When life gives you lemons...

My dear friends, I am sorry to say that I have had to abbreviate my Australian adventure. My grandmother passed away last Thursday. I had been in Darwin on holiday with Aunt Alison and the kids, and as soon as we drove back to Alice, I threw my stuff in a bag, quit my jobs, and took a series of planes to arrive home by 10pm on Sunday.

Now I am back at in PA and have no idea if or when I might get back to Australia, but it certainly won't be in the near future.

I arrived in Australia in July planning on coming home in December. Within the first couple of weeks I had decided to extend my stay until next May. Now it is October, and I am home after only 2 and a half months. I ask your forgiveness in regards to the poor titling of this blog.

I had a fantastic experience in Alice and the other places I visited. I think that I really made the most of my time there, and I have no regrets whatsoever about the trip in general. Truly, it was the experience of a lifetime.

But this is where I need to be right now.

I still have a few things to share about my experiences down under, especially in regards to the aforementioned Darwin trip. I promise I'll get them up soon!

Thanks for reading and for sharing the experience with me. If I get back there, you can bet this blog will be up and running in a jiffy with all kinds of new tales of my escapades!

Peace.

A+ for juxtsposition!

Territ'ry FM is waaay my favorite radio station around here. I remember my first weekend here, being totally thrilled to hear Neverending Story, and they have not stopped surprising me with the random half-forgotten songs they choose to play.

Today, when I got in the car after work, Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" was on, so I cranked it and was rocking out. Obviously, "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" was the clear choice for the next song. Especially considering it's a blistering hot September day in the desert. Amazing.

Today was a rough day at work (somehow everyone ended up leaving early, leaving me with all of their rooms to clean solo. blergh). But it's amazing hoe music can 100% change your mood. That, and knowing that you get to go on vacation (again! I know!) tomorrow with your awesome aunt and awesome little cousins. Roadtrip to Darwin!!! w00t!!!

Day 13: Home to the Red Centre

Sunday, September 14th~

Time to wrap this saga up.

I was awakened around 6 am in the international terminal by the bustle of people rushing to their early morning flights. I freshened up in the ladies room, finished the rest of the junk food for breakfast, and found my way to the shuttle to the domestic terminal. On the plane, I had a window seat and no one was in the seat next to me.

On all four flights on this trip, I was between the window and an empty seat. I didn't want to mention it, lest I jinx my good fortune. But I managed to go 4 for 4. That there's some good travel karma.

It was raining in Sydney when we took off. I found it consoling, not knowing how long it would be before I saw precipitation again. The flight gave me a lot of time to reflect on the trip, an opportunity I've never really given myself on previous vacations. I feel like I learned a lot about myself on this trip, about what I want. I loved the experience of traveling, and assessed how I could do it better next time. And there will be a next time. I am not done with New Zealand, and I have just begun my life of travel. This was a wonderful, eye-opening trip of a lifetime. Can't wait to have some more!

Day 12: leaving (my heart in) New Zealand

Saturday, September 13th~

Today is a cold and gray day, identical to the one that greeted me on my arrival in Christchurch just over a week ago. It gives a sort of symmetry to the trip, I suppose. I got up and checked out of the hostel, stashed my stuff there and went off to say my goodbyes to New Zealand. Last night, Chelsea and Scotty had told me about a market that happens every Saturday, so I headed there first. They hadn’t quite finished setting up, so I treated myself to a delicious breakfast (one last decadent meal for the vacation), and went to browse the stands. I decided to splurge and but myself a jade pendant. I mentioned before that jade, or “greenstone” as it is more colloquially called, is really prominent in New Zealand. It has always been special to the Maori people, and there are certain shapes carved out of the stone that have special meaning to them; the twisted one that looks like a figure-8 (but can have more twists than just one), signifies two lives being bound together, and the spiral represents new birth. I bought a fishhook pendant. It represents “strength and determination and brings peace, prosperity and good health; also provides safe journey over water.” I am happy I have it, something to connect me to the country.

I wandered around for a little longer, then hopped on a shuttle to the International Antarctic Center. Way fun! I want to go there, man! Antarctica, that is. As an attraction, the center rocks! I rode on the Hägglund (the specialized vehicle for traveling over the harsh Antarctic terrain) on a cool obstacle course, watched a penguin feeding, weathered an Antarctic windstorm, watched all kinds of documentaries, and all-around boned up on my Antarctica trivia. The only thing I couldn’t find out was how much plane tickets are to get there. Very fun, though.

I walked from there to the international terminal across the street, dragging me increasingly dilapidated duffel behind me. I think this trip might be the end of the road for my duffel. I suppose it was never going to last forever. Besides, now that I’ve done a little bit of traveling, I desperately want to invest ina backpack. I think that I finally appreciate how much I can streamline my packing. My flight back to Sydney was on Emirates Airline. Love! It was so so nice! The food (lamb stew) was excellent, the wine was free, and I got to watch An Affair to Remember and have myself a good cry. (I think I need to move that film to my top 10. Maybe it’s there already.) But yeah, Emirates rocks.

