While I’ve been planning a happy, cheerful, very VERY belated blog covering the past 12 days from Auckland to Melbourne, today’s happiness has been largely sucked out by the 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch earlier this afternoon. It’s been absolutely devastating finding out just how horrible the damage has been; buildings I have pictures of no longer exist except for piles of rubble, friends from camp and my stays in hostels still haven’t been able to get online to alert everyone if they’re okay. The TV at the hostel has shown nothing but the news since my arrival at noon, just one hour after the initial quake. Melbourne is the closest I’ve been geographically to NZ since I left, and it’s simply frustrating to hear on the news that Australia is still in the process of beginning to assemble a search and rescue team six hours after the initial news, while the US has already also pledged aid. My heart goes out to the families of the 65 confirmed dead, and I so so hope that none of them are my friends, selfish as that may sound. The following portion of my blog is therefore dedicated to a hopeful attempt to distract myself from the news and the feeling of helplessness (as an international traveller, I can’t even donate blood, just money for the Queensland floods here and the Christchurch earthquake now).
On February 10 I flew out of the (now closed, and still somewhat derelict from the September quakes) Christchurch Airport for Auckland, and I discovered that domestic flights in countries other than the US are still civilized; at no point in flying to Auckland, or from Canberra to Melbourne today, were there mandatory shoe removals or body scanners, and the flights still offer delicious free snacks, friendly staff, and entertainment (even on flights just over an hour long). Upon landing in Auckland, I was reunited with Lauren and Arron and whisked away to their house, where I was introduced to Stella the bear-dog. Somehow I never remembered to take a photo of her, but she’s big, fluffy, looks like a wolf, and is very likely taller than me if she stood on her hind legs. While I intended to update my blog that following day while Lauren and Arron were at work, I got caught up with uploading most of those previously mentioned 600 photos.
That Friday evening Michael Johnston (GV ’07-’11, and probably beyond) came over following his time in Australia, having escaped the sketchy area his half-sister lived in. While the original plan was for us to go watch Lauren and Arron play soccer, minutes before we left I was informed that I would get to play as they were one woman short for their mixed team. Michael declined the offer to join, pointing to his flipflops for an excuse. I’m fairly certain I haven’t played soccer since middle school at the latest, so I spent most of the game standing in a corner, running straight at men twice my size (then often also running away quickly in fear), and kicking the ball in the right direction. However, we lost 0-5 (according to Lauren and Arron, they haven’t won often/at all, so I didn’t feel too horribly about my minimal participation).
After the game Lauren, Michael, and I had time to kill while Arron played in a second game, so Michael and I swapped advice on Australia and New Zealand, as he is currently travelling around NZ and has spent the majority of the past two months living in Melbourne. When Arron was done we picked up dinner from Hell’s Pizza (AMAZING!) and headed home, where we were greeted by Mike Parr (GV ’10). The five of us spent the remainder of the night eating pizza and hanging out with Lauren and Arron’s roommates.
Saturday morning we woke up early, dropped Michael off at the SkyTower to catch the exact same bus I took to Taupo to see Toni and Corban and Roman (I’m pretty sure this has become the standard route for anyone from camp travelling through NZ). At this point we began our 3 hour drive to the Coromandel Peninsula. Unfortunately, the day was very overcast, and upon arriving at Cathedral Cove, we found the path fenced off right at the very end due to trail damage from the previous week’s rainfall from one of the cyclones that largely hit Australia. We did make it to Gemstone Bay but decided against swimming around to Cathedral Cove due to the distance and the weather. At this point Lauren and I took the necessary “Just One” photos, then we all headed over to a town Lauren and Arron usually spend New Year’s at for lunch. Right next to the restaurant we were going to eat at, I found perhaps the best sign in the entire Coromandel area: “Jandals for the Mandels!” (“Jandals” is a Kiwi term for flip flops, since they were originally Japanese sandals, hence, jandals.) As Lauren was taking photos of me and the sign, a woman on the sidewalk walked by and commented that my eyes were “as big as saucers;” I think anybody’s would be if they found a sign with their less than common last name on it! Lunch consisted of a delicious and massive Kiwi burger (beef patty, egg, tomato, lettuce, tomato sauce, and beetroot). At this point I have completely accepted that all burgers in New Zealand are much bigger than anything in America (seriously, I couldn’t even get it in my mouth), and therefore any Kiwi that makes fun of the portions of American food is simply a hypocrite. During lunch it began to rain, so we walked around a bit in town before heading back to Auckland to go to one of Lauren’s co-worker’s birthday party. While sitting in the thermal area of the river in Taupo and seeing Milford Sound and Mt. Cook were amazing natural highlights of my trip, spending the evening at a bar overlooking the SkyTower was simply amazing, and I now regret leaving my camera at home that night.
