More of the Same

Sorry, guys, I am exhausted today- with no good reason at all. There has been a lot of walking in the last couple of days though not today. So I am not updating today- just posting some photos since you liked the last one so much.

Enjoy.















The one of the rainbow and the one of the kayaks were not taken by me but by the guide, Wayne.

The House of Pain

The rugby last night was fantastic! I have to say that the crowd at Dunedin is nothing if not as biased as hell! Booing the Springboks' every move, playing Crowded House every time the All Blacks scored etc, it was great! It was also very cold but worth the hours out in the cold night air to watch this closely fought match between two fantastic teams. Right at the last minute the All Blacks sprang ahead and walked away with the trophy- much the joy of the home crowd filling the Carisbrook stadium which has never seen the Springboks win in its ground.

This morning I went to Cadburyworld and later I am going on a wildlife tour. More on that another time though- now here are some photos



This is the last view of Sydney as the plane circled the city on its way East.

This was my first view of New Zealand as the clouds cleared a little



The very civilised centre of Christchurch with its cathedral and some ugly statue

The sheep room at Noah's Ark in Greymouth



A lake we stopped at on the way from Franz Josef to Queenstown

Mountains and lakes



AJ Hacketts- the original bungy jump near Queenstown- no, I wasn't even tempted.

And that is all for today as I have a lot on.

The Tension Mounts

I am in Dunedin now- one of the lucky few to get accommodation. Well, jammy more like as I bought my ticket and the bus driver had heard of a cancellation and so booked me into a hostel immediately. I arrived here from Queenstown around lunchtime. It is cold as hell- there was fresh snow on the mountains surrounding Queenstown when I woke up this morning and I have been wearing pretty much all of my clothes to walk around town today.

There is a bit of a festival atmosphere here in Dunedin. Now, I don't know if it is like this every weekend because this is my first visit but I am sure that the pockets of green rugby shirts are caused by the Tri-Nations tonight. There is a place in the centre of the city called the Octogan, basically a road intersection circled by bars, and it appears that the South Africans have set up shop in one bar and the Kiwis are in the bar next door. It is all very jovial- I just saw some mock jousting with the flags and there seems to be some people dressed in black intent on playing the ball all the way to the stadium at the other end of town. There is a band playing and people just seem to be having a great time.

Everyone in the hostel is going to the rugby tonight. Not even the lure of CadburyWorld just down the road has stopped me in my determination. I have even bought a new warm as anything fleece to wear tonight as I think that it will be very cold indeed. And I found a hat in the last hostel which has the double benefit of keeping my head warm and making me look like an adventurous type as it has 'Tandem Skydive' written across the front of it.

And the colour of my new clothing??? Sorry, Neil and Annette, it is all black!

Breakfast

And a quick one of the view that I had while eating breakfast this morning. I went up to Bob's Peak here in Queenstown by gondala (small cable car). Awesome views

Somewhere under a rainbow

Just a quick photo to show you the rainbow. Rugby tomorrow :)

Sheep

Now I am not saying that all Kiwis are sheep shaggers but.... I am in Queenstown now and there is a statue of the first settler here. He arrived with his wife and set up a farm and the town. Now who do you think is standing on the plinth next to him??? Hint- it isn't the wife! There really does seem to be rather a lot of sheep around. And deer. And llamas- weirdly.

So I did the kayaking thing yesterday, in the rain. I was glad that I had signed up to do it while I was still on the bus and the day was beautifully sunny- if I had seen the rain I think that I would have just spent another day in the hostel complaining about the rain. As it was, not only had I signed up already but had paid while standing in glorious sunshine. I ran through the rain to get to the meeting point and even believed their reassuring murmuring about it being sunny on the lake when it is raining in the town.

Turned out to be a great day. All clad in safety gear and floatation devices (rather better than the lack of anything secure when we went kayaking in the OCEAN in Vietnam) we were launched onto a wonderfully still lake. I was sharing my kayak with an English lad, Steven, he was in charge of the steering but that didn't help. We across the lake and into the forest on the other side. It was here that things started to get interesting as we managed to get wedged a fair few times with both ends of the boat stuck in some kind of weed or tree or both. It was frustrating trying to get out- you just want to get out of the kayak and give it a push but since the lake is 82m deep, it wasn't really an option. Frustrating or not, it was very satisfying when we managed to manoeuvre our way out with a lot of frantic back paddling and cursing.

It rained pretty much the whole time we were on the water which did mean something wonderful happened- as we came back out onto open water we saw the most brilliant rainbow I have ever seen. It rose from the lake, shimmered in front of the trees and arced its way over to the other side of the lake where it met its reflection on the surface. And, as if that wasn't enough, it had asked a mate to join it- two rainbows of colours not normally seen outside of a paint pallet. It was worth every swearing, cursing, getting stuck in a low slung tree just to see it.

And it was so awesome that none of us noticed how wet we had got. The drip skirts hid the damage until we all de-kayaked to discover that the rain had collected in such a way as it make us look like an incontinence meeting. And there was no way that my clothes were going to dry in time for the bus the next morning so I ended up with a bag of wet clothes sitting on the seat next to me all day.

Up early we drove for around 45 minutes and stopped to go and see a lake that mirrors its surroundings wonderfully. We walked through the forest to get there, oohed and ahhed for a bit, took a million photos and off we went. And that was pretty much the routine for the day. As we passed from West Coast towards the middle of the country the landscape changed. There was still great big mountains and gushing waterfalls rushing down their sides but the trees and general fauna changed a lot. We passed some beautiful lakes- which I can't remember the name of now- before finally arriving in Queenstown.

