I have a lot to cover since I left you all cliffhanging after the last riveting post-New Years Eve post!!! So let’s start from the absolute BEST place to start…from the begining.
Jan 02, 2008.
We spent the day in the beautiful Blue Mountains on the outskirts of Sydney with our Sydney companions (To recap: Errol, Natalie, Acko, Mattie, Chasm, Sina, and Fin). It was the first real taste of what hot, humid, O-Zone free, Australian bush was all about! We hiked all day, covered in suntan lotion, down tight, steep chasms to beautiful flowing waterfalls, and not so steep or scary staircases to some towers of rock. We ate in a small town, and ended the day the usual way; playing games, hanging out, and watching many reruns of Friends.
Jan 03, 2008.
Natalie, Errol, Jess, and I packed all our stuff into Errols cozy mini-SUV and said our fond fairwells to the rest we left in our dust. We (and by we I mean ONLY Errol because no one else could drive the car due to insurance issues) drove all day to the nations capitol of Canberra where we had some amazing Couchsurfers awaiting us with an instant free BBQ. We were welcomed into their very nice home to an absolute feast of snags (sausages) and potato salad with Amelie, her husband and four incredible children. We were all amazed by their lovely home, gardens, and their fun, laid back, tech savy lifestyle. The four girls were of all different ages from not even 1 year old to an incredibly mature, smart, and fun 12 year old named Arielle. The family was super loving, showed us a great time with tons of Wii Sports, massage chairs, endless snacks, Guitar Hero III, and World of Warcraft on a huge screen TV in their living room. Jess, Nat, and Errol went to bed on our comfy couches early and I stayed up and indulged Arielle and her friend by letting them show me their characters in World of Warcraft (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s too nerdy to ask).
Jan 04, 2008.
Errol woke up really early to have the super-host Arielle, already awake and offering to prepare him breakfast (can this girl get any cooler, I want a daughter like her). He went back to sleep a bit though and when we all awoke later an assortment of cerials, breads, and juice was on the table for us. It was not easy to say goodbye to such amazing hosts, but we had places to go and a capital to see! We did the usual monuments; the war memorial (I know what your thinking; the Aussies fought in wars?) and the new capital building. They were very pretty, and the war museum extensive, proving to me that in fact they DID fight in both world wars, British imperial conflicts, even Vietnam, and other equally useless, more recent slaughters…er…wars.
After Canberra we drove as far south as we could toward Melbourne, spotting our very first Kangaroos along the way, and stopping to camp at dusk in a beautiful spot next to a river in the Kosciuszko National Park. On the way we passed by the tallest mountain in all of Australia, Mt. Kosciuszko, standing tall at a WHOPPING 7,310ft. or 2,228 meters!!! (if you don’t get the sarcasm, and don’t really know distance/height, that is REALLY short for the tallest mountain). We cooked a nice bowl of chili and toasted bread while drinking our river-cooled beers, hung out and fell asleep in our cozy tents.
Jan 05, 2008.
The route to Melbourne was filled with some huge spiders, beautiful birds, and a blue-tongued lizard we stopped at while it sunbathed in the middle of the road. A man stopping behind us told us his friend picks them up and takes the constant ticks out of their ears when he sees them, but we were too afraid the touch the big fella; got some cool picks of his blue tongue though. After not too long of a drive we arrived in the BEAUTIFUL city of Melbourne, though soon realized we hadn’t yet booked a hostel!!! We took a driving tour through the city while we scramled through our guides and called every hostel/budget hotel in town until we found a good one called Kingston where we stayed for only $25 per person in a very nice hotel room with our own showers and comfy beds with room AC. We threw our bags down and headed downtown St. Kilda street for some italian pizza, beers, cocktails, and later a bottle of Jim Beam and some coke which we all shared on the harbor beach.
After thourough inebriation we payed the painful cover to a “house music” club in which Nat and Errol said a “great DJ” was playing tonight (as if they don’t all sound the same; I know I just insulted someone reading this). A freight train of metrosexuality nearly knocked me straight on my ass as nearly 70% of the men were wearing flowery blouse-like shirts, tight, acid-washed jeans, with bleached/colorfully dyed, and/or straightened/permed hair…it soon became clear that when a group belonging to this scene get ready to go out, the guys take WAY longer than the girls. The dancing resembled a standing, knee-bouncing epileptic siezure, probably caused by the myriad of flashing colorful lights reflecting off of a sea of bleach blond hair and shiny gell soaked scalps. The music wasn’t half bad however, and the constant trips down the street to the cheaper bar for jugs of beer (pitchers) gave a breath of air to break up the persistant optical/audial slaughter. All in all it was a surprisingly fun and exciting night. Jess and I actually danced…a lot, though Jess was way more into it, especially when she got to dance with 2 cute gay boys. We definitley appreciated the taste of a new, albeit strange, flavor which is very popular in Australia, and a club scene of which Nat and Errol are quite fond of.
