Sydney, Melbourne, Darwin 29Dec-22Jan

29/12/10
Arrived late to Burwood, had some steak stew and damper thanks to Sue, went to sleep.
30/12/10
Woke up, went to find Jesse, he wasn’t there yet, got a recharge, picked up breakfast for Bill and Sue and the other CSers. Ate it. Jesse arrived, went to find him. Went to Manly via pictures of Opera House and bridge with Leslie from Texas/NZ. The ferry wharf was packed, the line to get on the ferry was ridiculous (but all fit on one ferry). Snorkeled at Fairy Bower, freezy, good baby dusky or bronze whaler. Got lost along the trail on the headlands and ended up at Little Manly Wharf. Back on the ferry to Circular Quay to get to Litchfield for Outback Steakhouse, walked in some dinghy places to get there. It was delicious but cheese fries are better in USA.
31/12/10
Had Christmas, had breakfast, went to Opera House around 3pm to get a spot for midnight fireworks. Didn’t get there early enough, it was already closed off. Stormed around trying to find a spot, ended up in the botanical gardens in front of the gate, would have been better up on the hill though so gate wouldn’t have been in the way of photos. Next time, 7am and no gate, preferably near Margarets Chair and the big stairs or whatever its called. Spent day with Leslie and Jesse in sun and waiting. Luckily alcohol check isn’t strict, easy to smuggle in via water bottles or camel back. Fireworks at 9, fireworks at midnight, wind going wrong direction so you could hardly see the fireworks…they were still cool though. Took train back, didn’t take too long after hanging around the gardens a bit after fireworks.
01/01/11
Slept in, walked around Sydney. No James Squire on weekends. Sue invited us for a delicious Eggplant Parma dinner.
02/01/11
Blue Mountains. Cockatoos. Ran into Eszter and Carlos, random!
03/01/11
Walk in rain Bondi to Bronte. Photos of bridge and opera house at night. Lots of bats, get lost and fight a lot until we get back to Burwood.
04/01/11
Kiema blowhole. Tuesday Dominos. Photo pushing. Handstand on the wharf. Another fight and long trip back to Burwood.
05/01/11
Sydney city, Chinatown, Paddys Market, Museum, James Squire with girl.
06/01/11
Decided to go to Terrigal/North Avoca. Kurt and friends accepted our request. Decided on a taco night which was so delicious and bountiful.
07/01/11
Beach, manowars, nudibranchs, bats. BBQ at John (American) and Carly’s. Ride home with sister. Great night with conversation, BBQ food, and Q game.
08/01/11
Beach, manowars, nudibranchs, etc. Drinking games and such at Kurts, then out to a bar. Walk home in rain, another fight.
09/01/11
Bouddhi Hike with Carly and John. Then switch hosts to meet Kathy and Vic. Kathy helped me out a lot when I was still in Florida preparing for my move to Australia (similar to what Sue did). I never got a chance to go up to Terrigal when I first got to Australia, but so glad that we made the time to go because it was one of the best places I’ve been in Australia thus far. Kathy and Vic were so hospitable and had a beautifully architected house; plus Vic wanted a drinking buddy since Kathy was fasting so he and Jesse had a grande ole time, plus Jesse their dog too.
10/01/11
Beach? No snorkel, too scary. More wars and nudis.
11/01/11
Beach. Hash Harrier Run/Walk with Kathy and Vic at Bouddhi. Though Kathy was fasting and now at 3 days with no food or drink other than water, she did the 6km uphill run with Jesse. Vic and I did the walk and I was delighted to have a little boxer puppy with us the whole time (though dogs are not allowed in national parks in Australia). The Terrigal Hash Harriers are absolutely insane; having all the runners drink port twice during the run, then at the end having many down downs for all sorts of bs, whatever they could make up, including us for being new footprints, the dogs owner for bringing the dog to a national park, the head ladies 800th run (which deserved her not only a down down, but also a down down on her head, a full bottle of beer on her head, ketchup, dirt, leaves, blue paint, etc), and many, many more. A down down is when you have to chug a mixture of some alcoholic beverage for doing something unique, whether it good or bad, while the group sings, “Here’s a ___ (insert name, like Tasha), she’s (he’s) true blue, she’s a hasher through and through, she’s a bastard so they say, she tried to go to heaven but she went the other way, she went down down down down down down…” starting on the downs is when you start chugging (it’s a popular Australian drinking anthem to get someone to chug (“skull” in Australian) the hashers turned into a hash song; similar to the simple American chant “Chug chug chug chug!”) It was really fun, I’m very glad I went though I was very timid beforehand.