We also did a quick stop off at the home of bungee jumping- AJ Hackett's. As we got there a man was perched on the platform stuck to the edge of the bridge over the river. A women was watching him and telling a one year old and four year old 'look at daddy!'. The kids were quite into it until Daddy jumped, then the four year old burst into tears and needed a lot of reassuring that Daddy was OK. The next guy didn't have the same family support and jumped unheeded. The third guy lept off the edge and plunged into the water below up to his shoulders- remember that he was upside down. I thought I had seen bungee jumping before but hopping off a small platform on a beach in the UK is pretty different from this leap off a bridge. It was much scarier than I thought it would be.

Not tempted at all, before you ask!

I have tomorrow in Queenstown and then onto Dunedin and the rugby! I have been very lucky to get a bed for the night in Dunedin, apparantely. Luckily for me, Scotty the guide was in the internet place when I booked the ticket for the game. As I was leaping around telling people I was going, he got straight on the phone and found me a cancellation- phew! Others on the bus have not been so lucky but I think that I have been a bad influence and they are going to go there anyway.

Should be fun!

Guess what!!!

I just bought a ticket to go to the rugby on Saturday- All Blacks vs The Springboks!!!! I am so excited, even though I am going on my own!

Today I went kayaking in the rain. It was awesome. I have loads of photos but here is one

I just want to point out that I was wearing a life jacket under that rain coat. Will get back to you with more photos another time but now I have to think about the rugby some more....

Another Country, Another Cold

Here is another map I ripped off the Lonely Planet website

Of course, it is colder here in New Zealand than Australia so I have the start of a new cold to look forward. My nose has already got a bit dribbly and my throat is threatening some all out strike action shortly. Ah bother!

I left Christchurch yesterday morning and caught the Tranzalpine railway through the mountains to Greymouth on the West Coast (having started on the East Coast). The views from the train were amazing, rivers, snow-capped mountains, sheep, the lot. Until we got halfway there and it started to rain and the clouds came in.

I could see where the 'grey' in Greymouth came from as it was raining and crappy yesterday. The hostel was interesting though. It is called 'Noah's Ark' and each room is decorated according to an animal theme. I was placed in the Sheep Room and sure enough there was a big fluffy sheep on the bed when I got there. Since it was a bit damp outside, I just went out and bought some food before heading back to the hostel for the evening.

The thing that NZ seems to have over Oz so far is the belief that there should be some kind of heating available since it is winter and all. But they don't have anythig as sophisticated as central heating in the hostel- it is all down to log fires. Which is pretty nice. And what could be more like home than walking into the lounge to discover a cat laid out on the hearth rug warming his belly? He was lying on his back with his front legs stretched out ahead of him and his back legs all curled up in the air. He lay there for a few hours and then woke up suddenly. Twisting himself back into a cat-like shape he looked around groggily before going back to sleep. T'is a cat's life.

Got up early this morning to find a sunny day awaiting me. The Magic Bus picked me up at 8 and off we went. We stopped at a place called Hokitika to buy some food then onto Ross to watch a gold panning demonstration before arriving in Franz Joseph, our destination for the night. Most people are going walking on the glacier this afternoon or tomorrow but I am going kayaking on a beautiful looking lake in a couple of hours.

Wish me luck!

I spy something beginning with 'K'

I arrived in New Zealand yesterday afternoon. I must say that Air New Zealand had better rethink its portion sizes for the inflight catering- they appeared to have only put half of my sandwich on the tray! And a mere quarter of the cake. Not good enough!

Haven't really seen much of the country yet- decided to give myself the day off yesterday so just got the shuttle bus to the hostel (Charlie B's) and then bought my Magic Bus ticket which will whisk me around the South Island, over to the North and up to Auckland and no doubt try and sell me lots of extras on the way. But the Magic Bus comes recommended from several people that I have met on the way and there is a 20% sale on at the moment because it is winter and sale prices are my favourite kind.

Apparantely it is winter anyway. People had got me so worried about the weather here that I was expecting my ears to have fallen off by the time I reached the Arrival Hall due to frostbite. But, in fact, it was a balmly 18 degrees here in Christchurch yesterday. Got some great views over Sydney from the plane (and maybe let myself take another couple of photos of the Opera House) and then fantasticly amazing views of snow covered mountains in New Zealand.

The tourist information centre at the airport booked my accommodation for me- even after I bugged them asking when I would get to see a kiwi. Last night I booked my bus ticket and then just chilled out for the rest of the night- blaming jetlag, we are two hours ahead of Sydney here after all. I called my sister and had a good long chat then went back to the hostel and watched telly.

Today I strolled into the City centre- it looks a lot like home apart from the numerous Korean restaurants everywhere- and not a single one of them sells dak galbi, dammit! I watched some ducks cross the road and some people punting down the river. Called my brother only to have the Cathedral bells interrupt the call. It is seriously civilised here.

After speaking to my brother for a while, I got off the phone and turned around only to see a sign that said 'live kiwi here'- not one to miss some live kiwi action off I went. Sure enough, I was escorted into a room and allowed to watch a couple of North Island Browns running around (yes, I didn't know that there were different makes of kiwi either). They are very cute if a little pampered- no talking in the room, no phones, no grabbing one and yelling 'I have a kiwi' while asking people to take a photo of you- very fussy indeed. Not like the hardy Aussie animals which they encourage you to get photographed with. But cute anyway.

I am also sporting a brand new pair of walking boots- or tramping boots as they seem to be known here, or at least in the shop I went to. I love shoe shopping and get girlie about it even if the end result is a macho pair of supportive walking boots. I need something to cheer me up after the loss of my sandals in Surfers after all. But after a couple of weeks of wearing shoes that I can feel every bit of grit through the sole of, I feel a little disconnected from the world. But happy with having some new footwear.

Sweet as!

