Darwin

Darwin! I apologize to anyone who's been following for taking so long to write again, but since I've been receiving limited feedback I haven't been sure if anyone has been. Anyway, we are currently in the Darwin airport waiting for our plane to Perth. We arrived here two days ago after taking the Ghan up from Alice, which took us almost exactly 25 hours and consisted of eating, walking down corridors, eating again, sleeping, drinking multiple cups of complimentary instant coffee, eating, and playing cards. Meanwhile we saw hundreds of termite mounds and witnessed two wallabies having a slap-fight. It was intense. Quite a lot of the card-playing was done with Tim, a 26-year-old graphic designer that we latched on to- or possibly the other way around, considering that he was alone- while riding a tour bus up to Uluru and subsequently ran into three more times before ending up in neighboring carriages on the train. Very nice guy. The train was late getting into Darwin by about an hour and a half because we had been forced to sit at the station in Katherine waiting for a freight train, who unfortunately had priority, to do some shipping thing or another. This meant that by the time we got there it was almost dark, and it was impossible to see any of the sites that we had been hoping to glimpse on the way into town. The next day was great; we acted comfortably lazy for the morning, then after lunch we taxied out to Crocadylus Park, a crocodile farm and zoo with many interesting native animals and some beautiful exotic ones. I doubt I will ever have a chance to be that close to either an emu or an ostrich ever again. After a few hours there we were picked up by Geoff Stewart, who fished for Pete one summer about twenty years ago, and is somehow related to Stuart. He brought us to his home outside of the city, where we met his wife Mary, and sons Willem and Arlo. We had a wonderful afternoon and dinner with them and some of their friends, then were driven back in to the hotel. A very nice day overall.

the Ghan

It’s been a little while since the last post, and by the time this actually gets on the internet we will most likely already have left even Darwin, because I don’t know when we next have an internet connection... Maybe I’ll get lucky and there will be something in Alice Springs or at the place near Uluru. Anyway, as I write this I’m sitting in a miniscule train compartment on the Ghan, the line which travels from Darwin to Adelaide and back. It’s quite the adventure. I really would have liked to have taken the Indian Pacific line, which goes all of the way from Sydney across to Perth, but that trip would have cut out the Great Ocean Road and some other essential parts of our trip. I think we could have engineered it, but this will probably work out to be just as exciting. Also I’ve been told that the Narbullor Plain isn’t as interesting as one might think, what with its being a huge stretch of desert-like plain with absolutely no human inhabitants that stretches through half of the continent. Sounds fun to me though, very authentic. But the Ghan. So far I personally have seen seven Emus, which, if you don’t know, are relatives of the ostrich, and are huge black things that wander around eating bugs, etc. Let’s see, I’m not sure exactly where I left off last, but I think we were still on the road then. Sooo... We reached Adelaide, or the outskirts at least, and parked ourselves at yet another Caravan park, this one resembling a small town in its size and completeness. I don’t see the draw to these places. I mean, the smaller ones are nice; there’s certainly a sense of  camaraderie when you’re encountering the same people everywhere, but to me it still feels like a manufactured experience. My idea of camping in Australia would be to ride horses across the outback. Unfortunately, the only way to do that kind of thing anymore is to have guided ‘horse tours’ so the whole idea is polluted in my mind. Oh well... At least Kodiak is still pretty authentic in its feel.  So, our next stop is Alice Springs, where we will get off of the train and take a five hours bus ride out to Uluru. We spend the night somewhere in the area, then fly back to Alice Springs and get back on the train for the remaining day on the Ghan up to Darwin. I believe that they are in 'the wet' right now, so our few days there are going to be spent constantly drenched, whether in sweat from the humidity or from rain. According to our newfound friends on the train it’s useless to wear a raincoat, as it is just too hot and you’ll just get wet anyway. Sounds fun to me. It seems that ever since I saw Australia, cheesy as it was, I’ve had the urge to do more, experience more things truly Australian. I feel like such a sell out, because that is exactly what the Australian Tourism Board had hoped to gain from the movie. I suppose it isn’t a bad thing really, I just feel like I’ve been manipulated a little. 

Great Ocean Road

Mike and Alisa cont.