Jan 06, 2008.
Technically we spent the first part of today until 5am at the club, then got to the Hotel with the dissapointment of not being able to book another night in the hotel and having to wake up a measly 4 hours later to switch rooms (it’s complicated, boring, and not worth telling, just accept we had to wake up way earlier than we would have liked). We got some excellent lunch at a high class food court, watched a free and random X-Mas show at a casino (weird, I know) and Nat/Errol went back to hotel for some more sleep and Jess and I headed to the Royal Botanical Gardens. We saw some more war memorials (it’s a strange obsession they seem to have), some beautiful plants, flowers, lakes, birds, and other general nature in the gardens, then met with Nat and Errol later for some more italian food in little italy. We had a more mild night walking around the city and through the colorful china town, and fell asleep early.
Jan 07, 2008.
We spent a bit more of the day in Melbourne, Nat/Errol at the botanical gardens, Jess and I at the National Gallery of Victoria which was beautiful with lots of good Asian, Hindu, Muslim, S. American, and European artifacts. Hung around town, got a feel of the city a bit more, and hopped in the car to drive to Phillips Island for some good old fashioned penguin watching.
A short, scenic drive later and we arrived at the “Penguin Parade” where we payed $20 per person to see the literal parade of penguins coming on shore from their day of feeding. It was Natalie and Errol’s first time however Jess and I were experienced from Oamaru, though this penguin invasion was far more massive. After the bulk of the invasion we walked back a long path and got super close to the penguins going to nest; one cute event was the rangers parting the crowd and opening the fence for a penguin caught on the wrong side of the road trying to get to his babies. Stupid that we couldn’t take even flashless pictures, but rules are meant to be broken and Natalie got a few good ones.
We slept at a nice, cheap plot with chickens and weird cute ducks surrounding us.
Jan 08, 2008.
We drove back past Melbourne and hit the famous “Great Ocean Road.” It is overall similar to taking Hwy 1 between N. and S. California. Huge cliffs and beautiful beaches, yet sweltering hot, covered in flies in the day and mosquitoes at night, and a far more tropical and humid region. We drove along the road, stopping at beautiful view points and near dusk parked at a rest stop and hiked a kilometer into the bush to set up our campsite. After set up we drove to a pretty waterfall (Erskine Falls) down the road, came back, cooked some hobo stew (lots of vegetables, herbs, and tomato sauce wrapped in tin foil and thrown into the fire), drank decent boxed wine and went to bed.
Jan 09, 2008
Woke up to lots of pretty parrots and cockatoos squaking above our heads and went on an hour hike to Cascade Falls. It was pretty; then we packed up the car again and headed down more of the great ocean road. We had a great breakfast in a small town along the way and cruised slowly down the road to the final event; the 12 Apostles. We hit the Apostles a few hours before dusk, which here is at like 9pm. The pictures speak better than words so check them out from the post before or link to the right. Everyone was covered in flies which was annoying, but the ocean, cliffs, and rocks were beautiful. We went to a nice camp spot nearby, cooked a pasta dinner and slept like babies.
Jan 10, 2008
After a long drive, and some pretty birds along the way we hit the glorious wine country of Rutherglen. Finding lodging was tough due to the rowing competition this weekend, but we found a good camp spot right near the center of town filled with tons of cockatoos, and the wierd duck like things with red faces. We swam in a nearby public pool, ate some good mediteranean food at a local pub and slept in our cozy tents.
Jan 11, 2008
Today was the BIG day of wine tasting. We woke up super early and got the most amazing meat pies I have yet tasted at Parker Pies, a multiple award winning restaurant. I was bumbed they didn’t have the award winning kangaroo pie available until lunch, but I made due with a scruptious beef and mushroom pie, and Natalie had the “best blueberry muffin she has ever eaten in her life.” After that we headed to the Info center in the middle of town to rent 4 bikes for our wine tasting trek. We first biked to the furthest winery on our list; All Saints. It was 14 kilometers in sweltering heat, bound to get evern worse; we were drenched in sunblock; the ride took a little over 40 minutes non-stop. The wine at All Saints was absolutely fantastic and I rated each of the 10 or so we tasted on paper to remember them, giving only one an 8/10 (I was rating super conservative, a 10 would be a mind-blowing wine). We bought a couple bottles, Jess and I purchasing a beautiful Marsanne, a berry which I had never tried before this winery. Afterward we headed to the cheese maker attached to the building. We tasted some scrumtrulescent blue cheese, brie cheese, and feta goat cheese which I had to buy. The winery was nice enough to deliver the bottles and goat feta to our campsite to pick up later, free of charge!
We next hit Valhala down the road which was a VERY new winery and not quite so good yet, though they had a Shiraz with much promise (yes they call Syrah a Shiraz, same berries, different pronunciation/spelling). We were most impressed with the dedication of this winery to an all organic process, which I think is a fantastic investment to a more environmentaly conscious future. We didn’t buy wines, but definitly hope this fantastic place flourishes in the future (can’t beat the perfect location).
