The Road Trip Saga

Okay, so I said I'd post an update after the diving trip. And I totally would have except the diving trip was cancelled due to 20-30knot winds. And, while I was disappointed, I do understand why. But tales of me and Lindsay schlepping ourselves back to Cairns to hang out and watch movies in Cairns (where the weather was also dreadful) do not make exciting blog stories.

So, instead I have the tales of our road trip. As you may (or may not) know, my little brother Mike is also now in Australia. He's here until Dec. 24th, and wanted to have some time to see me before heading off on his own adventures. So, he and Lindsay and I rented a camper van with plans of driving it from Sydney to Adelaide and back to Melbourne. Here's part one of our tales:

Day 1:
Sydney-Bega

Picked up a very sleepy but excited Mike at the central train station in Sydney and then the three of us got on the train to the random Sydney suburb where we picked up the van. It was a bit of a hike with all our gear from the train station to the caravan rental place, but we made it. And then waited to pick up our 'van. And waited. And waited. We finally headed off at about noon, two hours later. But after a quick stop for Starbucks and groceries, we got on the road!

Of course, it couldn't be all that smooth. We found out that tape cassettes from Canada don't work in Australia and so were stuck listening to the radio instead of our iPods. Very sad, but it also marked the start of our search through many small towns for an iPod cassette adapter (iTrip). Small town discount stores, we learned, are very random and entertaining places!

We pulled into the town of Bega at around 6pm and stayed at a very friendly caravan park for the night. After a yummy dinner, we introduced Mike to the joys of Tim Tams, and played a few rounds of Scrabble. It took us a bit of effort to convert the van into our beds, but we were rather comfy, I think.

Day 2:
Bega-Toorak/q

Day 2 started off with me having to check the oil and coolant in the engine. Once I got the engine open, it was all easy, but, well, I did have to read the instruction booklet. Who's silly plan was it to put the engine access under the passenger's seat?

After some coffee and yogurt (the Australian breakfast of champions!) we headed to the Bega cheese factory. Bega cheese is a pretty common brand down here, so it was quite exciting. We wandered around the museum part, and then headed straight to the cheese sampling area! For the budget-concious sum of $7, we picked up a chilli cheese and an aged cheddar called 'sharp and bitey'. Delicious! We looked around Bega for an iTrip, but still no success. We did manage to get an INXS cassette, though, which saved us from the country-Christian radio stations.

Next stop: Eden, home of a fairly decent whaling museum. My favourite part were the gigantic blue whale jaws hanging from the ceiling! Also in Eden, we looked for an iTrip (no luck) and introduced the local cafe to the concept of travel mugs. We went in and asked for two flat whites in our travel mugs. After looking at them confusedly, she took them in the back to measure them, and then came back to say that it would cost us $7 each to fill them! Lindsay and I picked up our jaws off the floor, and then had the idea to instead ask for a mug size to just be poured into our travel mugs. Cost: $3.80 each (and they were pretty much full). Probably one of the strangest coffee stories we've had yet!

In some random town past Eden, we finally managed to find an iTrip (thus rescuing us from the joys of small town talk radio).

We crossed the border into Victoria shortly before finding a caravan park for the night in the very cold, coastal town of Toorak. Other than snacking on some of our cheese and being very cold, Toorak was pretty uneventful. Oh, except we did manage to transform the van into a movie theatre so we could watch a couple movies (as it was too cold to just hang out).

Day 3:
Toorak-Pt. Campbell

We headed out from Toorak and then, after avoiding Melbourne as much as possible, began our trip on the famous (at least down here) Great Ocean Road! First stop - Torquay, home of many many many surf shops. We were all quite restrained, however, and just window shopped for all the pretty clothes.

After Torquay, the road pretty much hugs the twisty coastline for a long while. I'm sure it was quite Great and full of Ocean, but for me, it was just really twisty and hilly. But Stan (our van) did a very good job. We pulled into Pt. Campbell for the night, a very expensive touristy town right on the coast.