When I got back to Sydney, I was going to see if I could ditch my duffel somewhere for the night so that I didn’t have to drag it around and further mutilate it. Note: it is impossible to get from the International Terminal to the Domestic Terminal on foot in Sydney, and you need to pay for the shuttle. What a crock! Well, I had a little sidewalk conference with one of the shuttle drivers, and we determined that I could save about $50 and a whole lot of hassle if I just crashed in the International Terminal for the night. Which I did. I figured, in addition to the economical benefit, it would just be an experience worth having once in my life, and why not have it on my terms? So I bought myself some junk food, busted out the book I bought in Christchurch (The Book Theif, an excellent read), and killed a couple of hours reading. Then it was time for the sleeping. The bench I had claimed in the terminal had four seats on it and was so close to being armless, and yet so far away. There was a sort of awkward divider kind of jutting out between each seat, so it was possible to avoid most of them if you curled up just right, but there was always at least one stubborn bar jabbing me. However, with some clever positioning of my sweatshirt, fleece and bookbag, I was able to sleep in hour increments throughout the night.

Hard to believe that morning comes early in an international terminal.

Day 11: Riding, improv, and a cute puppy

Friday, September 12th~

This morning got off to a foggy start, but it burned off pretty quickly. Vicki, Laura T., Laura H. and I got a ride from the Lodge manager over to Grasmere in order to do some horseback riding. I guess I just can’t get enough! I am so sooo glad I went riding again! It was such a great experience! Heather, the woman who owns the horses and runs the little horse-trekking business, greeted us in the yard with the horses already tacked up. The saddles weren’t western, but they weren’t English either, and were terribly comfortable. However, the coolest thing was that Heather is really conscious of the horses’ comfort, so she doesn’t use bits. The horses are trained to respond to the different tensions on the ropes tied loosely around their muzzles. So fantastic! I rode a great Clydesdale named Agnes. She was stubborn by nature, but I asserted myself fairly well at the beginning of the ride and soon she was doing (almost) everything I asked her to. We were riding single file for a while, meandering among the rolling hills of the rambling sheep station. I guess Heather thought I could handle myself pretty well, because after a while she said that Agnes and I could go off exploring away from the group. I was pretty tickled that she had such faith in me, truth be told. So Agnes and I wandered around, taking in the stunning views of the surrounding mountains and winding along the faint sheep trails. Unbelievable, friends. Positively stunning. I love horseback riding! Of course, our ride was over too quickly, but we had to get back to Flock Hill to meet the rest of the group for a farm show. (Somehow, Scotty and I managed to squeeze in a couple episodes of Family Guy, though.)

Now, the phrase “farm show”, for me, conjures images of performing farm animals or a staged “day on the farm.” Not the case at Flock Hill, though. Richie, the farmer, took us with him while he went about his business on the station. Today, he had to shift a mob of sheep (about 2000) from one paddock to another. We just stood back and watched him work the herd with the help of two of his dogs, Minnie and Claude. It was so neat to watch! The dogs were crazy-efficient and seemed to like showing off for us, too. At Richie’s suggestion, we shifted our departure time to a little bit later, went and got some lunch, then came back in time to watch them shear a few sheep. It was quite the spectacle. The shearers were magicians! Ooh! We also got to meet an adorable puppy named Mack. Like, crazy crazy adorable puppy. I wanted to keep him. We also met Cindy, Richie’s kids’ pet sheep. She reminded me of Ma from Babe.

Once we finally got on the road (now on the Ching Chong China Bus), we got to Christchurch in no time. We get there around 3pm and had plenty of time to kill before dinner; I spent most of it in an internet café and perusing souvenir shops. Since this was the end of the line for me (most of the group continued on to tour the North Island), I checked in at my hostel and caught up with the gang in time for dinner. We ate at the Dux deLux (yummy seafood Jumbalaya) before heading to the Court Theatre for an improv show called Scared Scriptless. It was hilarious! But it made me miss my days in –{Rough Edges>. A show highlight was definitely when they asked for suggestions from the audience for a body part, and an old woman further down our row whipped off her artificial leg and handed it to the MC. He was so excited he didn’t know what to do! There were some really great sketches (some that I still play in my head more than a week later), and the ensemble was solid. As we were leaving the theatre, Scotty asked what people wanted to do. Not terribly surprisingly, everyone opted to go to bed. I didn’t feel like calling it a night; if I went to bed, then the tour would be over. So I sat on a bench in Cathedral Square, journaling, listening to strains of Danny Boy and Auld Land Sine float into the square from a
distant flute, and trying to figure out how to get back to New Zealand.

Thus ends my New Zealand Connections tour.