Our third stop was Cofield; a splendid winery which gave samplings of food to go with the tasty wine. By this point we were all quite tipsy and hungry after the sampling of fine venison and thai pesto, so we walked over to the adjoined restaurant, The Pickled Sisters, for a very high quality meal. We had chicken liver pate, veggie risotto, lamb chops, salmon, and stringy rabbit, though the bill wasn’t as tasty…
Our next stop was Pfeiffers, another fun family owned winery. We tried plenty more wines, but by this point it was difficult to really fully focus on the tastes. The most unique wines we tried were the Muscats and Torkays with a very strange and unique, almost caramel flavor. They are very thick and strong, and though we tried them at every winery and enjoyed them a lot, Jess and I never bought a bottle simply because it is way to sugary to finish off a whole bottle. We did buy one fantastic Cabernet Sauvignon at Pfeiffers which I was excited about because it is normally my favorite, but the Cab Sav at Pfeiffers was the only decent one I have found in Oceania so far.
Biking to the next place, Bullers, was a breath of fresh air with rolling clouds blocking the once scorching heat. The whole day has been an adventure getting from one winery to another along side streets in crazy heat along much too long distances. We were all looking forward to Bullers as we’d heard an American critic who has only rated 6 wines 100/100 in his life, rated two of them 100 at this winery. They both ended up being Muscats however and after having so many glasses of the thick syrup taste it pretty much tasted the same. Bullers was more unique however with the very flamboyant gay pourer, listening to house music as he poured us glass after glass. We bought a great Shiraz and headed home.
On the way home, the weather shifted to the opposite as before; it started pouring rain on us. This was bad for many reasons; we were quite intoxicated and riding bikes, we had to travel 4 kilometers in like 20 minutes to turn our bikes in on time, and our tents didn’t have the rain sheets to protect all the shit we’d left in them (like books and journals, etc). It all ended up working out, we got to the tents before they got too soaked, nothing was ruined, and the info center had people there late to take our bikes.
We put the tents together and covered with rain sheets and nearly passed out from exhaustion save we were all driven by hunger. We got two big pizzas, hung out in the tents, took some great pics of cockatoos in the sunset and fell fast asleep!
Jan 12, 2008
Woke up to the screeching exotic birds again and packed up our camp. We headed to our favorite pie place and drooled over a wonderful indian beef pie that would make ghandi himself proud (save he was a vegetarian). They also sold me a frozen kangaroo pie I could heat up later…huzzah! We had a LONG drive up the coast all the way back to Sydney, with minimal stopping to get Natalie in time for her Harbor bridge climb. We got to unload all our stuff at Acko’s again and finally had a place to wash our filthy clothes and relax. The goat cheese was great with some bread we all shared once Natalie came back from her fun bridge climb, and the Kangaroo pie as tasty as I’d hoped. We finally slept with proper pillows on a floor covered in couch cushions.
Jan 13, 2008
We spent the entire day driving after sleeping in and arrived at a little beach town half way to Gold Coast a few hours before dusk. We got some long desired dinner at a local surf bar, finished the goat cheese, drank some good beers and headed to a nearby campsite. The campsite was at the site of an old prison in a national park and it was FILLED with kangaroos. It was the first time we really got mere feet from the kangas and got to see them really close up. They were SO cute and we got some great pictures I’ll post later. We even saw a mama with a Joey in her pouch. We slept well after the long drive.
Jan 14, 2008
Woke up to more kangas just feet from our tent and took tons of more photos of them hopping along the beach. Packed the car back up, got some tasty breakfast pies and hit the road for the long drive to Gold Coast. We arrived midday at Errol’s familie’s house right next to the gorgeous Bond university where Natalie studies. After unloading we hit the beach where Errol taught me to surf on his foam board; I actually stood up too!!! We didn’t stay long in the water as a recent storm had just ravaged the coast and a lifeguard reminded us NOT to swallow water. With memories of my brothers spinal tap when he got super sick after surfing post-storm, I didn’t feel like being in the water any longer. We came back to the house, biked to the Bond cafeteria, had a tasty college meal, and since return I have been writing this blog!
FINALLY I AM DONE!!! Damn that was a lot of writing to do in these few hours, but that just about sums up the majority of the road trip (this portion). During the long car rides we mainly read, talked about random crap, planned further for our trip, slept and struggled to make the tape deck iPod accessory work (since it didn’t we listened to crappy pop channels, and every day heard the same damn shitty song “apologize” multiple times until it drilled into my head like some terrible music termite).
…it’s too late to apologize… DAMN THAT SONG!!!
Well, that’s it; tune in next time to the same Dave and Jess channel, same Dave and Jess time, same Dave and Jess place…er website I guess…and pretty much any time I damn well please to put up a post (or rather when I have the time to write one)!
See ya, thanks for reading,
Jessica and Dave.