12/01/11
Train back to Burwood. James was home now and Sue invited us for Thai green curry dinner. I made cookies that night similar to the chocolate peanut butter Reeses pieces cookies from Hershey, Pennsylvania, except mine were chewier and better. I don’t quite recall what I did because I didn’t have hardly any of the correct ingredients, but it was a great mistake. Win.
13/01/11
Train to Britz Campervan. Pick up the girls, smuggle into Melbourne. Stay at whatshisnames, scary as host with way too many ludicrous comments to the girls. Don’t trust.
14/01/11
Great Ocean Road; girls decided to stay in Melbourne because it was rainy. The day ended up being beautiful on the GOR, saw Bells Beach (no waves though) with kangaroos in front of it. Fed cockatoos by the creek in Lorne; got really hungry and angry that we were on such a strict budget. GOR closed for 45km between Lorne and whatever but the detour was really great too, going through many farmlands and mountains. We were able to make it to the Apostles for sunset after rushing heaps. Great photos of the orange sun lighting the Apostles. Then we backtracked to Princetown, a town of 17 people, and met and stayed with Grant and his Canadian friend Bob. I made brownies for all and we had great conversation learning about their exploits and flying experience. Grant’s house was so beautiful and the bed was possibly the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in, right up there with Sheraton beds. He also mentioned the possibility of going up in the helicopter if an extra spot came up.
15/01/11
That morning we really wanted to get to the helipad for the chance of flying over the Twelve Apostles. But the travel gods had something else planned. Instead, we spent the morning getting the campervan stuck in the wet grass (Jesse doesn’t do much off roading and didn’t realize that wet grass meant muddy conditions not fit for a gigantic 2WD campervan). Luckily the neighbors dogs barked at us so much that the neighbors were alerted to come over and help push, though we still managed to get it stuck a bit more. By the time we got to the helipad two couples were leaving, I knew we’d just missed our chance to be a third wheel on their helicopter tours. But Grant was optimistic and said to come back in a little bit, so we walked over to the Apostles and got daylight photos. Then I sent Jesse back to the helipad to check, telling him to go without me if he had a chance, and alas, he got on a 25min helicopter ride over the coastline for free (typically $290). I, of course, was disappointed I didn’t get on one but it was my fault for eating brownies for breakfast and feeling sick. But then another family walked up and Grant ushered me through with them; I was able to join a mother and her kid for a 10min ride valued at $95. So incredible! I love couchsurfing!! It opens up so many doors and create so many once in a lifetime opportunities. After saying our thanks and praise to Grant we had to race back to Melbourne to turn the car back in. Naturally with limited time we discovered the maps we were given of the location of Britz in Melbourne were fail maps and too blurry to read, so we spent the better part of an hour circling the west side of town, stopping and asking directions many times until we finally found it. By now we’re 15min late but there’s a line for car return, so when we roll up they ask how long we’ve been waiting and they let is slide that we were a bit late. They also seemed to not care that we went over distance by about 100km (with relocation vehicles you’re given a limit of free km, every additional km you go over is $0.50 extra), and didn’t charge us any extra and we were able to get back our full bond. Then we walked 1 km to the train stop. Being Jesse’s first time in Melbourne and my first time using public transport (don’t you love trade shows that pay for your taxi fares?!), it took about two hours to find our hosts house, which ended up including a few train lines, then wandering around the train stop in Brunswick trying to find her street or get her to answer the phone. I eventually went in a store to ask for a map or directions, but the worker didn’t speak much English so I gave up, but then the guy behind me pulled out his iPhone and showed me the way; then, on top of that, offered to give us a ride so we didn’t’ have to walk the 2 km with our packs. Random act of kindness number I’ve lost track! It was so nice of him, he took us straight to the door of our host. Our host, Natasha, we actually met at the Swap Event we threw while living in Gold Coast; she said if we come down to Melbourne to look her up, so we did. She threw a CS dinner party that night and we ended up having a good 20 people from all over the world making food and sharing drinks. After our long day we went to sleep early in the middle of the party on the futon in the living room, but it was easy to sleep since we were so tired.