Leaving Australia- on a jet plane, of course

This will (probably) be my last post from Australia. I am leaving tomorrow morning on the 9.50am flight to Christchurch, New Zealand. So this seemed like a good time to put the last of the Oz photos up for you. Nice and tidy. Here we go



This is part of the Chinese Friendship Gardens

and so is this. If you look carefully you should be able to see two turtles on the rocks in the pool. They were just perched up there with their legs pulled in and it looked a lot like they were glued there

more of the garden



and again

It is very pretty and relaxing. You can hire the place out for special events and can even get married there. I used to think that I would like to get married there but these days I think that if I find a man who wants to marry me and who I want to marry, I will just drag him to the registry office as quickly as possible before we change our minds- or sober up.

This is a great fountain at Darling Harbour



Monorail station

My new friend, Wally the Australian rugby Wallaby. I intend to take him home, sit him down in front of the telly and force him to watch the final of the 2003 Rubgy World Cup over and over. I bought him on the way to Manly Beach (so named because the Aborigines there looked so manly apparantly) so that is where he decided to pose. During my day out at Manly I managed to do two things that I had never done before 1. didn't take any photos of the Opera House from the ferry and 2. didn't get sunburnt on the ferry!

I like to go to Manly because you go by ferry and it takes about half an hour across the harbour and round the corner. The water is so clear that you can see the seabed near the dock. But my two worst cases of sunburn happened there. Mind you, it was in the summer so I was in with a fair chance this time.

This is just a small selection of the flying foxes that live in the Botanic Gardens. They hang in the trees like overripe fruit about to fall at any moment. They chatter away amongst each other and occassionally have a bit of a scuffle if one gets too close to the other. There are thousand of them living in the trees. The Park officials have put a sign up saying that the bats are trying to establish a home there and that they are using humane means to stop them as they destroy the trees that they roost in. Unfortunately, this sign was also there six years ago and I think that if the officials look up at the trees at any point they will notice that they seem to have lost this battle.

Having been good yesterday and not taken any photos of the Opera House I decided to reward myself with the opportunity to take one last shot today. The Opera House stands on a piece of land known as Bennelong Precinct. Bennelong was one of the local Aboriginals kidnapped by the first settlers in order to learn more about the culture. He even went to England with the Governer but later died, succumbing to alcohol and loneliness as he could no longer relate to his own people or those who had kidnapped and 'civilised' him. The first guy that was kidnapped died of smallpox while nursing other victims of the disease. Many of the original inhabitants lost their lives to introduced diseases such as smallpox.



These are some great Christmas decorations that I saw today at Circular Quay. They also had kangaroo ones and some of the koalas riding the kangaroos- how much more Christmassy can you get?

And today I went to the market at The Rocks. I stood under the Harbour Bridge to take this photo, you can see it at the top. When standing under the bridge it to hard to ignore the clanking of the groups of tourists chained to the bridge at the start of their bridge climb. This was only started a few years ago but is one of the most popular things to do in Sydney. Looks kind of scary to me.

And I guess that is that. I like Sydney. For the last six years I have told people that I would like to live here. It is a beautiful city with more water than you could possibly need. There are a lot of parks and you are never too far from the beach. However, I don't want to live here anymore. Having been around Australia (twice) there are other places that I would rather live and the older I get the more I succumb to the idea of small town living. Cities don't interest me in the way that they used to. The biggest downside of country living though is that I might have to learn to drive- and that could be bad news for road users everywhere!

Victorians

Victoria is a state in the south of Australia. Its residents are known as Victorians. I am always mildly disappointed when I meet Victorians. I have a picture in my mind that Victoria is populated by a people who get from place to place in horse-drawn cabs, the men have moustaches and wear top hats, the women are tightly laced into corsets and suffer attacks of the vapours and frequently have to be brought round with smelling salts, the children work up chimneys and table legs are covered for fear that the men won't be able to control themslves at the sight of a nicely turned wooden leg.

Alas, they tell me that it isn't so.

Kids, monorails and gardens

I went to the Australian Museum yesterday. I remember when we went there before it was informative and interesting, giving a good insight into Aussie history and the impact that the European invasion has had on the land. Well, it must have a temporary exhibition as all I could see yesterday was skeletons, bugs and a ridiculous amount of kids on school trips. Anything that I did find interesting was immediately swamped by these kids to the point where I had to leave the museum or kill them! I was watching a video about how Australia separated from the land mass Gondwana many millions of years ago and a bunch of kindergarten kids ran over yelling 'look, a telly!!' like the little buggers don't have them at home! Honestly. I hope they learnt something because I didn't.

So a rather disgruntled H left the museum, resenting the 10 bucks that she had paid to watch a bunch of kids run riot- I used to get paid to watch that kind of thing after all. I went out to Hyde Park and started to read the book I had bought in the museum shop- the only good thing to come out of the trip- it is the tale of an Aboriginal woman who was taken from her mother and white father and set to be basically slave labour wherever people felt like sending her. It is called 'When the Pelican Laughed' or something like that and is fascinating stuff.

After a while, I moved myself out of the park and to Darling Harbour- since I am down to my last couple of days here I thought that there should be other things I could do. And I spent the best six bucks I was going to spend all day getting into the Chinese Friendship Gardens. They were built to mark the Australian Bicentennial in 1988 by the Chinese as an expression of their friendship with the people of New South Wales and Australia in general. It is a gorgeous oasis of calm in the middle of a noisy city. Little pagodas litter the edge of a pool which is fed by several small waterfalls. You can walk around it pretty quickly but then you have to go back and see all the bits you missed the first time around. Helen's recommendation for the day.

