Travellin' With Me Mum

Sydney and the Blue Mountains (Jan. 24 - Jan. 31)

Got off the plane. Walked through customs, down to baggage claim. And there was my mom. Really, I couldn't have started my trip to Australia off any better.

My mom had already been to Sydney with my dad, they're world travellers now, so I had my own personal tour guide. We checked into our hotel, where we had our own room AND our own bathroom - a complete luxury after staying in so many hostels - and then headed into Sydney. It's become a habit that the first day I spend in a city I have to walk all over the downtown until I can navigate without a map and in the process always make a point to find the botanic gardens. And that's what we did; we walked straight to the gardens. My mom knew exactly where to find the Flying Foxes - huge fruit bats. There were hundreds of them, all hanging upside down from tree branches with their leathery wings wrapped tightly around their bodies like cocoons. Then an ibis or cockatoo would land on a branch and disturb a few bats, sending them into a screeching, frantic fury as they searched for a new perch. Australian has so many amazing birds (yesyes, I know bats aren't birds), birds that you would only ever expect to see in a cage in someone's living room. But here, there are flocks of sulfur-crested cockatoos (and damn are they loud), vibrantly colored lorikeets (small but again really loud), ibises, and so many more. I never used to be very interested in birds, usually because it takes so much effort and patience to see them, but here they're impossible to ignore.

2 nights in Sydney, 2 dinners on roofs, and lots of wine and beer. The first night we ate at a rooftop restaurant and both ordered beers and salads. I don't think we ate that much that day, so the alcohol was quite effective. We laughed so much, mostly making fun of Alex. The next day we took a ferry to Manly Beach. We hiked along the coastline and up along the cliffs. The views were spectacular. We also hiked under countless spider webs, each with at least 2 spiders no smaller than my hand. I tried to walk with my head down and ignore their looming presence. But after awhile I decided I wanted no surprises and that I would prefer to see the spider drop on my head, so I walked with my face up to the sky. That night we got Chinese take-away and a bottle of pinot noir and sat on the roof of our hotel.

26 January. Australia Day. We spent the morning and afternoon walking through crowds of people around the Sydney Harbor. We watched the chaotic parade of boats, saw one really good band and one not so awesome guy singing, had an amazing lunch of some Turkish fried chicken, spinach thing, and then took a 2 hour train ride to Katoomba.

Katoomba was such a nice change from Sydney: calm, quiet, quaint, natural. We stayed in a house turned hostel - I think one of the nicest I've ever stayed in. We spent two full days in Katoomba. 1) A full day of walking. We walked to Echo Point and checked out the Three Sisters, a rock formation composed of 3 separate spires that are coincidentally named Liz, Megan, and Alex. We walked along the ridgeline of the mountains for hundreds of kilometers. We walked to a couple different waterfalls. And we walked through the town of Leura, where we took our afternoon tea. Afternoon tea is such a wonderful concept. I'm always hungry around 3 or 4. Plus, it's not really like a meal, but a dessert snack. Obviously you can't just drink tea, you have to eat some cake, too. 2) Horses! We went for a 2 hour horse back ride through the Megalong Valley. My horse was named Vicki and she was awesome. My mom's, I can't remember his name, was stubborn and hated to gallop. The funniest part though was listening to my mom try to make him run. In a high-pitched, not at all commanding voice she would coax, "Up, up, up, up," as they bounced along the trail at a slow trot. Finally our guide gave my mom a tree branch as additional encouragement for her horse, and that got him galloping.

We returned to Sydney for one more night and one more day. Next city: Brisbane with my dad, a mini Podowski reunion.

No Worries

Good God I finally finished New Zealand. And I've only been in Australia for a couple weeks!

I will become a more diligent blogger. I promise. Tomorrow. Or maybe in a week.

Here, check out some Australia pictures

Life with Justin

Rotorua and the Bay of Islands (Jan. 12 - Jan. 24)

Justin Herman. My international friend and lover. We met at the airport in Auckland on 12 January. I came up from Christchurch and he came over from Tasmania. Together we're unstoppable.

Our first destination was Rotorua to see the thermal springs and Maori culture. Not one of my favorite destinations. It's a town where you need a car. Most of the good sights are about 20km out of town and we were cheap. We are cheap. We needed places within walking distance. So one day was spent hiking through a national park full of Redwoods. Even with our typically flawless navigational skills we managed to get lost. I know, you're surprised. So were we. Another day was spent at the "Living Thermal Village" - the original location of Maori tourism. We went on a pretty informative tour and got to see how the Maori people utilize the hot springs - they use the boiling water to cook all kinds of food (eggs, corn, meat) and also collect the hot, overflowing water in communal bathtubs. The water is supposed to be amazing for your skin and sinuses. Full of sulfur and minerals. It smells delicious, too.