16/01/11
We woke up and headed into the city. We wandered aimlessly and ended up finding a PRIDE festival. Random sex education activities and free giveaways, gay men playing twister in speedos, and tons of small incredibly cute dogs, including a LuLu look-a-like are what resulted there. More aimless wandering had us seeing all the sights of Melbourne including the graffiti street art, museums, and amazing hot jam doughnuts that can compete with hot Krispy Kremes. We headed to the Italian section, Lygon Street, for real pizza but didn’t see any restaurants there that were serving real pizza (just the Australian crap they call Italian pizza), so instead went to walk around Brunswick and eventually decided on a beer at Little Creatures Brewery then dinner at a cheaper than usual Australian restaurant Umago Café (I believe that was the name, don’t quote me on it though) which was surprisingly delicious and though the pizza was Australian, it was much better than most. Then we headed to St Kilda pier to find some penguins and definitely found them! As did the Penguin Volunteer Research Team who were capturing them, tagging them, and releasing them. We were able to get better than average up close photos of the penguins because the team had lights on them for recording data (typically you cannot use flash on cameras because the light disorients them…why you can shine a flashlight on them I don’t know but oh well). During our penguin encounter we set the leftover pizza box on the ground and soon discovered the infamous Melbourne water rats. We turned around in time to see the huge rat dragging the box away; having just splurged for a $20 pizza (average for a small pizza in Australia), I ran it down and got my darn pizza back. But then Jesse questioned bubonic plague and we got in yet another fight. I also photographed the rat using flash, not realizing it was one of the protected animals that you’re not allowed to use flash on, and when a guy yelled at me for it I got really upset. By the time we left the penguins we only had one bus left before we would be stuck. So we got on it but then got off because I thought we had gotten on the wrong one (turned out it was the right one). So then we had to wait for a different last bus which ended up only taking us as far as the convention center. From there we had to walk to the nearest train or bus stop to find another mode, but as it turned out all public transportation in Melbourne ends before 1am on Sundays. So our choices were to walk an unknown distance on the tram tracks until we got to our host, or take a taxi for what is sure to be a $20-30 taxi fare. So we did what any budget traveler would do, we walked. It took us over two hours and it wasn’t until the next day that we looked up our route and found it was only 8km. It felt so much longer. Not the best night in the world.
17/01/11
The next morning we found out that almost every German CSer in the house has also done that walk to avoid the taxi fare…glad we’re not the only cheapees. We took a taxi to the airport (three options: walk 15km with our luggage, get the shuttle for $15/each but need to take the tram into the city for $5/each, or take a taxi for $35 – we took the taxi. Flew to Darwin, got to our host, Beth’s, at 1am (already planned and she was aware of the late hour).
