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.

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

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

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.

I have a lot of thoughts on Australia that I am looking forward to sharing but they will have to wait for now.

Our First Leg is Over!

We're blogging today from my old friend Catherine's house. She and her husband were nice enough to put us up in Auckland for a night.

Later today, we're off to Australia. We're sad to be leaving New Zealand. It's amazing how quickly the first leg flew by. We take some heart in knowing that this was one of our shortest visits.

We had a bit of an odyssey trying to find a copy of the Lonely Planet for Australia. Books here are ridiculously expensive - the Lonely Planet book that costs $30 in the US is NZ$60 here. We called every used bookshop in Auckland and managed to find one for $11, after turning in a few paperbacks we had already finished. That was pretty satisfying.

Anyway, we apologize for not blogging for a few days. We were up in Paihia, in the far north of NZ, just relaxing a bit. While there, we were able to stay at a really magnificent hostel called the Saltwater Lodge. The place was the best hostel we had stayed at so far. NZ is set up for travelers and there are hostels throughout the country, where the quality of type of accommodation varies widely. We've been getting double rooms, which sometimes feature their own bathrooms and sometimes don't. All hostels have a kitchen so you can make your own food.

I am sure some of you have been wondering about our accommodations, so here is a photo of our room at the Saltwater Lodge.

Why was this room the best one we had so far? A few reasons:

• It's spotlessly clean
• It has a king size bed (as opposed to a full or queen)
• It has a TV (not in the photo)
• It has heat - in NZ, heat is sometimes not included
• It has an ensuite bathroom
• They provide towels
• And - this one is really shocking - it has its own fridge!

Most hostels provide some of the above, but to find a place that had it all was truly wonderful.

The TV was key because it was Tuesday, and that's the night House is on here in NZ :) The hostel was doing some construction and we thought we could only stay one night, and when we found out that we could stay a second, Gina was literally jumping up and down.

Also, here's a photo from a town called Tirau, where there are several buildings built out of the wavy corrugated material that Kiwis are so fond of.

That is a corrugated Jesus, although Catherine's husband Greg, who is from Tirau, calls it the Corrugated Osama.

Also, here's a photo that shows a very typical scene as we drive through NZ.

Finally, I thought I'd share some thoughts about New Zealand. It's a really fascinating country, with only four million people at the corner of the world. The locals here are fantastically friendly, welcoming and accommodating. I'm sure that has helped tourism take off here, as it's the industry that keeps the country afloat. Historically, sheep farming was the main industry here. But, I read that the number of sheep in NZ has gone down by 20% in the last 10 years, caused mainly by a steep decline in wool prices. (Wool that used to command $6 per kilogram now goes for $2.)

Kiwis know that opportunities are overseas. London is full of expatriates, who all moved there right after college. Lots don't come home, contributing to a major brain drain. The country is also very tight regarding immigration.

Those factors, plus the weight of the social democracy here and the fickle nature of tourism, makes me think that the coming decades will make it very tough for the country to continue to prosper. Count me amongst those who love this country and wish it all the best.

Anyway, onwards to Australia. We'll be in Tasmania for five days, then flying to Melbourne and driving to Sydney, where my friend Tom will be flying in for the drive up to Cairns in the far north. I am really excited!

Farming is Cool

Today in Rotorua we went to a tourist farm show, called the Agrodome. It was a brilliant example of tourist kitsch, but we loved it. We got to see a sheepdog round up some sheep, and a guy shear one right on stage.

The best part was that Gina got to milk a real cow. On stage. In front of about a hundred adoring Japanese tourists. And yes, there are pictures!

Here's also another shout out to Gina's mom, who sent us on this trip with a few Purell wipes. Suffice to say Gina was pleased to be able to use them after that experience. She said it felt greasy. This, you see, is why I chose not to partake of the cow-milking. The funny thing was, when the presenter asked for volunteers, her hand shot in the air like a teacher's pet answering a particularly tough question. A once in a lifetime opportunity, I guess. At least there are pictures so we can be sure to never let her forget it.

Here I am in front of a real, live Merino sheep.

Finally, as an added bonus, we blogged a few days ago that we saw seals swimming. We took a little video with our camera and we're pleased to be able to post it here. It may not be available until Sunday morning, 6/3 thanks to YouTube. Hopefully it'll work!

Rotorua is Stinky.

Quick post as we don't have a lot of time at the internet cafe today..

We just arrived this morning in Rotorua, in the center of the North Island. The entire town smells like rotten eggs due to the nearby volcanic vents. We're planning to do some of the touristy stuff here, like go to a sheep shearing show.

Yesterday, we completed the Tongariro Crossing, a fairly strenuous one day hike across the Tongariro volcanic complex. The weather was fantastic. As my mom and Jill will recall, last time I did the walk it was absolutely pouring rain. Very nice to do the walk and be able to see it. It was windy, cold and steep, so we're sore, but we had a great time. Here are some pix:

Don't worry, it was perfectly safe. The volcano hasn't blown since '93 :)

At some point we will find a better internet cafe and post some more photos and such.