Day 4:
Pt. Campbell-Kingston SE

After waking up in Pt. Campbell, we backtracked 15km or so to see the 12 Apostles and the Loch Ard Gorge, two pretty nifty sandstone formations along the coastline. But after those, we pretty much decided we'd had enough of rock formations, so we headed back onto the Great Ocean Road.

That is, of course, until we saw the tourist sign pointing towards a fur seal colony. How could we resist detouring? We drove for what felt like ever (but was probably 40 minutes) until we reached a tiny seaside village in the middle of nowhere. Just above it, there was a sign for the fur seals pointing to a parking lot. So into the parking lot we went, only to find that the fur seals were actually a 2.5hr 'very strenuous' walk away. As it was raining and cold, and well past lunch time, we decided to skip the fur seals and just eat lunch in the parking lot. And you'd think we'd have learned not to follow brown tourist signs on a whim but, well, you'll see...

We crossed the border into South Australia on that day, as well, and just on the other side, we saw a sign pointing to a whale nursery. We've no recollection of what town we were in, but the idea of a whale nursery was intriguing so we headed off. Only to get a little lost and then to find out that the whales are only around between May and October. No more brown signs, we said!

That night we pulled into the lovely caravan park in Kingston SE, where we were right on the ocean. It had been a pretty busy day, so we pretty much just crashed, and slept very well, being the first night I was warm!

Leaving Cairns

So today, I'm leaving Cairns after having been here for over 2 months! It's sure gone quickly, but it's also been a lot of (sweaty) fun! I'm actually coming back next weekend for a couple days before flying to Sydney but I won't be working or back in my room. I'll be back as a 'tourist'. Finished up work last night, then went out with Lindsay and the gang last night. And then this morning, after a late start and some coffee, we cleaned and packed up our room. And now, in about an hour, we'll be getting on the greyhound bus to start our adventures! But I'll save tales of our adventures for after we've had them...

So, now, in list form, things I'll be taking with me from Cairns:

- if you blur your eyes a bit, all rainforests look alike.
- there can be no one in Germany between the ages of 18 and 25, because they're all here.
- hot, tropical climates are only meant for vacations, not for working.
- it is possible to drink water all day at work and still get dehydrated.
- carrots make the world go 'round.
- I know 2 ways to fold fitted sheets.
- Bernard Fanning (lead singer of Powderfinger) can solve most problems.
- and if he can't, coffee can.
- there are some countries where it's okay to start drinking at noon.
- the 'cafe smell' is international.
- it is possible to save a lot of money by watching movies every night.

Overall, Cairns has been an awesome place, except for the heat and humidity, and I'll miss the people I've met here a lot!

Hopefully, I'll update with the tales of some scuba diving next weekend! Miss you all lots (but scarily, I'll be home in 5 weeks!).

It's been pointed out to me, on many occasions, that I'm a little scattered about the updating of this blog. I really didn't think it had been a month, though, so I apologise. If any of you are still checking this page, that is...

Anyways, what did I do in September? I'm still in Cairns, working at the same cafe. I'm also driving the hostel's shuttle van and cleaning. Overall, I'm working 6 days a week, saving lots of money and just having a pretty fun time!

Cairns is a strange sort of place. It's a smallish town, only 100,000 people live here. But it's always busy! In fact, it might be more touristy than Whistler! Things are open late (well, late for Australia), there are tonnes of restaurants and bars. But strangely, there's no Starbucks here. And, nearly as sad, no 7-11! And it's almost always Slurpee weather! Except for the past few days, it's been gorgeous and about 30C everyday for a month. Today, though, it's raining and I'm loving it!

This coming up weekend, Lindsay and I are going to attempt Thanksgiving. We've made plans to borrow a friend's oven to make pumpkin pie. There will be stovetop stuffing, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, vegetables and photos! Oh, and no turkey, but that's okay! I hope you've all got equally fun plans for your long weekend!