On Sunday Lauren and I went to the grocery store and ran errands (I needed non-traditional touristy gifts of a bottle of L&P for me, a shopping bag for my mom, and candy for the nephews; Lauren needed food for the week and a Valentine’s Day card for Arron; we also got meat pies for lunch), before her brother came over and we all went to Lauren’s family’s house in Shakespear (a distant suburb of Auckland, but apparently not the furthest of the suburbs) for a dinner of fish and chips (and more L&P for me). After dinner we hiked up a hill overlooking Shakespear and its bays and the cow pasture the observation tower was in, as well as the Auckland skyline in the distance. As there were cows and Lauren, Arron, and I have worked at GV, we naturally attempted to pet the calves, who it turned out weren’t very accepting of attention from anyone but their moms, who in turn didn’t approve of humans trying to touch their children).
Monday was Valentine’s Day and marked another day that Lauren and Arron had to work, so Lauren dropped me off in the city center to pick up the hop on-hop off bus. I visited the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial, as well as the Auckland Zoo and the Auckland Museum. The memorial, while beautiful, was a little boring after having to wait 30 minutes for the next bus. The Auckland Zoo, on the other hand, was amazing. I got there right in the middle of the giraffe feeding time, and I got to feed my first giraffe since I did Zoo Camp at Busch Gardens when I was little. The zoo was mostly full of school children on a field trip (less than two weeks into the school year!) and couples spending Valentine’s Day together (and trying to ignore the children everywhere). The zoo also had the full gamut of African animals (including lions that were actually awake for minutes at a time during the day), Asian animals (river otters, red pandas, tigers), Australian animals (wallabies, kangaroos, emus), and local animals. However, kiwi birds are either masters of disguise or don’t actually exist in captivity, as there was not a single kiwi bird to be seen in the nocturnal kiwi house. At this point I headed back to the Auckland Museum, which was almost as good as Te Papa in Wellington, but not free (unless you’re from Auckland). It was the first museum I’ve seen that has a full moa skeleton and a full size moa model (using emu feathers); those birds must have been terrifying when encountered in the wild before they were hunted to extinction. I headed back afterwards to the marina on the last of the buses and explored around for a while while I waited for Lauren to get out of work. At 7 I went out for a fish and chips dinner on the beach with Rick James and Judy Albers (GV ’08-’09) and swapped stories of GV ’10 and their lives post camp. After dinner I returned to Lauren and Arron’s, packed, and napped until my shuttle to the airport arrived just before 2 AM. (Turns out the check-ins at the Auckland airport don’t open until 4 AM, and you need a visa to visit Australia if you’re from the US.)
