New Zealand – Hamilton, Mount Maunganui & Whakatane – Days 33-41

So last you guys heard of me I had a bit of a stressful flight into Auckland and then the line ups to get through customs and the restricted goods section in the airport after the flight were really long. Our flight was 30 minutes late and then I spent another hour and half getting through all the red tape. But I was met by my old college buddy Keelan and his girlfriend as soon as I walked out as they had driven up from Hamilton to pick me up. I haven’t seen Keelan in probably 4 years and it’s pretty cool that I’m meeting up with him in NZ. They drove me back to Hamilton where I had a hostel booked and they filled me in on all the great things to see and do in NZ. I was a little overwhelmed with all of the Maori place names – not only are they complicated looking but the pronunciation of them is not what you’d expect. For example, Whakatane is actually pronounce “Fa-ka-tanee”

I was absolutely exhausted when we rolled into Hamilton – I had been up all night traveling and then had to deal with a five hour time change (thank goodness it was ahead and not behind) so once I got to the hostel and booked into my tiny little six-person dorm, I didn’t unpack anything but crashed on my bed for a solid three hours.

So I slept really well until 1230pm the next day (that’s what I love about extended holidays, I don’t have to rush to get everything in all the time, I can relax and take days off here and there) and headed out into town. Hamilton’s a small city, about 140,000 people and I was in the CBD so I was nice and close to everything. Since I had lost my shorts I was on a mission to replace them. Clothing in New Zealand (especially name brands such as Levi, Billabong, Hurley etc.) is extremely expensive, about 20-30$ more than you would find that item in Canada, so I was not looking forward to a 50$ pair of shorts. I did however luck out and picked up an almost identical pair for $10. I love sales. After shopping I stopped for a nice cool beer with Keelan and then took the night off as I was still pretty tired.

The next day I slept in really late again and spent the early afternoon doing some laundry. I headed out on another mission to pick up a replacement water bottle and a managed to score one for really, really cheap which made me pretty happy. I spent the afternoon wandering around Hamilton Gardens which are unbelievably amazing. They have a section devoted to gardens throughout history such as a Japanese thought garden, English flower garden, Italian Renaissance garden, and a Contemporary 20^th century garden. They also had a sustainability “backyard” which was cool to wander around in, a rose garden, and traditional Maori gardens. If any of you ever make it to NZ and Hamilton specifically, I would highly recommend stopping in here.

The next day I caught a bus with Keelan down to Tauranga and Mount Maunganui. The Mount is actually an extinct volcano and is only about 1000 feet above sea level so not very high. The day was a bit cloudy but perfect for a little bit of hiking and we walked all around the Mount and spent some time goofing around on the beach. We made a GIANT Canadian Flag and took a bunch of pictures with it (you’ll probably see these on facebook). Then we headed up the Mount and got some incredible pictures of the ocean and town around us. Hiking can be difficult and challenging but the reward of the view at the top makes it so worth it! That night we indulged in some fish and chips from a store across from the hostel – for $17 you could feed four people and got fish, chips, breaded potatoes and sausage. Although a wee bit salty, it was the perfect end to a great day.

The next day was a designated beach day as the sun was shining and it was really hot. Keelan and I grabbed some groceries and had a little picnic in a park then picked up a case of beer and lounged on the beach allll day. The sun here is extremely powerful so you have to be careful to put sunscreen on every little bit of skin as you can burn in mere minutes. After a day of drinking on the beach in the sun we headed back to the hostel where the sushi place next door sells sushi for a dollar a piece between 7 and 730. They have all types of rolls so we grabbed some and headed back to the hostel to hang out with a bunch of other backpackers for the night.

Keelan left the next morning and I hung out on the beach again all day. I met some Americans who are down here playing “gridiron” or American Football, and we chatted for a while and grabbed some sushi. It’s really interesting the people you run into down here. That night I just hung out in the hostel and then went out and checked out the stars as they were quite brilliant. It’s weird not to see the big dipper in the sky or any Northern Lights.