After the rain there was, as was to be expected, a break, bringing the beautifully calm area to the full potential that our hosts had been describing the entire time. Of course, we were set to leave around noon on the day that it did finally get nice, so we were unable to really enjoy it. Mike skiffed (more like tiny-rowboat-with-motor-ed) us out to the boat  for lunch and a game of cards before we left, though, and the entire experience was very pleasant, although it included several repetitions of “In the Moonlight” or “In the Midnight”; not quite sure which. Either way, it was Elias’ favorite song and it’s the only one that will put him to sleep effectively. After leaving we drove the four hours or so back up to Brisbane, which we reached just before dark but unfortunately got lost just outside of. We ended up at a slummy Comfort Inn because we were unable to find any other hotels -I mean absolutely none. The next morning we flew down to Avalon, which is between Melbourne and Geelong. For all of you wondering about the tragic bushfires in Victoria, we’ve actually been too far south for them to have any effect on us directly except for a slight haze over the ocean. However, the newspapers and news in general have been filled with more stories of the horrors and heroes surrounding the events.  

This includes the death- about two days ago- of a volunteer, firefighter when a tree fell on him just two days before he was due to go home. We’ve been sure to donate whenever possible, but there really isn’t much else possible we can do in our position. Anyway, there’s no reason to be worried, if you for some reason were.

Since we arrived in Avalon we’ve driven down even further to Torquay and Pt.Addis, to the home/ bed & breakfast of friends Stuart and Bronwyn Spark. We spent one night there after some sightseeing and kangaroo scouting, then started on our drive up the Great Ocean Road. They’ve accompanied us so far, for two days. Our first sleeping spot, reached after many cliff viewing stops, was Port Campbell, an endearing little fishing town turned tourist stop. We viewed the Twelve Apostles, or rather seven remaining Apostles, which are large free standing sandstone rock formations directly off of the coast. Breathtaking. Yesterday we continued our drive, once again stopping multiple times for by now somewhat redundant cliff views. We took a major break in Warrnambool to look at the Maritime/Shipwreck museum and authentic historical village which was immensely entertaining. Especially the live pigs at the blacksmith’s. Our final stop of the day was Port Fairy, where we parked at a Caravan park with a cabin for us and a powered camping spot for the Sparks and their trailer.

Brisbane etc.