Enough of Rotorua. The Bay of Islands is where we spent the majority of our time. And that trip was mostly about the people we met. I have to start with Justin though:

Justin: He likes to talk. He talks about anything to anyone. But it works well, because I can listen. We both have a common love for pasta salads, and I think we had some variation of pasta salad every night for dinner. Once we made a pizza. But the oven didn't work. We microwaved it - it was edible, but didn't come anywhere close to it's full potential. He's an amazing dancer, and when I dance with him I coincidentally look good too. Some might even say we look like professionals. If I ever had to spend a celibate life with a male (because we all know Des is the love of my life), it would be Justin. Hands down.

Manuela: 21 and from Switzerland. Absolutely a beautiful person and sincerely considerate. Probably one of the nicest people I have met travelling. She is an awesome foosball player; she kicked Justin's ass repeatedly. I didn't even try. She danced with us nightly and relaxed during the day with us in the hostel. AND she gave me her National Geographic once she was finished. After that I was in love!

Allie: Beautiful, articulate, and interesting. And from the US. I'm glad Justin took an immediate interest in her, because then, by default, I started talking to her as well. We stayed in the same hostel for 3 nights and she was perfect just to chill out with - it was nice to have someone that wanted to go to a calm bar to relax and listen to live music.

Hester: From Denmark and travelling through New Zealand then later Australia. The first night she arrived at our hostel she came out with Justin and me. That night sealed our friendship. The following day we grocery shopped and cooked dinner together (Justin had already left to return home to the US) and the next morning we woke up and cooked an awesome breakfast of eggs and bacon before I hitch hiked with my new friend, Roland, to Whangarei.

Sebastian (Sebby, Bob): From Ireland and he's coming to meet me in Malaysia! I think just the mention of orangutans (or as Alex would say, "Orange Utans") in Borneo was incentive enough to persuade him to come. Mom and Dad, he's promised to, "get (you) pissed and force (you) to eat the most fantastic Irish stew on.. the.. planet." I'd like to be a part of the stew-eating and beer-drinking, too. Although Justin and I didn't spend much time with him, the three of us have been diligently sending one another random email updates.

Those are just a few of the people that we met. Pahia, the town in which we stayed in the Bay of Islands, is so small. I think everytime I walked down the street I saw someone I knew. It was nice feeling like a part of the town and not just an outsider passing through.

My New Zealand Favorite

Te Anau and Milford Sound (Jan. 6 - Jan. 9)
The two hour drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound is almost entirely through a national park. No pastures. No sheep. No houses. No one. Just mountains and natural forest. Once in Milford Sound, the fiord is nothing short of spectacular.

The day I arrived in Te Anau, I met Sandra. Sandra is from Scotland and was travelling some of the South Island before heading north to Auckland for a friend's wedding. We were roommates in our hostel. The first night she shared her beer with me, and we discussed the many differences between the US and the UK on healthcare, public education, and employment. The next morning Sandra was driving down to Milford and invited me along. Of course I jumped at the chance. Sandra was awesome and the main reason I came to Te Anau was to see the fiords.

The day was not ideal. From the moment we got in the car until the moment we got out 2 hours later, it rained. We wanted to take a cruise through the fiord and out to the Tasman Sea. But the point of cruising through the fiord was to be able to see it. In the heavy fog and torrential rains, we couldn't see anything. Not even mountains a few hundred meters in front of us. We decided to wait out the weather and got lunch at the only cafe.

After an hour of waiting, the clouds seemed to be lifting and the rain lessening. We hoped for the best and bought tickets for a 2-hour boat ride. The boat was relatively empty. Maybe about 20 people total. 20 people on a boat that easily could hold at least 100. Not long after the boat left the dock, the rain stopped, the clouds slowly crept up the steep slopes of the mountains, and the waterfalls gushed. The landscape was spectacular. Fur seal colonies decorated outcrops of rocks, bottlenose dolphins swam at the bow of the boat, and the fiord was ceaselessly stunning.

Beyond the scenery, our boat companions were friendly and almost just as interesting. Sandflies are nasty. They are tiny tiny flies and you don't notice them until they're munching away on you legs, arms, back, shoulders....anywhere flesh is exposed. One man, from Alice Springs, hunted those sandflies mercilessly. It didn't matter where one landed. On the side of the boat - he'd scurry over and kill it. On his own body, the flies had no chance. Refuge couldn't even be found on other passengers' legs or backs - he'd smack a stranger if it resulted in a sandfly death. He was quite animated in this sandfly chase, and Sandra and I intently watched he and his victims (both sandflies and other passengers).