motel chain.
We are now in Canberra, Australia's capitol city. Canberra is often referred to in travel literature with superlatives like "much maligned", but we came here anyway. We think we found out why it's so poorly regarded, though.
As you may not know, Australia was only federated into a unified country in 1901, and they decided to create a capitol in a neutral location - much like our own Washington DC. New South Wales helpfully ceded a kidney-shaped spot in the middle of nowhere, which is now known as the Australian Capitol Territory (ACT for short). Therein, Canberra was built as one of the only major planned cities of the 20th century, the only one I can think of other than it being Brasalia, in Brazil.
Canberra, being a child of the automobile era, managed to evolve into a city of 350,000 without managing to be a city at all. It's horrifically spread out, and all the roads are very wide, with at least one layer of thick trees between buildings and the road; Bill Bryson described it as a park with a city hidden within, and I think the description is apt. The result is a wide open, leafy, yet utterly characterless expanse of a city.
Then again, we just got here and tomorrow we're heading out to see what the city has to offer. We'll report back on what we find.
Anyway, sorry for the lack of photos but the internet cafe time is running out. Hi to all at home, hope all is well!
-b
Thursday, June 14, 2007
LIBERTY OR DEATH!!!
We drove around the west coast of Tasmania. As a little layover we stayed in a small quaint town called Strahan. We had drove in about 4pm and checked in to our "cabin." It was a funny cabin, triangle in shape and lacked a finished ceiling inside, but as we have learned as we have been traveling that the small things like a warm place to sleep is always welcome. Some have NOT had heat at all and we have been sleeping in as much clothes as we can get on . The unfortunate part about this hostel was the fact it was in the forest and you had to go outside to pee. Quite scary at night.... Anyway.....
We got into the hostel and found ourselves extremely bored. We met a lovely women (Rose) who was traveling around with her daughter (Kayla) spending 10days tooling around Tasmania. They told us about a pantomime show that runs nightly and was deemed "interactive." Who knows what a pantomine, interactive show is? We were bored by this point. It was pouring and the thought of watching Judge Judy on the television sounded less then appealing, so we went.
It was an outdoor show, comprised of just 2 men dressed in very odd clothing. They were suppose to be convicts stealing a ship that I guess in the end was lost or something. The name of teh show was the Ship that Never Was. The show started with us being put in hats and told that we were convicts. The rest of the show was an odd assortment of yelling things like Give me liberty or give me death... People were shot at and there was some sort of battle and the ship, we found out, made it to Cuba but after that gets a little fuzzy. So for an 1 1/2hrs of confusion we left there with some questions but it killed some time. You have to give them credit though. This town probably has no more then 100ppl in it. Yet they hold a show EVERY night. It shocks me that they can find enough people to come and see it to make it worth while.
The next day we drove over to Lanceston and spent the night. This was one of those times you appreciate the heater. We got into our room and the heater was on the ceiling. Now heat rises... so what was the point of that? Does that make sense to you? So we spent a very cold evening under 4 blankets attempting to stay warm. I guess we are making memories, right? We have learned to appreciate the finer things in life. Like a heater in the room is a good thing in the winter. Some haven't had any at all. A complemenatry towel is fantastic and a decent kitchen. I have developed a rating system 1-5 and have set up a academy awards of hostels. We lovenly call them the bungees. We have the golden pillow award (this is the best bed) the silver spoon award (best kitchen). Yah as you can tell... we have some time on our hands. Academy awards are per country only if you were curious.
Next day, drove to Hobart and went to the Cadbury factory... THIS IS THE GREATEST PLACE IN THE WORLD! It was like being let into the Willy Wonka factory. The whole building smells like chocolate. You walk in and are greeted by Freddo the Frog, get a big hug and a hand full of candy to start. The walking tour was nice, but I found myself thinking "enough with the tour... where are the free samples?" On a side note... as we were walking by one of the corridors there was a sign asking whether you were at risk for diabetes. Now being in a chocolate factory... do you think that's weird? Anyway.... We ended the tour at a big giant trunk the tour guide opened it up (insert angel music and bright light) and revealed a trunk of beautiful assorted candies.. THAT WAS JUST FOR US! So we left there on a sugar rush and quite happy for only $24 dollars... what a deal! Made our way to Hobart to catch a flight to Melbourne. Of course with a few Cadbury bars with us....