The next day I checked out and headed out to Whakatane – a small town on the coast. I love NZ as I was able to catch a bus for a 60km trip for only $6.80 NZ. The hostel was really quiet since it’s not peak season yet and there were only 6 of us. Four of us grabbed some beer and hung out in the lounge room and played a few games the hostel had. I gloriously had my own room to sleep in that night but it surprisingly was a bit lonely having no one to chat with. The next day was a beautiful Sunday and I spent the afternoon walking through all the shops and saw a theatre playing afternoon matinees. I spoiled myself and picked up some candy at a warehouse and watched a late afternoon showing of the 7^th Harry Potter. It was such a lovely Sunday.

The next day I was planning on heading over to Ohope beach by bus but discovered there’s actually a path to hike around the hill to get there. I was completely unprepared, carrying my laptop in my backpack with flip flops on but I was too lazy to walk all the way back to the hostel so I headed out. Unfortunately the maps aren’t very descriptive and literally just show a line around the hill with no relation to other street signs and I got lost. Really lost. Starting out I needed two Kiwi’s to direct me (the streets are kind of weird here) and then I didn’t take the correct turn off and got even more lost. As in 25-minutes-of-walking-down-the-road lost. Luckily a meter reader from San Francisco helped me out and drove me back to the right starting place and I was finally able to head out on my hike. I met an English guy on the way and we started chatting – the oddest coincidence in the world is that his parents, who are teachers, actually spent two years doing a teacher-swap in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan years ago so he knew a little bit about where I was from. I never ceased to be amazed by what a small world it is. So we did the entire hike together and at one point we had to stop and wait as the area was uncrossable one hour either side of high tide which was actually kind of cool. We were finally able to cross and came to an amazing gem of a beach. Instead of sand, the beach was full of shells. Millions upon millions upon millions of shells of all sizes, from full shells to broken little pieces almost turned into sand. This is by far my favorite place in NZ so far. The beach was so unique with the shelled sand and water washing over rocks, and trees hanging off the rocky hills around us that George and I hung out there for a while, just enjoying the view and tranquility of it all. The nicest thing about it: not another soul around. We had the entire beach to ourselves. We finally headed around the last stretch to Ohope beach and my one flip flop broke. I guess that’s why I shouldn’t hike in them. I spent an hour or so on the beach and took some pictures of the sand. It’s dark sand and when the water washes out it leaves little v-shaped ripples alternating dark and light which is really neat to see. Then I caught the last bus back to Whakatane for $1.60 and spent the evening relaxing and reading.

Today, I’m waiting for my bus to take me from Whakatane to Gisborne, a small coastal city which claims to be the very first city in the world to see the sunrise…

Perth..... Actually, Cottesloe

Perth… Cottesloe

So I flew into Perth…. And never actually saw any of Perth. I spent my entire 8 days in a one block radius between beach, hostel, bottle shop, and bar…. I think you’d be proud mom ;). I got in really late Saturday night and was still sick and tired so went to bed after meeting some of the guys in my room. Two ex-military Americans and a Brit. The next day was a pretty chill day – I called up Tahnee, a girl I met in Melbourne who lives in Perth and she joined me on the beach for a day of sun, sand, and surf. Cottesloe is on the West Coast of Australia so I was dipping my toes in the Indian Ocean which was pretty amazing. The waves weren’t too big, but still fun enough to play in and the weather was a sweltering 35 degrees. I guarantee you that I am now a nice toasty brown. I hope you all are enjoying your snow ;) That evening I watched the sun set over the water and then met up with Kellen who had just arrived into Cottesloe.