Sydney! Once again it has amazed us as a city. Polite drivers, great international food courts, breathtaking nighttime views of the harbor bridge... We arrived at the international airport and immediately hopped on a train to Circular Quay. It only took about ten minutes to get all the way into town, and another few minutes from the station to find our hotel, which was located right on the harbor. A great place, we found it the last time we were in Sydney and knew even then that we wanted to try staying there. So, our first night was pretty much uneventful, the only major event was our attempt to find a place to eat, which took us almost an hour of trekking around the downtown business sector. Finally we ended up in a Chinese/Malaysian place with neon depictions of Poseidon and some gigantic lobsters in a tank. Needless to say, it was verrryyy tasty(sarcasm). Ahem. Actually it wasn’t bad, only my stomach was upset to begin with and chinese doesn’t help much... Unfortunately it was my dad’s night to choose dinner and that was his choice. If it were up to me we’d be eating Italian six nights a week and Greek or Indian the other. Oh well. So the next day we (my dad and I) searched all of the newspaper listings for Australia so we could, appropriately, see it in Australia. If only we had been in Darwin or somewhere in the outback. Before our movie we had about two hours to spare so we ate lunch at a delicious (but strangely empty) Thai restaurant, then wandered around until we found a strange little fossil shop. The man inside was obviously very taken with his fossils, as he well should have been. A huge collection; beautiful amber and nautiluses. We spent a good forty-five minutes in there before we finally went to watch the movie. I liked it quite a bit, although I can see why some people would be annoyed with the more tedious sappy parts. It’s highly predictable. Also, you have to be a pretty steadfast Nicole Kidman fan (like me) to be able to ignore the collagen implants in her lips and the excess botox stretching her forehead. I didn’t mind it because I think she’s an excellent actress, but I understand where the critics are coming from. But enough of the movie. Afterwards, my dad and I found a bus that took us all the way back to “our neighborhood”, necessary due to the fact that we had taken a twenty minute cab ride just to get there so we could see the film three hours earlier than we would have been able to otherwise. Italian for dinner that night, though, amazingly, not because of me. Next day we putted around in the Museum of Sydney (MOS), which was intriguing but not very entertaining in my opinion. For it to have been more interesting, for me at least, they would have done less of the ‘gigantic walls of text’ and gone with more of the ‘helpful tidbits with pictures’. Also, their current featured exhibit, “Tails of the City”, felt more like it belonged in a children’s section or animal shelter than a city museum. Let’s just say that there were far too many fake animals (no, not stuffed, just fake) in that room for it to be taken seriously. After the museum we once again wandered around downtown (we think) Sydney, which resulted in our finding an elusive Krispy Kreme shop and the eating of doughnuts.  Nothing else particularly interesting occurred in Sydney, because it seems that all we did for the rest of the time there was hang around the hotel watching Ugly Betty dvds. Oh, actually, that’s not true, we also spent some time wandering around “The Rocks”- the area beneath the bridge on the Quay side that was formerly the ‘bad side of town’, involving prostitutes, etc.- trying to find the hotel that Steph and Jay stayed in the first time they came together. Judging by the area I’m guessing it wasn’t exactly luxury... Luckily for us in our wanderings, the area has been cleaned up since the mid-eighties when they were first there. Also happening before we left Sydney was a swimming lesson for the Mum and Dud, ahem, Dad, at which time I attempted to teach them to do flipturns. It was very amusing. Anyway, after Sydney we flew up to Brisbane, then searched the entire domestic and international car rental section for our car, apparently coming from ‘Letz’ rentals. No matter how many people we spoke to we couldn’t find a single person who had heard of the place, let alone knew where to find it. We ended up with Hertz. Since then we’ve driven five hours or so to Iluka, current home of Mike, Alisa, and Elias, whom you might know as the family that set off from Kodiak two or so years ago with their one-year-old on a sailboat headed for Australia. We’ve just been hanging around in a rented beach house for a few days while the weather, previously hot and sunny, gets progressively worse. At this precise moment it’s pouring buckets and there’s a frog in the drainpipe making noises that resemble a sixty-five year old chain smoker trying to sing.

Leaving for Sydney

Today is our last day in Auckland, and New Zealand in general. These last few days have been spent lounging around, socializing, etc.... Pretty much uneventful. Ehem. For me. Actually Jay went out on someone's (friend/brother of Carmel) boat/ship/sailboat to watch the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, a sailing championship, and I think he enjoyed it immensely, which he must have not to have noticed the amount of sunburn that he was acquiring. I finally made him look in a mirror after he insisted continuously that he only had 'a little windburn'. Really, he has a horrible sunglass burn, or tan, or whatever you would call it. Luckily for me, my sunburn has finally worn off (the one on my nose) so I don't have to keep looking like an idiot tourist who thinks they can outsmart the sun. Which was pretty much exactly what I was. More forgetful than stupid though... So Jay had his sailing, Steph was off wandering around with Carmel, who the day before had so generously shown us the sites in Auckland. "Over there, that's the ocean. And a hill. Oh, and some nice black rocks." It was very informative. Really though, she makes a wonderful tour guide. Speaking of wonderful, the Browns from down the road had us over for dinner and a swim in their pool, which was an exceptional show of hospitality considering how we behaved ourselves (Stephanie... wine.... teenager with girlfriend on the phone at dinner...). Let's just say that at least I was embarrassed. Although I admit that that comes easier for me than others. Anyway, we had fun.

Havelock North

So we're now in Havelock North, North Island, New Zealand, current home to Peggy Jo and the boys. A really nice area, pretty little town center, but nothing particularly interesting going on. We're still stuck using public computers, so I can't put any more pictures on, but when I do I have some nice swans and mountain views for you. Also some really blurry hills with little white blobs that might once have been sheep, shot from the car on the drive over from Taupo. Oh well. We stayed the night in a beautiful converted farm garage thing, very modern, but encased in a hundred-year-old outbuilding. Pictures of that coming too. We'd like to stay in it longer, it's so pleasant, but unfortunately we're paying a little too much for it to want to stay too much longer. Anyways, if the place you stay is nice enough you never want to leave it, and then you don't see anything. So just one more night before we drive back up to Auckland.