I'm working on putting up some photos, so I'll post again when those are ready. Look forward to seeing Magnetic Island (and a Barbie car!), Lindsay&Sara's Breakfast Tour of Cairns, our Hot Room in Cairns, and more!

Cairns Update

I'm still in Cairns, staying at the bestest hostel ever (Dreamtime). My friend Lindsay and I are sharing a quite nice twin room (where we are watching many movies, reading lots of books and eating lots of chocolate and skittles). And downstairs from our room (pictures to come, some day), there's a cute little cafe where I work. Yes, I do indeed have a job! Glamourous it's not, but the people are fun, it's usually really busy (we did 101 plates for lunch on Monday this week!), and the commute is fantastic. I'm mainly doing dishes, with some food prep and other things thrown in for fun. In general, I work 10:30am until about 2 or 3, then 6:30 until 9:30 or so. And it's only weekdays, so I've got weekends to get out and enjoy Far North Queensland!

Other than being really glad to have a job, there's not much going on for me. Well, Lindsay and I have planned out a few things we'd like to do before going home (Tasmania, diving in Townsville, New Zealand).

And in the biggest of all news - 15 weeks from today, I will be back in Vancouver! December 17th! When I left, I wasn't sure when I'd be ready to go home, but as it's getting closer, I really do think that by then I'll still be having a great time, but will also be ready to be home. Hopefully you'll all be ready for me to be home, too!

Travelling the East Coast

So, apparently, travelling up the east coast is much busier than the west coast as I've done so much and had no time at all to be online and write about what I've been doing! Oops!

My friend Kim from Vancouver and I have been working our way from Sydney to Cairns for the past few weeks. We're on Magnetic Island right now, just one stop on our bus trip (oz experience) from Cairns. So far, we've been surfing, four-wheel driving, sailing, diving, snorkelling, kayaking, walking, hiking, and so many more things! It's been a blast (and so great to do with a friend!). I've uploaded a bunch of photos, from the last few I took at the resort through to the sailing trip we finished yesterday. One of these days, when I'm not moving around so much, I'll have to sort through all my photos (and put up some that Kim took) but it's just been non-stop the last little while.



So, let's see. Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island. It's amazing, and I'm so glad I decided to go. I went to the island the last time I was in Australia (6 years ago), so wasn't really sure about going. We went on a 4wd self-guided tour. To make it more affordable for backpackers, they put people into groups of up to 11 (we had 9 in ours), sign everyone on to be a driver of the rental car and give you all your camping gear. We'd heard some stories about people being stuck with awful groups but we really lucked out, I think. We got to see everything, met some cool people, and had a blast. It was quite cold camping but we survived.



After Fraser, we went on a sailing trip that was amazing! Our boat was called Summertime (booked it through Oz Adventure Sailing), and I'd totally recommend it to anyone. We got to go diving, snorkelling and kayaking in the Whitsunday Islands. And the boat was gorgeous, the crew were awesome. It was pretty spectacular (a bit rough but gravol's amazing stuff!) and my only complaint is that 3 days is too short!





Now we're on Magnetic Island, where we'll stay for 3 nights. It's raining, so instead of kayaking or beaching, I might go diving. Or maybe just hang about and go for some hikes. It's really beautiful here, apparently!

And as always, there's heaps more photos over on my flickr thinger (or just click on one of the photos to go there).

Back East

So I'm back on the East coast of Australia as of early this morning. Sydney to be exact. And it's strange - even though Perth's a fairly large city, it's so much more chill and calm compared to Sydney. It's like comparing Vancouver and Toronto (except Sydney's about the pace of Vancouver, I think). Met up with Kim, whom I'll be travelling with until the end of August, and we start heading north (to the warmth!) the day after tomorrow.