Day 10: Ice Caves Cometh

Thursday, September 11th~

Despite the clouds of the previous afternoon, this morning was crystal clear. Perfect day for a heli-hike! Vicki, Tracey, Laura B., Debra and I were the only ones who managed to justify spending $315 on such a venture. We were right. The helicopter (my first time riding in one- very cool) dropped us off about 3 kilometers from the terminal face of Fox Glacier, maybe half way up, with our guide, Hillary (Middlebury, class of ’05- yay Vermont!). She was great and told us so much about Fox Glacier and took us exploring through some stellar ice caves.

Fun Facts about Fox Glacier:

*It is one of the only glaciers in the world that is getting bigger. It grows about 1.5 meters every day. (The other one that is growing is the nearby Franz Joseph Glacier.)

*It is one of the only glaciers that is surrounded by temperate rain forest. This is because it is at an unusually low altitude. If I remember correctly, it is only 800 meters above sea level at its highest point.

The area we were exploring (with the help of crampons and pointy sticks; apparently ice is slippery), changes really frequently, actually, it changes almost constantly. As Hillary told us, the glacier is like a river, flowing down from the nevé to the terminal face, and where we were hiking was like a really big bend in the river. As the ice flows around the bend, it gets forced back on itself forming caves and other cool formations. We got up there around 8:20, so the sun hadn’t hit the ice yet. Then, Hillary took us through a particularly long and complex cave and when we emerged, it was into a totally different world, dazzling bright in the sunlight. Amazing! It got pretty warm pretty fast, which helped us dry off as that big cave had involved a lot of wet butt-wiggling action in order to get through the narrower fissures. It has always been one of my favorite things to climb around on rocks; climbing around on glaciers is now up there, too! I took a whole lot of pictures, so I hope they turn out alright. I can’t imagine they truly capture the magic of the setting, though. It was an excellent experience.

After the helicopter had taken us back to the village of Fox Glacier, we grabbed a bite at the Cook Saddle for lunch (I had a phenomenal breakfast quesadilla). By the time we were done, a replacement van had arrived. I found it quite comfortable, comfy enough to take a nap in. On the road, we stopped in Hokatika, a seaside town that is kind of a center for jade drafting. Jade is HUGE in New Zealand. In the 45 minutes we were in Hokatika, I wandered around a Jade factory and shop, waded in the Tasman Sea, and met someone who actually got the joke on my censorship button. I was very productive. We went from there to Flock Hill Lodge, a working sheep station. We had two cabins, but most of us crammed into one, planning on partying it up later. We went to dinner and hung out drinking wine for a while, as more and more people trickled off to bed. So much for partying it up. In bed by 11:30ish.

Day 9: Glaciers and Glow Worms

Wednesday, September 10th~

Today we left Queenstown in time to hit the Kawarau Bungy Jump (AJ Hackett’s original commercial bungy) before the rush. 3 of our group took the plunge (pun absolutely intended): Laura and Vanesha went tandem and Megan flew solo. I wanted to do it so badly! I was close, but I really think my health insurance would have had a problem with it. Oh well, just another reason to come back! After the jumps, we boarded the bus for a long and boring day of coach travel. Of course, even boring days in New Zealand are pretty exciting; we saw some really fantastic waterfalls pouring down through the temperate rainforest, and we stopped to look at the Tasman Sea. There were a couple of episodes of Friends to break up the monotony, but it was a lot of sitting. Luckily I was endlessly entertained by the changing terrain outside the bus windows. New Zealand is perpetually beautiful.

Fox Glacier is the definition of a quaint little town; population 260 when it’s full, and the sole industry is taking groups to see the glacier. Laura T. and I went to our room (very nice- yet another upgrade for our tour!), had some crappy instant cocoa, and met Vicki, Emma, Vanesha, Laura B. and Debra to go for a walk around Like Matheson. Murray, the town gossip, drove us out and told us a little bit about the area. The walk itself was so nice! The clouds blocked some of the more impressive reflections, but it was still beautiful. We were walking shortly before dusk, so the light was just lovely. We came back and killed time til dinner, then walked across the street to the Cook Saddle, one of the two restaurants in town. Oh man, did I pack it in. Laura T. and I made a conscious effort to eat as much as we could. A huge chicken quesadilla, fires, garlic bread, a banana split and beer. Mmmm mmmm! During dinner, Scotty and I swapped bad jokes. Hilarious!

When we finished eating, we went on a nighttime walk to see the glow worms. It was so neat! They twinkled like pale blue stars on the trees and in overhangs. As we walked, Scotty would sneak off to try to terrify us. It worked on a couple of people, but not this girl. Walking back, we swapped some scary stories, but the rest of the girls weren’t interested in hearing them. A few of us made our way to the hotel bar, where I entertained myself with darts. In bed by 10:30. I know that I am no night owl, but even I wouldn’t mind staying up later than this!

PS. Today, Roxanne the bus died. Sad times.