But it closes at 5 so I went out and onto the monorail. The monorail takes 15 minutes to do the entire circuit so I went round twice. It is supposedly a feasible form of public transport though I am sure that it is mostly for tourists. It runs around the harbour and along George Street for a bit before cutting back to the harbour. I went around and got off at George Street so I could go to the cinema.

Hoyts cinema is the largest in Oz with 17 screens. And they seem to have the biggest price too- twice the price that I have paid elsewhere in great little independent cinemas. I saw 'The Wedding Crashers' which was disappointing.

But the Chinese Gardens helped me keep my inner calm and I went home for reading and bed. Today- who knows! I have two days left here- today and tomorrow so I guess that I should get to a beach sometime.

Stuff and Things

Just saw a group of goths outside. It must be hard to be a goth in Australia, very hot in the sun what with all that black and it must be a nightmare trying to keep that pasty complexion. It is a really warm day here in Sydney, much warmer than the last couple of weeks travelling down the coast. I only need one blanket on my bed and the room has a HEATER- first one that I have seen over here. The only downside with the hostel is that I am in a long term dorm. Now, it occurs to me that some of you don't even know what a dorm looks like so here is a photo of a common or garden variety holiday dorm



and here is the nightmare that is a long term dorm

You can see the immediate difference. Long termers live in the hostel and so treat it like home, like a student home anyway. I know because I used to live in one in Dublin. We had our own posters on the walls, people had hung curtains on their beds and we had made a chair out of beer cans. The cleaner never visited it and I don't blame them. Weirdly, out of all the dorms, we were the only one that didn't get robbed. I think that this was due to the construction workers' shoes that they used to leave outside the door- guard shoes, if you like, that snarled and growled everytime anyone came near.

This is the corridor in Coffs Harbour that I used to fly up with the hoover every day back in June of 1999. I think that I did more vacuuming in that ten days than I have done in the subsequent 6 years (we sweep in Korea before you start to pass judgement!).



This is Coffs Harbour. I used to go down there a lot as there were so many dolphins around the harbour back then. A few weeks after I left I read a story about someone leaning over the side of a boat and stabbing a baby dolphin to death. I will never understand these people.

If anyone knows the name of this flower then please tell me. It just caught my eye in the Botanic Gardens at Coffs for the colours against the sky.



This is Sydney Tower through the trees in Hyde Park.

A view out of the tower but mainly a reflection of my camera- sorry about that!

The monorail at Darling Harbour. It also goes around the city. And that is pretty much all I know about the monorail.



Darling Harbour, playground of those with boats.

A platypus in Sydney Aquarium. Platypus and echidnas belong to a very exclusive family called the monotremes. Which means that they have one hole for excretion and reproduction. They both lay eggs and breath air. Monotremes are unique to Australasia. In common with most of Australia's wildlife they are nocturnal. Now some people will tell you that this is because it is so hot during the day but I think that it is all a ploy to not have to really have any animals in the Australian part of the zoo

'Oh, you see they are nocturnal which means they are in the burrows now so you can't see them. But they do exist. Honest. We really have some, we aren't just taking your money and showing you an empty enclosure...what's that? Prove it? Can't, you see, they are nocturnal..'

This is one of the tunnels at the Sydney Aquarium. It is the best aquarium that I have ever been to. It has three large floating bits in the harbour itself which are filled with seals, sharks and a bunch of other stuff. This is the seal tunnel. The shark one was filled with shrieking kids so I didn't hang around to get a photo.



OK, I did get a photo of the shark. There are loads of sharks in the place. This one is a nurse shark, I believe, though feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

This was my favourite statue of Queen Victoria. I liked it because I was told that it used to stand in Dublin but after Ireland became a Republic it was simply 're-gifted' to the Australians. I like to think of the Australians' faces falling on Christmas morning when this fell out of the wrapping paper, realising that they would have to hold onto it for a decent amount of time before passing it off to another Commonwealth country. But I read the plaque on the back this time and it said that it was acquired by some guy involved in the restoration of the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) in front of which it stands. It still came from Ireland and I still prefer the original story.



This is the very famous indeed Sydney Harbour Bridge. And a ferry in front of it. Those little green and cream boats zoom all over the harbour.

This is the Opera House with some goon in front of it. Shame really, would have been a nice photo if that lady hadn't got in the way. And I use the term 'lady' advisedly.

This is the inside of a double decker train that takes commuters all over Sydney. I guess that is the benefit of having an underground rail network that wasn't carved out of stone by small children with mucky faces in Victorian times.

This is a giraffe doing a passable impression of the Sydney Tower in Taronga Zoo- the tower is just behind it for comparison



and this is a less convincing effort from a meercat

The kind of beast that doesn't lower itself with cheap impressions of tall buildings though it is rumoured that it does a mean Barry White after a couple of whiskies.



Me feeding the giraffes. Giraffes are just cool.

This is for those of you asking about the colour of a giraffe's tongue. They come snaking out of their mouths to wrap around the food. Most of the people doing the feeding were a bit scared and got the longest carrots they could find. I wasn't scared- or at least, was too far back in the queue to get a choice of carrots.

And a wombat that is no doubt occasionally shoved out of the burrow to prove to us punters that they actually exist. They look as solid as a tank and are bigger than you might think. I wouldn't pick a fight with one anyway.

There were koalas and kangaroos there too but I got closer to them at the last place so didn't take any photos this time.