18/01/11
Woke up to join Beth for breakfast. Went back to sleep a few hours when she left for work. Then we walked to the store and got some snacks and walked around Coconut Grove. In looking at our hand drawn map deciding which way to go, a tradey pulled over and asked if we were lost and needed directions. We started to say we just don’t know what there is to do here but instead I asked which was the beach was. He told us and went off but then pulled over again and asked if we would like a lift. We accepted since it was pretty clear he just wanted to help and was a little bored at work that day. He was friendly but once he heard we were Americans the friendly level went down a bit (happens all the time). But we shared our tiny bears (it’s a Wooly’s food like teddy grahams but cheaper) and he kept driving us to the pier. From there we walked the coastline and checked out the tidal pools and clay-like rock, photographed the idiots surfing during croc and box jellyfish season, and wandered in what we hoped was the right direction back to Beth’s. We decided it would be another two hour walk but didn’t want to pay for the bus so just kept walking. Luckily we were right about which way it was but wrong about the time, it only took about 30 minutes to get back. We picked up groceries for dinner and made Spaghetti Bolognese for Beth (and picked up a Cheaper Tuesday Dominos pizza and garlic bread for lunch the next day), not knowing what foods she ate or didn’t eat (so glad we didn’t do the chicken, she’s allergic.
19/01/11
This morning Beth took off work and joined us to go to the NT Museum. It was exceptional and free; then we walked around downtown Darwin until we were bored. Beth shared a meal from Ghana with us (she loves and has worked as a nurse in Ghana, married a man from Ghana, and traveled extensively in Cuba, so loves spicy rice and bean dishes).
20/01/11
We joined Beth for work in the morning where she was due to pick up a patient at a camp, a place she doesn’t enjoy going to alone in case things go poorly. She is a renal nurse for indigenous Australians and sometimes has to pick up the Aborigines to try to give them free treatment, sometimes they don’t respond well to it. I had to make sure I was dressed conservatively as to not upset anyone there, but being from Florida and only having a backpack of summer clothes, I didn’t have anything conservative enough (long pants), so I had to stay in the car when we went. But that morning the lady we picked up was quite happy to come, though we had to wait a while for her to finish her breakfast and lazing about. Then Beth dropped us off at the gardens were we set out to find frizzled dragons (frilled lizards, I just think frizzled dragons sounds better). It was a nice walk and we did discover some boab trees, but no frizzled dragons. So we took the bus back to Beth’s to do some internet planning (at this time we weren’t sure when we were getting a relocation car); on the walk from the bus stop to the house we crossed the park we had already crossed a few times and there on the ground a little nudger ran across the ground and up a tree. A frizzled lizard! Yay! It went pretty high up the tree and soon we lost sight of it. I scanned the park in hopes of seeing another one, and alas! I did. Well, I saw a bump on a far away tree and imagined it to be one, and sure enough it was! This one was much lower and Jesse climbed the tree to get better photos. We wanted to see it frizzled (frilled), so I told him to quickly move the camera closer to him in a sharp motion, and he frizzled! It did it a few more times for some good photos until finally it was just too scared and jumped off the tree from where it was 3m up and ran away on its hind legs. Ahahaha it’s so hilarious to watch them run. Jesse made Sue’s famous Eggplant Parma for Beth that night and it was a hit.
21/01/11
We still hadn’t found a relocation anytime soon, so Jesse mentioned the idea of heading to Bali because the flights were on sale. I immediately said no without thinking about it because I have less than a month left for WA and wanted to spend a lot of time on it. However, after listening to his reasoning realized it probably was the best option, that or stay in boring Darwin for two weeks. So we booked the flight to Bali and planned to book the relocation for a 4WD 3 berth campervan to Perth with $310 fuel. However we forgot to call right at 9:30am the next morning and someone beat us to it. So now we had our flight to Bali but no relocation car. Now starts the planning for Bali. I wanted to go to Borneo but realized it wasn’t right for this trip due to the short amount of time we had. So instead we resorted to CSing and sent out many, many requests.
22/01/11
We spent the day doing laundry, cleaning, and preparing for our Bali trip. Still no responses from any of the requests, so not sure what we’ll do.
This would be a good time to mention Beth’s opinions of indigenous Australians. She views them in a very high light, higher than most people. Though she admits they are lazier than most, and booze more than most, she loves treating them treats them with much respect, including going to the back of the bus every time she rides one (from what I saw while riding public transport with her).