The "ugly" island

The north island of New Zealand is largely regarded as being the lesser of the islands. It is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen (and I tend to get out a bit). Rolling hills, stunning mountains, crystal clear lakes and streams, glow worms (yes, they exist) and sheep that outnumber the locals are just the beginning of the magic of the north island.
I bought a bus ticket that allows me to hop on and off as I go around the country and is somewhat a guided tour. We started in Auckland and headed east for a little place called Hahei. Hahei has a beautiful coastline with both sheer cliffs and nice beaches. That night we went a bit south to Hot Water Beach. If you dig a hole in the sand during low tide you get a hot tub. Finding the right spot is hard though, as some of the water is boiling, being heated by the liquid hot magma further down. Then as we sat in our spa, the dolphins came and started surfing in the waves. I had to get closer so me and a couple other crazy people swam out to them and they were all around us. SOOOO COOOL!!
Our next stop was Waitomo, famous for it’s caves and glow worms. I went repelling down waterfalls and climbing up rock faces all underground. It was cool except for the stupid wetsuit we had to wear inhibited my movement, I hate that.
The next seriously cool place was Rotorua. This is both the geothermal center and cultural center of NZ. 70% of the population is Maori, the native people which came over from Polynesia so a lot of their language sounds Hawaiian. I went on a horseback ride through what would amount to “the Shire” and later that day went to a “Hangi” which is a traditional Maori dinner. They put on a show that was spectacular! I stayed an extra night there and got a new bus driver. On our way out of Rotorua we stopped at a place where a hot spring met a cold creek and hung out there. The locals showed us where to get good mud to put on our faces. It really worked! And we looked good and ridiculous in the process.
We were unable to do the next activity due to bad weather so we were going to spend some time at a natural spa, but that was broken so he took us to his great Auntie Mora’s house b/c she has a naturally heated hot tub in her garage, which was a lot smaller than he remembered, not having been there since he was a kid. So I just had tea and a chat w/ Auntie Mora!
Going down the island we passed “Mount Doom” I went up it and chucked the one ring in. Frodo was stupid, he should have taken the bus. After a night in a national park staring at Mt. Doom it was time to move to the south island. Oh yeah, did I mention that I went in a big bubble and rolled down a hill?

Adelaide to Alice Springs

Starting out at the butt-crack of dawn I got on a bus, out of the horrible hostel I was at, and headed for "THe Outback". I keep redefining what I know as "the middle of nowhere" I can't even explain because it's just nothing as far as you can see. On day one we travelled through "Alligator Gorge". I don't know why it's called that, there are no gators in Oz, and no crocs in that area. Then we stopped in a town called Quorn and I don't think anyone lives there. It looks like a movie set. THere are store facades but nothing in them, it was creepy. I spent the night underground in Coober Pedy, an opal mining town. There's no more mining allowed in the actual city b/c people live there but you can "expand" your house and whatever opal you find in it is yours. So there is one guy with a house that is 44 rooms b/c he keeps finding opal in every room. I loved it, it was the cutest thing, the people live like hobbits.
Uluru (Ayer's rock) was spectacular. I couldn't believe how amazing it was. I mean, it's one rock all the way through! Not a bunch of rocks together. I climbed it. I thought I might die on the way up b/c it's really steep and I am way out of shape. I had to have a small lie-down on the way up. But I made it in the end.

The Great Ocean Road

From Melbourne to Adelaide is a 3 day, 2 night trip. It was pretty freaking cool. I saw the "12 apostles" which are huge rocks standing out in the ocean, but one fell over so now it's more like the 11 apostles. I have yet to figure out which rock was Jesus, I don't think they gave him a rock. Maybe it was Judas that fell over, I dunno, they weren't specific. We also went through a really cool rainforest. There were huge hollowed out trees. The Australians have cut down over 99% of their rainforest and then wonder why it never rains.... hmmmm. seems pretty clear to me. The weather has been flukey. Its the middle of summer and sometimes it's just cold. We had a fire going in Melbourne.
I actually saw wild koalas up close!! There was one outside someone's house in a tree. I bet he had a name, it was probably something like Bob. Bob the Koala. I saw another one but he was kinda ugly with a crooked nose. I didn't give him a name. Can't upload pics at the moment, but they will follow soon.

Christmas and so on....

Christmas was rather wierd and uneventful. The family I stayed with was nice. I met Jess in greece last year and she kindly invited me to spend christmas with her. After a shopping marathon the first few days we had feasts for the next few days. It was fun, but not christmas. First off it was a seafood bbq for christmas dinner and largely for christmas eve as well. I mean, I love squid, don't get me wrong but i just don't think christmas is a squiddy kind of holiday. But the whole event was pleasant and my friend's sister in law had a baby on christmas day so i got to go see the baby. Cool, but meh. Then it was off to the airport to fly to melbourne to meet up with a girl I'd met in Sydney for new years.

Gold Coast.....again

Somehow, however I plan I always end up back on the gold coast. Benny came to pick me up from the train station (had to take a train from the airport b/c i flew into brisbane) and I went "home" to mudgeeraba. I spent about a week there and it was nice to unwind, be on familiar turf, and have people I knew around me. I went shopping and made up for lost time at Starbucks. I LOVE the gingerbread lattes!! Wish they had them year-round. But then it was time to fly down to sydney for christmas.