(all educational content is for the benefit of Les's daughter, everyone else please feel free to just look at the photos)

A Tall Tale

Despite this internet cafe being stuffed full of Koreans, I still don't hear the sounds of Starcraft drifting across the room. Neither has anyone phelgmed into an ashtray yet- in fact there are no ashtrays here as you can't smoke in here. In conclusion, I think that I prefer the internet cafes of Australia to the smoke laden, killing the digital enemy as loudly as possible PC bangs of Korea.
But that is beside the point. You'll be wanting to know what I got up to today- and if you don't then what are you doing on my blog??? Well, today I went to the zoo. And why not. The zoo is on the other side of the harbour from where I am based so I caught a ferry across to Taronga Zoo which gave me amply opportunity to take EVEN MORE photos of the Opera House. I seem to remember that damn building being pretty photogenic last time I was here- every step gives you a new view of the soaring sails and the building changes colour as it reflects the sky above etc etc- and now that I have a digital camera I am in the habit of taking too many photos. Therefore, I guess that at some stage I will have to start up a whole new blog just to cope with the Opera House photos. No more, I tell you, no more.

So the ferry ride was a photo-taking fest, not just me, in fact I was pretty laid back about the whole thing compared to my fellow passengers. I still had some space left on the memory card upon arrival at the zoo, for instance. The zoo plus ferry plus cable car ride (cable car isn't working right now though) came to $37, for your info, James.

The lady on the desk was lovely and told me all the great and amazing things to see. I listened, ignored her and dashed off in search of giraffes. Which I found, they are pretty big after all. The giraffes have the best view across the Harbour and not merely because of their long necks. They ate grass, batted their long eyelashes and generally hung around looking all nice and picturesque in front of the Harbour views.

They were great but apparantely there were other animals to see so off I went. And saw the lot- even the wombat deigned to come out of its burrow and walk up and down in the sunshine. The only thing missing were the elephants- the old ones have gone to Dubbo (don't ask me why) while the new ones are still in quarantine. The zoo had provided some nice photos of the new elephants as some small compensation, not really good enough for those of us leaving in a couple of days, however!

I walked and walked and walked again until it was 1.45 and something very important was happening- yep for another three dollars we had the chance to do the zookeepers job and feed the giraffes. They have very long tongues so it was inevitable that there would be a bit of licking going on and sure enough the little blighters swiped my wrist on the way to the carrot I was holding out. But giraffes are pretty much my favourite animal so I would forgive them a little bit of spit.

I had a great day at the zoo- it was worth the money as it was a full day out. I came back and went to The Rocks- the oldest part of Sydney and had a schooner by myself in the Mercantile. Now I am just delaying going back to the hostel since when I get there I will just be picking up that book and finishing it!

Tuesday, Tuesday

After what turned into an unexpectedly large night on Monday I decided to take it a bit slower on Tuesday. I got up late (one of the luxuries of staying for more than a couple of days in one place because you don't have to worry about checking out or missing out on stuff if you stay in bed) and wandered around the corner to the internet cafe. I am staying in Kings Cross, where I stayed the first time we arrived in Sydney. Things have changed but not a lot. There are still loads of strip joints here, haven't walked out late enough to see if the area is still saturated with hookers, but the three slices of pizza for one dollar has changed to one slice of pizza for three dollars- some bright spark obviously worked out that they would be making a lot more money if they swapped the one and the three around- shame.

Then I caught a train to Bondi Junction and mooched around the shops there for a while. Walked back to Kings Cross via Centennial Park. I managed to find a book that I have been looking for since Perth and even persuaded myself to wait until I got back to the hostel to start reading it. But once the front cover was opened, I was a goner. Fell asleep with the book in my hands around midnight.

All in all, a very pleasant day.

The Helen on the bus goes read, read, read

It takes around six to seven hours to read Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down, I discovered the other day- so what did I do for the other five hours of the bus journey? Look out of the window, snooze, look out of the window, listen to music, possibly while looking out of the window. And after eleven and a half hours I made it from Coffs to Sydney.

I only had the one night in Coffs but it was enough time to trip down memory lane and rejoice in the fact that I no longer had to get up in the morning and vacuum the hostel, as I did last time I was there. I spent the morning at the Botanic Gardens. The first thing that hits you as you approach the Gardens is the sheer volume and variety of the bird song drifting down from the trees, up from the ground and from pretty much everywhere. There really is an amazing amount of birds in Australia. I pottered around looking for koalas (there is a sign that says 'Koalas' and just has an arrow pointing up- brilliant!) but didn't see any. Last time I was there I had one pointed out to me- just a black blob hugging the branches miles above the ground. It is probably better to see them in the zoo really.

So after a relaxing morning looking for koalas, it was time for my last long bus journey here in Oz. I arrived into Sydney just before midnight and got a taxi to the hostel. Crawled into bed and slept.

Woke up the next morning to find myself in Sydney! Wow. Now this may seem obvious to all you out there but every time I get on a bus here I keep expecting to get off somewhere in Korea. Your mind plays funny tricks on you after the third hour on the bus. So I got out of bed and went into the City. And I walked and walked and walked. I went up the Sydney Tower and walked around it, taking hundreds of photos. I walked to Darling Harbour and around Sydney Aquarium for a couple of hours. The platypus were very cute indeed and put on quite a show. But my favourite bit was the Nemo display- all these kids were looking for Nemo's mates

'Look, mum, there's Dory' etc

Very sweet, they were so into it that half of them were convinced that they were looking at Nemo's dad (not Nemo as he has one small fin).

Then I walked to Circular Quay and round to the Opera House, through the Botanic Gardens and Hyde Park and up towards the hostel. By now I was pretty tired and ready for a rest. But it was not to be as I bumped into a Korean guy that I met on Fraser Island so we went off to get pissed.

He took me to a place that is very popular with Korean students, it was like being in Seoul. We chatted and chatted and drank and drank and then went off for kebabs. Just like home all of a sudden. And, true to form, if you are drunk enough to think that kebabs are a good idea then you are probably too drunk to eat one. I know that I was. So I hailed a cab and we went home. Me to my disaster area of a dorm and him to his Korean hostel down the road.