The next day I may or may not have hopped on the Goon train… and pretty much derailed it, it was such a crazy night. For those of you who don’t know, Goon is cheap, box wine. You can get 4L for 20$ so it’s the favorite drink of choice for backpackers as liquor here is ridiculously expensive. The one night I spent 40$ on a 700ml bottle of Mount Gay Rum… super pricey. But anyway, this night a huge group of us backpackers played a few rounds of Sociables, which everyone else seems to call the Ring of Fire. After that was a short swim in the ocean which resulted in a lost camera and a bloody toe. Thankfully my toe did not have to be severed, and I went out to the beach the next morning and found my camera in the sand! I was pretty fortunate and lucked out even further with no hangover :)

The next day, I tended to my toe which was in pretty rough shape with all the sand in it and spent a bit of time on the beach. It was a little windy so I took the opportunity and went for the most gorgeous run along the ocean. Felt so good to go out and exercise and what a view! That evening Kellen and I grabbed a bottle of wine from the bottle shop (which just happens to be a drive-through bottle shop. Where are these in Saskatchewan??) and headed down to the Cot with a group of guys from the hostel. It was a pretty fun night there, and for some reason there was a group of guys all wearing muscle shirts that were standing outside the bar after it closed. I couldn’t help myself and asked them which way to the beach. I just about died laughing when every single one of them flexed their biceps pointing to the beach. After we got back from the bar (which oddly closes at midnight) I watched a quick movie before bed.

The next day Kellen and I grabbed a box of Goon after an early afternoon nap and hung out with the crew in the hostel. We drank away the afternoon and were super excited for the free sausage barbeque that evening. Not only was someone cooking for me (which I absolutely hate doing) but it was FREE! I don’t think there has ever been a better combination. After supper I went for another late night swim – the water was incredibly warm - and then Kellen, Chris, Stan & I sat around and played Cluedo… the Australian version of Clue which is the exact same except for its name.

I was supposed to check out the next day so I got up really early and headed out for a walk and swim in the ocean (rough life hey?) and when I got back I decided that I was going to book another two nights in the hostel. That afternoon a couple of us grabbed a beer at the next door bar and then headed back to the Cot for some tasty cocktails. I was super tired from the last few nights so I headed back to the hostel and had a brief nap then watched Back to the Future (which I have never seen).

The next day is pretty much the same story: beach, booze, and bumming around. I met two other Saskatonians that were in the hostel and that was pretty neat. What are the chances of running into someone from your small city at the same hostel all the way across the world? Apparently pretty good! They gave me tonnes of tips and advice on NZ as well so I was pretty happy as I had made zero plans so far and was flying out the next day.

I had another pretty mellow day the next day, watched a movie and bummed around. I was leaving that night from Perth and flying all night into Melbourne where I would leave from there to get to Auckland, NZ. My flight out of Perth was fine – and I slept the three hours which was nice since I was flying really late. At this point, however, I realized that I had forgotten my trusty metal water bottle in Cottesloe and earlier someone had ripped off my favorite pair of shorts in the hostel. Metal water bottles are super hard to find in either Oz or NZ, and if you can find them, they’re ridiculously expensive. Dammit. And then I got into Melbourne and tried to check in for my international flight and was told I can’t get into the country without having a return flight out of it. I was not impressed. It was 6am in Melbourne, 3am my time and I had to pay a ridiculous amount of money for internet to figure out a flight in which I didn’t know what city I wanted to leave from in NZ and what city I wanted to fly into in Australia. And then I couldn’t book the flight online so I had to Skype my parents and get them to do it! After this I got dinged at security for some peanut butter, and then again for an aerosol bottle and then got drug wanded or whatever it is they do. It was a great morning. Finally I made it through everything and was waiting for the flight when I looked up and saw on the screen that boarding for my flight had closed. I just about had a heart attack. Fortunately it was an error and the plane was actually going to be 40 minutes late. By this time I was so exhausted that when I boarded the plane I don’t even remember take off and when I woke up, we were already 35,000 feet in the air. The plane ride was pretty spectacular. Every seat had their own plug-in, usb port, TV with a huge selection of movies and TV shows, as well as access to email and texting. We also had menus to choose our breakfast meal which came with fresh fruit (watermelon, cantaloupe, and grapes) along with a piping hot croissant. I am definitely going to try flying with the Emirates more often! But that’s about as up to date as I can get so I’ll fill you all in on my shenanigans in New Zealand as soon as I can :)