Today was mainly spent recovering from the red-eye experience of last night and then wandering around downtown with Kim. And other than it being 6deg. this morning when I got off the plane, it's been a fantastic day. Tomorrow I reckon we'll head out to Bondi Beach for the day but that's a post for a later date.

For now, it's just about time for dinner so I should probably sign off (and drag Kim with me).

I'm sorry it's been so long...

Mackerel Islands!

Now that I'm back on the mainland, I guess I should tell you all what I've been up to for the past 10 weeks, 'stuck' on an island with no internet access and no mobile phone.

First up, I most definitely wasn't stuck. Or perhaps I was stuck, but voluntarily. What I'm trying to say is, I had an amazing time on the island and I'm really going to miss the place (and the people).

Work-wise, I did a lot of cleaning and a lot of customer service stuff. The cleaning, well, I can't say I loved it but when you're cleaning a cabin with someone, you have a lot of time to chat; we defintely learned a lot about each other while cleaning cabins. And the customer service stuff was pretty fun, really. Most of the customers on the island were great, and not once did I have to tell anyone to stop taking photos inside the gallery.

Most days on the island, I started work at 7am and worked in the shop for two hours. The shop's pretty tiny but manages to sell quite a lot of stuff - mainly fishing stuff and booze but also groceries, ice creams, souvenirs and munchies. After the shop, and possibly a quick morning tea, it was usually time for some cleaning. Once that was out of the way, even on days I was working I usually had time to get down to the beach for a while before having to be back in the shop at 5:30.

Although I definitely put in a lot of working hours, I managed to get in a ton of snorkelling. And I even went out fishing a couple times (but I only ever caught 2 fish)! On one of my days off, I walked around the whole island - I did it quite leisurely and it took about 5 hours.

In the evenings, everyone would usually congregate in the bar before dinner. Guests got fed at 7, and then the staff would get called for tea once the guests were all in. Harold, the cook, always put on awesome food for us - especially the roast dinners! After tea, sometimes it would be back to the bar for a bit, or if the weather was nice and we were feeling lucky, we'd head down to the jetty for some fishing.

Usually in the evenings, people'd be trying to catch squid - so tasty! Often when got there, though, we'd see a bunch of dolphins hanging around; this usually means no squid for us poor landlubbers! On one occasion, though, one of the boys - Dave - was reeling in a squid from under the jetty and a dolphin followed it in, gave him the dirtiest look I've ever seen from a cetacean, and then circled around under the stairs for a bit. Definitely a pissed of dolphin! That same night, we saw at least 6 dolphins around, some of them leaping up into the air. So even on evenings where we didn't catch any squid, we'd at least see some dolphins - definitely a highlight for me!

The reef around the island has some amazing snorkelling, as well. Aside from all the people I met on the island, the snorkelling action was the best part of my stay! The other day, as I was puttering around off the front beach, I counted 42 species of fish in about 5 minutes or less. And I could have counted more but I was starting to lose track! The diversity out there was amazing - I've never seen so many different kinds of coral, either. While snorkelling, I also saw sting rays (mainly leopard rays), octopus, some kind of long skinny shark (sort of dogfish like), really huge blue bone and parrot fish, crayfish (rock lobsters), and even some turtles. And up until the last week or two, the water was warm enough that I'd just be out there in my board shorts and a rashie.

I've got so many more stories about the island but that's probably enough for today. I'm in Exmouth at the moment, and fly to Perth this afternooon. I'll be in Perth until the evening of the 30th and then I fly to Sydney to meet up with Kim! I'm a little worried about being back in the cold but I'm sure my Canadian blood's still in there somewhere!

And now that I'm back to having regular email access, I'd love to hear what you're all up to! I'll try to be around on msn on occasion, and I'll even reply to your emails! I missed you all heaps while I was on the island and can't wait to hear more about what's happening back home.

I'm currently uploading all my photos but it's going to take a while for them all to get there. The link on the top left will take you there, and I'll do a blog post with photos in it soon!