Not a bad start to my last week in Australia and my first week in Sydney.

The Arts Factory

I have left a rainy Byron behind today. But I had a great three days there. As I have mentioned, I stayed at the Arts Factory which is probably the most expensive hostel in Byron but worth it.



It is so chilled and relaxing there- whether sitting by the swamp making a didge or curled up by the fire with a good book- even when it is raining.

There is a bar there and a great restaurant, both housed in a building next to the main lodge which was previously an abbatoir. In the basement of the restaurant is the best cinema that I have ever been to. Not only is it cheap ($6.90 a movie) but the first four rows are huge comfy lounges on the floor.

And, as if that isn't enough, they have even provided some teddy bears for people like me who go on their own but still want a hug during the movie.



and not all the residents are backpackers

But it started to rain last night and was still going strong this morning which helped me to make up my mind to leave. The Arts Factory is not only cool but also cold at nights. Last night I was toastie though as I had snagged another blanket (making three) and remembered a tip from my mate, Cat, and filled my platypus water bottle with boiling water and stuck it into my bed to warm it up. Nice!

And I had a shower to warm up me before bed too. Lovely. So I was sad to leave Byron and head south (the reports of snow in Sydney aren't helping!) but now I am in Coffs Harbour in Aussitel- the hostel I cleaned back in 1999.

But more on that another time.

Byron Bay

Man, it is cold here today. Not as cold as last night though which was just evil cold. OK, OK, not like a 'real' winter as experienced in countries that actually know what cold is but a proper Aussie winter- there are rumours filtering up the coast of snow down south(!) And the problem here is that there is no heating to speak of and none of us have proper winter clothes. I am sleeping in a dorm and it is cold but the teepee has a fire in it and is very cold indeed, so I am told, it seemed nice and snug to me in there when I went for a visit.

I spent yesterday afternoon on the beach with a couple of girls from the hostel and it was a beautiful warm day. But by the evening it was much colder. Didn't stop us following the great unwashed of Byron down to the local Seventh Day Adventist Church for some free grub last night though. It was like a minature Glastonbury down there- hippies of all shapes and sizes sporting all clothes from board short to ponchos- as we sat on the lawn in the dark and shivered over a plate of great free food (donations welcome, and indeed paid).

Had a free beers in the hostel last night over a couple of games of Shithead- the perennial Backpackers' favourite card game. We were playing with what appeared to be the remains of about four packs of cards so it took quite some time to get through each game. Then the others went out and I curled up in front of the fire with the new Harry Potter book which I had been given that morning.

Today I have just been reading, chatting to folk and buying some warm clothes to wear in bed tonight. Where oh where has the sun gone???

But here to warm the cockles of your hearts are some more photos. I will tell you what they are this time for a change as this mouse pointer thing doesn't seem to be working for everyone. These go from Hervey Bay to Fraser, Surfers Paradies and that is all.

This is the beach in Hervey Bay. The little balls of sand are created by these very small crabs which run around the beach in swarms and twist themselves into the sand when you get close.



This is a whale flipper from my whale watching trip- I did warn you that I didn't get any good whale photos.

This will give you an idea of how close the whales were. This is a humpback whale. Honest.



This is part of the rainforest on Fraser Island.

This is a view of one of the sand blows from the little plane ride I took. Sand blows are different from sand dunes because they move. Or something like that.



This is part of 75 Mile Beach on Fraser Island and the main highway on the island.

This is the shadow of the plane we were in.



And this is the actual plane, complete with two Irish passengers who got lost later on a short walk to the amusement of everyone else.

This is from day two on Fraser. You can tell this because it isn't raining.



This is Eli Creek on of the many freshwater creeks on this large sand island.

It was too cold to swim comfortably in Lake McKenzie but it was great for a paddle.



We were told that Lake McKenzie has some of the purest water in the World in it. And looking at the clear blue water that is easy to believe.

And this is a genuine Fraser Island Dingo and not a toy at all. Fraser Island is the only place left where pure breed Asian Wolves can still be found and I saw one in the dark the night before but was too slow to get a photo of the little tike.



The ferry coming from the island back to the mainland at dusk.

This is Brisbane Central Business District. There can't be that many cities in the world where you can stand in a little bit of rainforest and see tower blocks.



Brisbane doesn't have a beach, being inland and all, but they have made this great free 'beach' swimming pool on the south bank of the river across from the CBD.

This is the effect that a bottle of soju will have on two ex-Mokpo ESL teachers.



Oh the glitz and lights, it must be Surfers Paradise.

Not the most beautifully natural beach in Oz.

And that is your lot for now. I am due to leave Byron tomorrow but I might stay for another night and then head down to Coffs. So close to the end of this leg of the trip now, scary stuff!

Where Magic Happens

I made it to Byron Bay in the end after a hungover sleep on the beach at Surfers. If the beach on Fraser is the Great Sandy Highway then the beach at Surfers must be the Great Sandy Jogging Track. It was jammers this morning with people walking, jogging, rollerblading (OK, I made that last one up) and generally having a good old stare at the poor hungover English girl on the beach in yesterday's clothes and last night's make-up. But I did get to watch some people having surfing lessons so I felt that I had done enough touristy stuff to be able to leave. I took photos too.

Then I got on the bus here. It took a couple of hours and I was sleeping as we crossed from Queensland into New South Wales. Shame really. It has taken me 22 hours on a bus (well, several buses) to get from Cairns to the NSW border but the moment passed unnoticed. I might have let out an extra loud snore by way of celebration or something but I doubt it.