Hope all of you are well
---Gina
We got into the hostel and found ourselves extremely bored. We met a lovely women (Rose) who was traveling around with her daughter (Kayla) spending 10days tooling around Tasmania. They told us about a pantomime show that runs nightly and was deemed "interactive." Who knows what a pantomine, interactive show is? We were bored by this point. It was pouring and the thought of watching Judge Judy on the television sounded less then appealing, so we went.
It was an outdoor show, comprised of just 2 men dressed in very odd clothing. They were suppose to be convicts stealing a ship that I guess in the end was lost or something. The name of teh show was the Ship that Never Was. The show started with us being put in hats and told that we were convicts. The rest of the show was an odd assortment of yelling things like Give me liberty or give me death... People were shot at and there was some sort of battle and the ship, we found out, made it to Cuba but after that gets a little fuzzy. So for an 1 1/2hrs of confusion we left there with some questions but it killed some time. You have to give them credit though. This town probably has no more then 100ppl in it. Yet they hold a show EVERY night. It shocks me that they can find enough people to come and see it to make it worth while.
The next day we drove over to Lanceston and spent the night. This was one of those times you appreciate the heater. We got into our room and the heater was on the ceiling. Now heat rises... so what was the point of that? Does that make sense to you? So we spent a very cold evening under 4 blankets attempting to stay warm. I guess we are making memories, right? We have learned to appreciate the finer things in life. Like a heater in the room is a good thing in the winter. Some haven't had any at all. A complemenatry towel is fantastic and a decent kitchen. I have developed a rating system 1-5 and have set up a academy awards of hostels. We lovenly call them the bungees. We have the golden pillow award (this is the best bed) the silver spoon award (best kitchen). Yah as you can tell... we have some time on our hands. Academy awards are per country only if you were curious.
Next day, drove to Hobart and went to the Cadbury factory... THIS IS THE GREATEST PLACE IN THE WORLD! It was like being let into the Willy Wonka factory. The whole building smells like chocolate. You walk in and are greeted by Freddo the Frog, get a big hug and a hand full of candy to start. The walking tour was nice, but I found myself thinking "enough with the tour... where are the free samples?" On a side note... as we were walking by one of the corridors there was a sign asking whether you were at risk for diabetes. Now being in a chocolate factory... do you think that's weird? Anyway.... We ended the tour at a big giant trunk the tour guide opened it up (insert angel music and bright light) and revealed a trunk of beautiful assorted candies.. THAT WAS JUST FOR US! So we left there on a sugar rush and quite happy for only $24 dollars... what a deal! Made our way to Hobart to catch a flight to Melbourne. Of course with a few Cadbury bars with us....
Hope all of you are well
---Gina
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Tasmanian Tales
OK, so we don't have very many tales yet from Tasmania but I thought the title was snappy.
"Tassie" is an interesting place. Not sure what I was expecting, but Hobart is a truly bustling little town with a surprisingly colonial feel. As a state, Tasmania is really in touch with its history. There is an old warehouse district here, and the docks are still very active. Yet it's a good size town (pop. 125,000) with good roads and pretty much anything you could need (except a decent internet cafe!)
We took a walking tour of the town and found a floating fish shop, and the guy was feeding his discarded fish heads to a giant seal that happened to live in the harbor. He put on quite a nice show. He earned himself our business for fish and chips the next day!
Driving around the southeast portion of the island, we visited Port Arthur, the ruins of the original penal settlement here.
We also drove down to the scenic far south.
All in all, Tasmania reminds me of Maine. Hobart could be Portland, and the scenery is really coastal and idyllic, with a rugged interior.
Anyway, we are off into the remote West tomorrow, so we may not be able to blog again until the end of the week when we make it to Melbourne.
"Tassie" is an interesting place. Not sure what I was expecting, but Hobart is a truly bustling little town with a surprisingly colonial feel. As a state, Tasmania is really in touch with its history. There is an old warehouse district here, and the docks are still very active. Yet it's a good size town (pop. 125,000) with good roads and pretty much anything you could need (except a decent internet cafe!)
We took a walking tour of the town and found a floating fish shop, and the guy was feeding his discarded fish heads to a giant seal that happened to live in the harbor. He put on quite a nice show. He earned himself our business for fish and chips the next day!
Driving around the southeast portion of the island, we visited Port Arthur, the ruins of the original penal settlement here.
We also drove down to the scenic far south.
All in all, Tasmania reminds me of Maine. Hobart could be Portland, and the scenery is really coastal and idyllic, with a rugged interior.
Anyway, we are off into the remote West tomorrow, so we may not be able to blog again until the end of the week when we make it to Melbourne.
I have a lot of thoughts on Australia that I am looking forward to sharing but they will have to wait for now.
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