The flight to Sydney went well; I slept for half of the three hours and watched parts of Megamind and The Good Wife for the rest. In Sydney I stayed at The Original Backpackers’ Hostel in King’s Cross, which is still in the original building on that site and featured huge rooms, a courtyard, and individual bathrooms. That morning I met Jessica from Germany before heading out to explore the new and very massive Westfield shopping mall. The new mall not only consists of two five story buildings on opposite sides of a street, but one side also houses the base of the Sydney Tower (as warned by Paula, it did indeed pale in comparison to the Auckland Sky Tower). After that I backtracked to the hostel to get my Just One shirt before seeking out the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge by way of the Botanical Gardens (which has bats!). It was surreal walking around the corner and seeing the Opera House appear out of nowhere. While there were still signs around the airport welcoming Oprah from her trip in December, here there were no signs of her visit, demonstrating perhaps Sydney’s ability to move too quickly and still offer its own signature style to visitors. And boy, do people in Sydney move quickly. I spent the first few days sharply homesick for NZ, where people walk at a normal pace, often barefoot, not speedwalking and gone in the next second. While being gloomy in the hostel later that night, I befriended Charlotte from England who also arrived that day and was in my room, who came over to Oz on a whim with her brother and his girlfriend. We went down to the kitchen together to make dinner and were quickly bonding over our shock at the speed of Sydney and bits of English culture. We found out later that she, Jessica, and I were the only short-term, non-working occupants of our room, a major change from my stays at YHAs and Base.
My second day in Sydney led me to the Sydney Aquarium and the Sydney Tower, which were both part of a four-attraction ticket. Much thanks to Jacob for recommending the Sydney Aquarium! My favorite part was probably the dugong tank, as the dugongs look like a strange mix of the front half of a manatee and the back half of a whale, and the tank was also home to every major species of animal featured in Finding Nemo (minus the octopus and jellyfish…those were in other tanks). I very likely spent 20 minutes walking around mentally reciting lines from the movie, and there were at least 50 blue tangs (Dory) in this one tank alone, while in other aquariums I’ve been to they’re very rare. Sadly none of the blue tangs felt compelled to swim over towards the clownfish, but such is life. I had lunch at the aquarium café (a chicken sandwich with cranberry, brie, and alfalfa sprouts) before exploring Darling Harbor (and very nearly buying two dresses and a straw fedora). After going over most of Darling Harbor I decided to check out the Sydney Tower, which is not only shorter than the SkyTower, but also houses its smaller observation deck on the top of four levels and therefore has no glass floors. I hate to sound jaded, but the SkyTower was so much better and set the bar way too high. That night I had dinner with Charlotte again.
On my last day I took the ferry over to Manly to use one of my four tickets at Manly OceanWorld, which was very underwhelming after the Aquarium the day before, but it did have cuttlefish (normal sized and giant), which the Aquarium lacked. I would have liked to have walked over to the actual beach at Manly, but I was short on time and didn’t have my bathing suit with me. The ferry ride back allowed for some great views of the opera house and bridge, and I took some great stop motion pictures of the rocking of the ferry and of the opera house from every side (because that’s pretty much the only setting that works well on my camera still). I then went straight back to Darling Harbor to go to the WildlifeWorld, armed with a voucher from the hostel for a free photo with a koala. This zoo was home to the top deadliest snakes in Australia/the entire world (they just happen to be Australian, and I’m now super paranoid about sticks on the ground after the safety of snake-free NZ). It also houses the world’s largest crocodile in captivity (15 feet long, and likely to grow to 21 feet). Unlike in Auckland, the nocturnal animals were very active, and each was more adorable than the next (here, opossums are fluffy and cute, not weird); however, the usually nocturnal wombat was passed out and would roll over every now and again. And wombats are massive! They’re about the same height as kiwis (15 inches or so), but very stout and solid, and as Michael testified, capable of attacking a tent at night and scaring you half to death. Before making it over to the koala, I wandered to the viewing platform overlooking the giant crocodile and talked with one of the trainers, who was shocked to find out that UF has wild alligators on campus. I then got to go “pat” and be photographed with Charlie the koala, who was very fuzzy and very sleepy. That night Charlotte and I went out to dinner at Darling Harbor, where I had amazing all-you-can-eat mussels cooked in a broth of bleu cheese and white wine. We also got drinks afterwards at the Harbor Bar between the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge – spectacular at night!