I got straight off the Greyhound bus and onto the courtesy bus for the Arts Factory Lodge- a hostel I stayed at last time I was here and the only one that I bought a t-shirt from, which I found when I was home, much to my amusement. The Lonely Planet describes the Arts Factory as 'a 60s commune gone right' but I can't help thinking that it is like a holiday camp for hippies. At least there won't be long queues in the showers tomorrow as I believe that dreadlocks need no washing. In fact, most of these people look like they might ran away at the mere mention of soap (though after last night's shenanigans I am hardly one to talk).

Byron Bay is home of the painted VW camper, the dreaded blonde chicks, people looking for enlightenment and an assortment of other interesting types. I like it here:) even though popular consensus is that there are far too many tourists here- being a tourist myself I hardly notice. So I put my bag in the room, disturbing some guy having a kip there (yes, my first mixed sex dorm on this trip- I said I didn't mind the mixed dorm as long as the guys were cute, I want my money back!) and wandered into town for a something to eat and a look round.

Nothing screams 'welcome' to a poor hungover H like a sign saying 'PIZZA'. I managed to walk past the first couple of places but eventually had to give in and have an Apocalypse Now pizza. It was good and hit the spot then it was on to the beach.

It was dark already and the moment I looked up I saw a shooting star. Nice. I did my Astronomy homework once more (ie, looked at the two new constellations I learnt) and enjoyed the peace of the empty beach and the beauty of the night sky in all its glory.

On my way back to the hostel, a guy stopped me and pointed out Jupiter snuggled next to the crescent moon. Byron is just that kind of place.

I blame the soju

I do, I really do. I blame it for late night. I blame it for the drunken phone calls I made in the middle of the night. I blame it for the fuzziness of my head and the unsettled state of my stomach. I blame it for the fact that I haven't got on a bus yet and so am still in Surfers. I blame it for everything.

But most of all, I blame Tim for ordering it!

Fraser Island Two day Safari

I wasn't going to go to Fraser Island. I couldn't afford to go last time I was here and it really didn't bother me- not as much as missing out on the whale watching did anyway. But it is hard not to get sucked into the Fraser Island hype once you hit Hervey Bay. After all, once you have gone whale watching there is little else for the tourist to do in this pretty but dull town. I was lured by tales of fabulous gorgeousness and booked myself onto a two day trip.

My first mistake, and so far my only notable one, was not asking the group size before I started booking the tour. Goodness only knows why the girl was so pleased to tell me that the size was 40-50 people!!! Yikes, sounds like a nightmare on wheels. As my face fell, her phone rang and when she came back to me it was obvious that she wasn't going to indulge my fear of crowds. Telling me that not other groups were leaving on Sunday, she shoved my VISA receipt under my nose to be signed.

'You'll have fun,' she snarled, more a command than a good wish.

Right so, at least I was going to Fraser Island, I consoled myself while muttering 'don't let the mean lady make you cry,' under my breath.

I had the dorm to myself that night and had hired some more blankets (I hate the way that the big hostels fleece you for what comes naturally to the smaller places. I am surprised that there isn't an honesty box in the toilets) as I had woken exhausted that morning after a hectic night of shivering. So I was able to leap out of bed with enthusiasm on the day of the tour with no worries about waking others.

To be fair, it had stopped raining by the time the bus came and it really didn't start again until we were on the ferry. Oh joy! Weirdly it had stopped by the time we reached the rainforest. As the tour guide kept reminding us, the most remarkable thing about the rainforest there is that it grows in the sand and it is unique in the World for that reason. It is also fabulously gorgeous, you will be pleased to know. At over 100km long, Fraser is the largest sand island in the World and is certainly a place of extremes. In places it is as if Nature has drawn a line to signify the end of one kind of area (rainforest for instance) and the start of another (sand blows) the changes tumble over each other to fill the island.

And I am one of just six of the fifty one people on the tour to really appreciate that because I treated myself to a 20 minute flight in an little aeroplane. Hooray! For once I was one of those people who eagerly throw their hands in the air at the chance to spend more money rather than one of the envious majority in the cheap seats. We settled into our little plane and drove along the beach to take off. Lots of trees, sand, sea and twenty minutes later we landed further down the beach as the rest of our tour group took photos of us- how the other half lives!

I had a great first day on Fraser- with regards to the island itself but the group was way too big and it took forever every time the coach needed loading or unloading. But it didn't break down until day two, when the sun had come out. And I did manage to see a dingo before hitting the hay that night.

The second day brought lots of sun and a wonderful fried brekkie to start the day. We saw Lake McKenzie and Lake Wabby. We watched whales scoot past Indian Heads. We generally smiled and paddled a lot. Then it was back to Hervey Bay.

This morning I got up and got on a bus to Brisbane where I have spent a very enjoyable afternoon- hitting Surfers Paradise tonight- wish me luck!

Photos from Adelaide, Cairns and Townsville

God I am good to you guys! I was going to sit here and write all about my trip to Fraser Island but I stuck an investigatory finger on a button on the PC and the CD drawer flew open. So rather than scare you all again with a mass of text I am actually putting on photossssss!! Wow! You have read/should have read the stories to go with these so I am not going to tell them again. As usual, hover your mousepointer over the photo for a short explanation.

Typical pub in Cairns with sophisticated entertainment

Osmond the Koala in Cleland National Park. I know that it is kind of cheating to take photos of the animals in the parks but,wow, they make the best photos!

This is Nigel just prior to the Bettong biting him

Bless, it really was a rather wet day and all the kangaroos looked pretty sorry for themselves. Though this might have been a ruse to get more food

I wanted it noted that while these two fairy penguins do not really constitute the hoard we were promised, these photos are actually of wild penguins and not ones in the park.

The kangaroos in Cleland were shameless with their begging.

And finally, the most effective way of cleaning your hand without wet wipes.