P.S. If you feel like mailing me a metal water bottle from Canada – I would love you forever

P.P.S. It would make a great Christmas present.... ;)

Adelaide

Adelaide - Nov 23-27
Ah Adelaide. Definitely a quieter city (or maybe I'm in a quieter hostel and haven't partied quite as much - which is nice once in a while). Last you guys heard on here, I was on a bus for six hours making my way up the southern coast to this city. It was actually a really nice bus trip as we drove through the prairies of Australia and I felt like I was back at home on some SK highway. I got into Adelaide around 7pm and walked my way down to my hostel. I'm glad it wasn't far because it sure isn't fun walking with a 20kg bag on my back in sweater and jeans when the weather is almost +30 and extremely humid. I couldn't wait to throw some shorts as when I travel, my bag is so full that I need to wear my heaviest clothes.

I've been sick for about two weeks down here. It all started with a sore throat and has now developed into a bad chest cough (can definitely blame hostel living for that!) If it doesn't clear up soon I think I might head to the doctor so to try and get better I took the 24th off and stayed in and booked some flights (to NZ) and my hostel in Perth. It always takes so much time to do all those little things, especially if I don't want to get stuck in some shady hostel like the one in Launceston! I also managed to sneak out for a bit and grab some groceries and hit up the Central Market - apparently it's the largest one in the southern hemisphere. Lots of good stuff but unfortuantely on a traveler's budget I couldn't afford anything but banana's and lettuce (the essentials).

The next day I was lucky to meet up with a German friend from my Great Ocean Road tour who kindly invited me out to a "shack" or cabin along the Murray River with a friend of his and another couple. I had no idea what to expect and was definitely surprised when the guy, Max, picked me up and turned out to be a 70 year old! Did I ever chuckle to myself, but it actually turned out to be a wonderful day. He is a retired principal and his wife is a retired teacher as well. They also spent several years working with the Aboriginal people down here who have the same issues our Aboriginal people face in Canada. We had to make a pit stop at the Doctor's office as Max had an appointment - unfortunately he has prostate cancer but they caught it early and are treating it with radiation so he drives in from his farm 3 hours away for five days and heads back home on the weekend. After that we headed to the suburb of Stirling and met up with Jergen (the German friend), Sanchia (his friend) and Penny (Max's wife). We had tea and cookies and then headed off to the River. We had to make another pit stop as Max's daughter had a duck with a prolapsed bowel so Jergen and I got to watch a duck get beheaded. Sad but it would have been even worse to watch the Duck suffer with her intestines hanging out.. After that we finally made it to the River and set up a glorious lunch outside on a stone table. We had an amazing meal with some wonderful Adeladian wine. It was also here that I had an encounter with the huntsman - a giant, crablike spider which is harmless but creepy! It was about the size of my hand and almost climbed up me. Thank goodness spiders don't scare me too bad.

After lunch Jergen and I hopped in the rowboat and went for a quick paddle down the river - the river is the main source of water for the city of Adelaide so they pump it there in huge white pipes you can see along the side of the road. It's also the largest river in Australia. Auz has suffered a drought the past 10 years and the water levels have drastically receded, but thankfully the drought finally broke this year and water levels have started to rise back towards where they used to be. Rowing was interesting, more work than I thought, especially with it being so humid out but it was a fun time. After that we headed back to Adelaide and spent the evening down at Glenelg beach watching the sun set and eating fish and chips. Although surprising at first it turned out to be a wonderful day and Sanchia was an incredibly hospitable host.