Back down the coast

So, after going all that way up it was time to turn around. I picked up Jacque, the dutch girl, and we were on our way to Airlie Beach. It was a long day in the car but we made it, having picked up about 35lbs of free mangos on the way down. We lived on mangos and bummed around Airlie Beach for a week. She went on a sailing trip (I wasn't about to do that again!) and I sold my car and bought a plane ticket back to the Gold Coast. During this time I went a little nutty making necklaces, but did manage to sell a few so it was ok. Then it was time to part ways and I got on my plane (surfboard and all) and went down to the gold coast. It was pretty cool, they took my board without charging me any extra. I looked it up online first and it turns out that all sports equipment can be checked in for free. However, if you want to bring something on the plane with you and have it sit next to you, it can only be a cello. If you would like to book a seat for your cello please contact customer service.

The Rainforest

The Daintree rainforest is incredible. There's a small town called Mossman that's right in the thick of it. We went to Mossman Gorge and who'd have guessed, it was raining in the rainforest. We didn't let it get us down though. We went on a hike through and became obsessed with 2 things. The first was taking pictures of really cool trees (see below), and the second was picking leeches off my feet! I thought those things lived in water but I guess the rain made it wet enough for them to be wandering around and attach themselves to my flip-floppy feet. So the whole day kinda went "ohhhhh ahhhhh treeeeeees. ewwww!! It's on me! It's on me! Get it off!!!"
A few days later we were taken on a tour of the area by a friend. He took us to see rock wallaby's and they were sooooo cute. Obviously people come up to feed them so they are super friendly and even the babies came right up.

Port Douglas and the great barrier reef

After my huge trek to Cairns I was very disappointed. It's a crap "city" that's really just dodgy looking. After one night I was ready to move on. Silvia and I headed for the next thing north (Port Douglas) having no expectations. When we got there we absolutely fell in love with the small town. It was alltogether charming with it's palm tree and mango lined streets. A small white church stood in a park with really old mango trees that were all heavy with fruit. Most days we went "mango hunting" and picked the good ones off the ground, and sometimes from the trees.
We quickly found a place to work for accomodation by cleaning for a few hours a day. Most of the time it was totally worth it. We had a tv and a mini-fridge in our room, luxury for a backpacker. I made friends with some people at the nearby hostel and met Jacque, a dutch girl travelling by herself. For two weeks we hung out, then decided that we would travel south together. One day we got to go on a trip out to the reef for free b/c they were shooting photos for the brochure and needed more people on the boat. Then, a friend of mine wanted a dive buddy so I got a free dive on the great barrier reef. It was amazing, like nothing I've ever seen. The coral was brilliant. Not that you can tell by the pictures.

Funny story, our first night there we were unwilling to spend money on a place to stay so we decided to sleep in the car. Some rugby game was on that night and the pub was crowded so we went to see what was going on. To make a long story short, we met some nice people and got to stay in a gorgeous beach house and drink expensive wine instead of sleeping in the car.

Now I'm back in Airlie Beach with Jacque. Not really sure what the plan is other than to sell some necklaces at the market next sunday. So I've got a week here.

My chat with Matthew McConaughey

The movie "Fools Gold" has been filming in Port Douglas (the town I'm in) for a few months now and just as I got here they are moving south. So, being that it's a small town and word travels fast, I found out where the wrap party for Pt. Douglas would be and decided to go. It was a restaurant/club called The Watergate. Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey were there. I chatted with Kate's personal assistant for a while but didn't get an introduction. The bar was packed and it was taking a long time to get a drink and I saw Matthew up there and he (of course) got the ear of a bartender straight away. So I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to get me a glass of water. He did. I asked if i could get a pic, he said no. He looks really ragged, not at all as nice as on TV, but anyway the night just went on as normal from there until we went to leave. A friend of mine knew his assistant and was talking to him, which left me standing with Matthew for a while. So we chatted a bit. Someone pointed out that my friend and I had almost the same necklace, but I made mine myself and said so. Then we were chatting about my problem finding work and Matthew said maybe I should be a jewelry designer. I blew off the idea at the time but have since been giving it more thought. If I can find a place to sell my jewelery then I will. This internet is freaking expensive so I have to finish the story now.

Don't let the bedbugs bite

I would hardly say I LET them bite, but they did anyway. After spending a pretty cool day in Airlie beach, we boarded the Anaconda III to sail the Whitsunday Islands. It's a "luxury sailing yacht" at 101 feet long. Let me tell you this was the most miserable time I've had on this trip. I got eaten by bedbugs, queazy from the stench of the place, and we didn't even go out to the reef as planned. They forgot to bring food so we had to turn around and spent our second night in the harbor, yet still had to pay the reef tax. The whole lot of us declared mutany at that point and some people got off. Some people stayed on as it was midnight and raining with no chance of finding a place to stay, or money to pay for it. When we got back into port we formed an angry mob and went down to the booking agent in charge of this vessel and we all demanded a full refund. After much ado it was promised to us, in writing, in the next 7-14 days. I really hope it just shows up in my bank account without any further effort. On a different note, Airlie beach is beautiful and i may go back there to work if i dont find work in Cairns.