Fraser Island

Too touristy?? Surely not. How could it be? Neither me or the other fifty people on the trip would dare to agree with that!

Cripes, how did I end up in such a crowd? Which was actually three quarters Italian and since they couldn't understand the tour guide they decided that no-one else would like to listen to his commentary either. Grrrrrr!

I am back in Hervey Bay and letting off some steam before I tell you about the trip. Needless to say Fraser Island itself was gorgeous.

And the dingoes were cute too :)

Thar she blows

'Over on the left side'

We ran as fast as we dared across the boat and were rewarded with the tail end of a whale disappearing into the water.

'Right side now, around 3 o'clock'

back we hurtled just in time to see the humpback breaching, lifting his entire front end out of the water and smacking it down onto the ocean before diving beneath the waves once more. It wasn't the first whale that we had seen that morning and it certainly wasn't going to be the last.

I am in Hervey Bay which can only mean that I am doing one of two things- and I am going to Fraser Island tomorrow which must mean that I went whale watching today. And it was awesome! Completely and utterly.

Fantastic! We saw around 7 whales today and they played around the boat for ages- flipping their tails into the air, waving at us with their fins and general splashing around all whale-like. They came so close to the boat too- literally breaching around four feet from where we stood and swimming under the boat to get the people on the other side. They are gorgeous creatures too- the two that played around us the most weren't that big- that is to say that they were still around the size of the boat but not that big. They seemed to be enjoying themselves showing off all over the shop. And we were happy to watch them.

I also got talking to an English couple and the woman asked me where I was from. When I told her I was from Suffolk she looked at me... turns out that she is from Felixstowe too! In fact, her dad used to own BIllings Newsagent!

Small world.

But big enough to fit plenty of whales in it!

Better on the bus than off it

I left Cairns on Monday and went to Townsville to meet Monique and Tony, a couple that I know from Dublin. The silly girl at the hostel got the bus times wrong though and poor old Tone had to kill a couple of hours in the bar waiting for me- must have been murder! But it did mean that on arrival I went to my first proper Aussie pub so far on this trip (the bar at the hostel in Monkey Mia doesn't really count) for a drop of the amber nectar. Which did somehow set the scene for the rest of the night- catching up on the last four years over a selection of beers and Bundy and Cokes... needless to say, I wasn't really feeling the love the next day.

Mon's parents were over from South Africa for a visit too (Yes, Mon is my original South African friend- the friend that inspired a trip over there and some other friendships that followed her departure) but they didn't seem fazed by this strange English lass turning up on the doorstep and getting hammered with their son-in-law. I was supposed to go shoe shopping the next day but that didn't happen. But I did visit Mon's uni for a look around. Seemed nice enough- a little better than my old uni above the Wimpy in Woolwich anyway.

We went out for a very nice dinner that night and retired much earlier, without the alochol, a single glass of wine lasted me the night. However, waking up the next day I was offered a ride on Tony's bike and given Mon's helmut to wear. Her head is significantly smaller than mine, it would seem, so wearing it was rather like having a hangover as my brain felt way too large for my head. But the bike was cool as! After a few weeks of pottling around Vietnam on the back of shitty old 50ccs and the grandest machine being an ancient 125, this baby was like reclining in a sofa and enjoying the ride.

We went up to Castle Rock at the edge of Townsville and admired the views as my head expanded back to its usual size. We should have been able to see Magnetic Island but, alas, it was covered in clouds. But I got a much better idea of the size of the city- Aussie cities are huge even when nobody much lives there and dotted with an unhealthy number of trees. We had lunch at Tim's by the water and then went to the museum which was a lot of fun. Pushing the kids out of the way, we made the most of the interactive exhibits before piling back out onto the street.

Me and Mon then went and did the quickest bit of shoe shopping that you are ever likely to experience and exited, happily, with our new shoes tucked under our arms. Then it was back to the house to watch the video of the wedding that I had missed a few years before- good job I wasn't at the ceremony as I was getting misty-eyed just watching the vid.

But all too soon, it was time to leave. As I was going to pack my bag, the next day, I saw the dog out in the garden having a rare old time chewing his blanket. I smiled indulgently but when I turned back moments later I saw that the blanket had a familiar face. It would appear that the dog had treated himself to a spot of toy giraffe hunting off my bed while I was in the loo. Fortunately no damage was done beyond Giraffe getting his first real taste of dog slobber.

Mon dropped me off at the bus terminal to catch the 12.20 bus to Rockhampton. We passed through a lot of familiar places on the way- and what a relief it was to pass through Bowen- a town that I had spent a couple of back-breaking months fruitpicking in years before. Predictably, the bus emptied at Airlie Beach and filled with people who had just finished their Whitsundays cruise and were still swaying from side to side with the motion of the boats they were no longer on. We arrived in Rockhampton just before 1am and it was raining. Seeing no taxi to take me to the hostel, I decided to stay on until we got to Hervey Bay- a mere 17 hours after leaving Townsville. Yikes. I have notched up 23 hours on the bus so far this week and haven't even got out of Queensland yet. Either the bus seats are getting smaller or my bum is getting bigger and I rather suspect the latter to be true.

Ah well, it was good to get off the bus, finally, and onto the mini bus which took me to the hostel. I am staying at Koala's which is a spit from the ocean- I can see the sun twinkling on the water from here, in fact. I will stay here a couple of days- going whale watching tomorrow- and then continue south.

I will try and find an internet cafe that hasn't glued all the CD-ROMs shut later and put up some photos.

Don't tell anyone.....

But I just found around 80 dollars in coins in a box in the dorm. It doesn't belong to anyone staying in the room so we have split it! I am off to have some fun with the chocolate vending machine now!