The next day I was SO excited - I was going to the zoo to see the two Giant Panda's. I'm 23, and yes, I will admit to still having several panda bear teddy bears in my bedroom - that is how much I love them! It was an absolute dream come true seeing them - and I was patient and stuck around to see them wake up from their afternoon nap and wander around a bit. I probably could have sat there all afternoon that's how much I enjoyed it. It was an extremely hot day and after 3 1/2 hours at the zoo I headed to Adelaide's botanical garden and checked out a beautiful rose garden and spent time reading a book under a tree. The tree next to me was quite unusual. I'm not sure what kind it was but it had beautiful red blossoms in it, and was FULL of parrots. There must have been hundreds of parrots in this tree - and the noises and chittering they made was so loud but funny. A really cool place to spend a few hours relaxing and enjoying the beautiful day.

Today is my last day in Adelaide. I'm keeping it fairly low key again as walking does get a little tiring and my chest cold still hasn't seem to have broken yet. I had scheduled a tour through Haigh's Chocolate Factory and was excited to go there. They are only domestic, having no international stores. They have six in Adelaide, six in Melbourne and 1 in Sydney. I thought it was going to be similar to the Cadbury chocolate factory but it was much smaller and the quality of chocolate was so much better! It was a free tour and you got to see the factory floor. All their chocolate is hand made and hand wrapped (obviously they have some help from machines too though) and I watched two women shape and make almond clusters. It is a family chocolate factory, being passed down for 4 generations now and the one son of the original founder actually moved to Switzerland when he was 17 to live with the Lindt family and learn the secrets to successful chocolate making. I wasn't going to buy any chocolate as my budget for the month is pretty much gone but once I tasted the chocolate - I knew I had to buy some! They also have a "seconds" section with cheaper chocolate (it's still expensive though) so I had to buy a chocolate nougat as well as another chocolate with toffee and nuts in it. So unbelievably delectable! As an example of how expensive it is, 100g of chocolate will generally cost you 11$AUD. A box of chocolates the size of pot of gold was 89$. I'm sure Haigh chocolate is purchased for many anniversaries and christmas gifts! The rest of the afternoon I read my book and spent some time responding to family and friends on Facebook. It's been great to hear from people so if you haven't yet, feel free to shoot me a message :)

I've also posted more photo's on facebook and they are up to date as of yesterday. I'm headed to Perth tonight and am going to spend a lot of time on the beach resting and soaking up the rays.
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Feel free to follow me on the blog as well as it will notify you when I've updated it.

Until next time :)

A month's worth of adventure..

I've had a lot of requests for pictures, updates, additions to a mailing list etc. so I figured it'd just be easier to start a little blog and whoever wants to can check it out.

So I've been out traveling now for almost a month. It's weird to think that much time has gone by already, only 3 1/2 to go! I've spent time in Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania, down the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians and am now finally in Adelaide till the weekend. This is going to be a fairly long post, so read it in sections if you want or just skim through it.

Sydney - Nov 3-10
Sydney was a great city - always something going on and people were always dressed to the nines, even on a Tuesday night (I have no idea where they were going!). My hostel was downtown Sydney and within walking distance of the iconic landmarks such as the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, and a ferry or short bus ride away from Bondi or Manly Beach and the Toranga Zoo. I met a bunch of cool people in city and definitely took advantage of the deals in the bar connected to the hostel. I also happened to win 10 free nights at any Base hostel - thank you limboing skills! I enjoyed two aquariums, a wildlife park, the zoo, the Sydney Tower and just wandering around enjoying the sights. It was a pretty cool place to start my trip off at.