The next day I took a three hour bus ride to Canberra, where I was greeted at the bus station by Alinta (GV ’10) wearing some GV tie-dye. After missing New Zealand, seeing a very welcome face was so comforting. After dropping off my bags at her house and meeting her cat and dog, we hiked up the hill at the end of her house, where there just happen to be kangaroos. Turns out they’re something of a pest in Canberra and are pretty much everywhere. We also went to go feed her horse Nancy before returning home with kangaroo steaks to barbeque with her sister and her sister’s boyfriend. Kangaroo steak is delicious and tastes pretty similar to beef steak, but isn’t fatty. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for kangaroo meat when I get back home.
Saturday Alinta and I went back to the stables to feed her horse and let Alinta’s friend Emma (who will very likely be coming to GV with Alinta in 2012) do some jumps with Alinta’s horse. After that Alinta and I drove to the outskirts of Canberra, past some deep space satellites, and out to Brindbinbilla to see more kangaroos, koalas, black swans, a giant pelican, rock wallabies, and a platypus! It began to rain (seems to be a trend for Saturdays/at least once in every place I’ve gone to except Wellington), so we picked up groceries for dinner, including TimTams and lambingtons (and I got a 2 liter bottle of Vanilla Coke…it actually comes in bottles here, not just cans…and they sell cans and bottles of it in vending machines!).
Sunday Alinta had to work all day, so I spent the day uploading the rest of my photos (Auckland through Canberra…pretty much the contents of this blog) and relaxing while catching up on American TV and chatting with people on Facebook. We went out to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant once she was done giving lessons, then went to bed as it was late.
Monday we woke up and went straight to the stables, where I finally got to ride (I rode Beavis [so named by his original owner because he was a bit of a butthead when he was young] and Alinta rode Buttercup). Back in May, Alinta promised me that I could ride a horse (at camp), but I never managed to make it out to the stables during pre-camp and never managed to win the horse ride lotteries. So I came to Canberra to see her and ride a horse. Apart from the scratches from being blindly led through some pine trees, it was a really wonderful trail ride and it was great to be back in the saddle, even if my hip popped and is somehow bruised today. After the trail ride, we went out to lunch, and I had another amazing sandwich (triple decker of chicken, cranberries, Swiss cheese, and avocado). We then walked around the government/main area of Canberra (it’s the capital of Australia), then drove by the U.S. Embassy (it’s massive and on the top of a hill overlooking all the other embassies, and it looks like the US part of Epcot…in other words, very, very American, and I was embarrassed by how large and American it is). We also drove up Red Hill and looked out over Canberra, then returned home, ate dinner, and played with Alinta’s cat, who had gone temporarily berserk and was highly entertaining.
This morning I flew from Canberra to Melbourne, and by the time I arrived at the hostel, got settled, got online, bought groceries, had lunch, and watched a good deal of news about the Christchurch earthquake, most of the touristy transportation means were closed, as was the nearest major attraction, the Victoria Markets (who closes a market at 2 PM, seriously?). Jacob (GV ’10-’11) called as well and worked out our plans for Thursday when he comes to collect me (going to go to the zoo here before taking the train to Jack River where he lives); it was really nice to hear a comforting camp voice after seeing the images from Christchurch where one of our friends lives and where some of our friends are travelling. I’m already looking forward to a massive hug from him, as the news has largely focused on Christchurch as I’ve written this over the past two hours and there is still little new information apart from calls from people trapped in buildings, mentions of new aftershocks and a collapsed hostel (likely Base, as the building next to it collapsed and it was barely a functioning hostel two weeks ago), and the news that the death toll is higher (but no new number yet...). The hostel has just been inundated by an insane amount of children (aged 9-11?) who have been very noisy in the dining hall area for the past 90 minutes, and I’ve now begun to realize that all of those hostel horror stories of random large school groups of children during the non-peak seasons are actually true warnings. Well, time to pop back online, post this, and go eat some Easy Mac (living on a budget is horrible…I miss college!).
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