I almost forgot, I also did a day tour out to the Blue Mountains. I've posted some pictures on FB if you haven't seen them yet. It was a pretty cool tour and I saw kangaroos in the wild for the first time. A pleasant day of hiking and beautiful views :)

Melbourne - Nov 10-15
Next I flew down to Melbourne. Australia has amazing domestic flight service and this hour and a half flight only cost me 60$ (makes me wish Canada had something like this!). Melbourne is the second largest Australian city and had a completely different vibe from Sydney. I stayed in the suburb of St. Kilda which is right next to the ocean and the area was all about being laid back, enjoying happy hour, and catching some sun by the beach (even though it is only spring here). I spent a day by the beach, two days downtown taking in the sights such as graffiti'd alleyways, the Australian Centre for Moving Images Museum which was incredibly cool, and wandering around sports centers and random skyscrapers with huge, bullet-proof glass rooms in the bathrooms for ones viewing pleasure. I met some fun people in my hostel and stayed in a room with all boys (...lovely..) and I finally picked up a pretty little cellphone - so now I can keep in touch with all of you! I also happened to run into Kellen and Laine while I was down there. Cool that you can be 14,000km away from home yet see people you grew up or partied with back in Sask.

Tasmania - Nov 15-19
After a solid five days in Melbourne, I jumped back on a plane and headed down to the lonely little island of Tasmania. Poor Tasy, gets kicked around by "true" Australia and many jokes can be heard about inbreeding, two-heads, and being a redneck. I didn't find this was the case at all, except for at our first hostel where I thought Reid and I were going to get... I don't even know what. We got to the hostel and the lights were out and reception was closed. We wandered up the stairs and found toothless Jimmy chilling out in a ratty old grandpa chair slurping up his noodles through the gaps in his mouth. Apparently having no teeth had some affect on his verbalization skills because I could barely understand what he was saying. Throughout the challenge of his pronounciation I managed to understand that the hostel was closed for the night and there was nothing we could do. So we retreated back down the creeky staircase and into the bar where we met the relationship-in-the-process-of-ending and kicked-to-the-curb homeless record producer. Right. You own a record company is Launceston, Tasmania... population 100, 000. He also informed us the hostel was closed but he was going to go talk to someone and get them to call the manager at home. Odd that he was holding a cellphone in his hand while he said this, and when he went upstairs, he was only relaying our story to toothless Jimmy. So we stood around waiting and Buddy comes back downstairs to inform us that he has an entire room to himself and there's no problem if we want to stay there. So we nod and climb back up the stairs to his room, which consequently has one childsized bunkbed amongst the others, a cracked and padlocked door, and broken shelves next to a mirror. This place looks like a real 5 star resort! (it was only later that Reid informed me that the rating of this place on hostelworld was 20% - whaat??). I was feeling a little creeped out by this point, and the hammer on the nail was when I realized there was no clothing or personal accessories lying near or on the bed Buddy said he was sleeping in. Reid and I exchanged glances, grabbed our bags and headed back down the rickety old staircase, out the door and past Toothless Jimmy suckin on a sinstick outside. We practically ran around the corner away from him and as we were approaching the car, TJ was following right behind us. I pretty much shotputted my 18kg backpack into the trunk of the car and we were out of there in a flash. When we finally came back to Launceston, we went back to the hostel (during daylight hours) and got our 4$ deposit back and the place didn't seem quite as shady.. night really does make everything much scarier I guess.

But... after that shaky start to Tasmania, the rest of the week was glorious (aside from sleeping and living out of a car for five days, but in its own way that was even pretty cool). We drove up to the East Coast and checked out the Bay of Fires and Binalong Beach where turquoise water and white-sand beaches were in abundance. A little bit of a darker twist were all the dead birds washed up on shore. Apparently these are all the poor souls that couldn't quite make the migration from Siberia and died of exhaustion.

We continued down the East Coast the entire day (in Tasy, roads are narrow, curvy, and instead of 100km/hr it's literally 1km/min, but luckily everything is close together) and saw a cool Blowhole at Bicheno and watched a breathtaking yellow and pink sunset. We arrived at a lookout point where we spent the night (this one was quite cold and I didn't sleep very well) but it was worth it to wake up at 5am and watch the sunrise over the beach and rugged coastline. We headed on down to Port Arthur and spent the afternoon checking out the Port Arthur Historic site which is the memorial and remnants of the Convicts who were shipped to Australia in the 1800s from England. The history of this place was quite remarkable and it was a well-spent afternoon.

That evening we backpedalled a bit and drove off the peninsula towards Hobart where we slept almost at the top of Mt. Wellington (1271m above sea level). We had another really cold night and enjoyed a brief snowstorm at the top before things cleared up and we had a spectacular view of the city of Hobart, the biggest city in Tasy with a population of roughly 200,000 people. We headed back down and hit up the CADBURY CHOCOLATE FACTORY!!!!! I was super excited. It was less than ten bucks for a tour (not of the actual factory floor though) but we got lots of free chocolate and I bought 600grams of "Not-Quite-Perfect" chocolate in their store for only 3$AUD. Next we stopped at the Cascade Brewery for Reid but all tours were done for the day so we headed down to the Tahune Forest Airwalk, but once again, arrived just before closing. It was about 5pm so we decided to start driving up to the west coast and get a head start on the next day at Cradle Mountain. We spent 6 hours driving and saw quite a variety of wildlife (there are warnings everywhere for wildlife at night as many of the animals are nocturnal). We saw Wallaby's, Kangaroos, Quolls, and Wombats galore. We stopped in Queenstown around 11 (the biggest city (2400) on the West Coast) and continued through the moutains to Cradle where we slept in the parking lot. We were up early and drove down to Dove Lake where we began a tricky hike up to Marion's Point. It was so rocky that at one point there was a metal chain connected to a few pegs to help pull ourselves up on. But the view was completely worth the climb and I wish I had been one of the lucky ones to do a several day hike through the mountains. After that I did a 6km hike around Dove Lake and then Reid and I headed back to Launceston to return the car and fly back to Melbourne.

Melbourne (again) - Nov 19-20
I spent another two nights in Melbourne, this time at a Base hostel where I put to good use two of my free nights accomodation. I met some really cool people in the room and after chilling out for the day, skyping people and relaxing, we headed out for a good time on the city. We hit up the Lucky something or other which had two floors and played separate music on each and then to the Electric Lady Lounge where we were graced by the presence of 90% nude women paintings along the walls. The night wouldn't be complete without some delightful Aussie McD's and the swapping of a Sask shirt for a Gaelic football-something-or-other jersey. Definitely some bonds being created between Irish and Canadian international relations but unfortunately I just couldn't give up my green SK shirt and swapped back - too bad because the Irish jersey would have been pretty cool to keep!

Great Ocean Road/Grampians Tour - Nov 21-23
The next three days I put to use two 95$ day-trip vouchers I had won my first time around in Melbourne and took a three day trip down the Southern Coast of Australia and up to Adelaide. Day 1 consisted of checking out the Great Ocean Road, the 12 Apostles as well as the now fallen down London Bridge. I spent some birthday cash on a pretty cool 6 minute helicopter ride down the coast to check out the apostles. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out these photos:

http://www.google.com.au/images?q=The+12+apostles&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1126&bih=419

In the evening we stopped at the Coogee Wildlife park where we got to wander around with buckets of bread feeding all the animals. We fed wallabys, red kangaroos, emus, deer, ducks and all sorts of animals. Next we got to cuddle and hug a snake, baby koala, baby wallaby and baby wombat. The koala is as soft as you think he would be. He felt like a little teddy bear. I'm such a softy for animals and this, I think, has been the highlight of my trip so far. I almost tucked that baby koala into my sweater and ran off with him!

The next two days we drove up to the Grampians, a weathered and worn set of Mountains in Southern Oz. We did some hikes, checked out some waterfalls, saw some amazing scenic views and generally had a good time. In the evening we had a typical Ozzie Barbie and at some kangaroo meatballs. Pretty tasty I must say. After all this hiking, a few of us from the trip jumped on a bus and took a 6 hour ride up to Adelaide where I am currently at.