Go West, Young [Wo]Man

We stayed with our friend Aaron, the head of Signology (the sign making department at Woodford) in Brisbane whilst we figured out what we were going to do next, which at first sounded like fruit picking in Stanthorpe, about 3 hours south, so I bought a car, Norrington, to get us there. Then it turned into heading out west to Perth as Ann has a friend who lives there, and he said to come stay for free until we figured out a job. So off we went!

Which leads to Cool Thing Number Two: Driving from Brisbane to Perth along the southern coast. I can say it was the longest, flatest, straightest drive I've ever endeavoured to take, but also completely worth it as I've seen not only a country, but a continent! And we had our iPods plugged in. We drove from Brisbane, Queensland down into New South Wales, stopped for the night at one of the many, many rest stops, before continuing into Sydney to pick up our bank cards that we'd ordered more than a month previous. I can faithfully say that if I can navigate through Sydney and the CDB, I can probably drive anywhere in the weste- well actually no, if I can get through Melbourne, then I can drive anywhere in the western world! More on that later. After the stress of driving through the CBD, Ann and I headed to the iconic Bondi Beach to soak up some afternoon rays and enjoy a dip in the Tasman Sea, as well as meet up with our friend Dan whom we'd met in Queenstown. It was a nice little visit, and before we knew it, we were on the road again, this time making it all the way to the Australian Capital Territory aka Canberra the capital, so I could look at the Parliament buildings, which werent that exciting and I only ended up driving around them. But still, I saw them!

The next day we pushed onto Melbourne, picking up a hitchhiking couple, one of them German and another an Aussie. They were nice and polite, and actually slept for much of the way. It felt nice to help some fellow travellers out. In Melbourne, we hoped to meet up with our German friend Melanie that we'd met Zorbing in Rotorua, NZ, but she unfortunately had some visa issues, so was actually back in Deutchland. She gave us her friend Roxy's number, and after successfully navigating the CBD and the hook turns* and having a shower at a pool, we met up with her and a group of her friends at the Queen Street Night Market, which only happens on Wednesday evenings during the summer months- timing is everything, as they say! It was pretty busy, and there were heaps of stalls selling food, clothing, jewelry, leather bound journals, artists sketching charicatures...the list goes on! There was also live music, and a stall that was selling sangria. We wandered about the market for a few hours, enjoying the company and atmosphere, until it closed down around ten, then it was out of Melbourne to the just before the start of the Great Ocean Road, one of the most scenic drives in the world!

It's not hard to see why they call it as such, although surprisingly, it doesn't always wind along with the coastline (causing uninformed backpackers to think they are a bit lost and must have taken a wrong turn somewhere...). It is pretty stunning though, pictures to follow this post soon. We took a small detour to "Australia's Most Significant Lighthouse" but didn't pay the $17 to tour it because we're backpacking hobos, however on the drive back to the main road saw all these cars parked on the side of the road, so we stopped, and low and behold, there were wild koalas hanging out and having a snooze in the eucaplytus trees! It's apparently pretty rare to see them in the wild, so it was a treat that we got to see even one, let alone three of them! We continued on our way, stopping for pancakes for lunch (I was craving them) before stopping at probably the most photographed spot, besides Uluru and the Sydney Opera House, in Australia: The Twelve Apostles (which there's apparently only 8 of). Of course, I snapped the iconic photo, and then Ann and I backtracked slightly, heading down to the bottom of this cliff to a really nice beach to chill and get out of the car for an hour or two. I fiddled around with my camera, figuring out the settings a bit better, and then before we knew it, the GOR had ended and we were in a small town called Port Fairy. We bought some bread and a cold bevvy each at the general store, then headed to a beach/scenic lookout to park the car for the night. We went for a walk that evening after sunset, taking one of the trails that meandered away from the lookout point, eventually coming upon this really wicked spit of a cliff that, to stand at the edge of, with the wind howling around you and the waves crashing into the cliff base, filled you with awe of the power of nature.

The next morning we were woken up by a Victoria Parks guy, asking us to move on because we weren't supposed to be camping there. Ah well, but at least we didn't get a fine! We passed Cheese World in Allansford, and decided to turn around and check it out due to our shared love of cheese! And there was free cheese tasting too... But I swear, it's because we love cheese so much! They had a few really good varieties, tomatoe and cracked pepper, garlic and cracked pepper, good cheddars, fruit cheeses, etc. AND they sold wine as well! And it was decently priced! So we bought a couple cheeses and a bottle of Yellowtail, checked out the cheese/local museum they had, and continued driving. And driving. And driving. We crossed into South Australia. And kept driving. Pine forests lined either side of the highway, if it wasn't for the high temperature, I could easily have been in Canada. It's actually quite a beautiful stretch of countryside, from Portland in Victoria to Adelaide in South Australia, I would have loved to stay in the area and explore. But alas we kept pushing onward! We spend the night at a rest stop just outside of a little town called Beachport, about 400kms south of Adelaide, enjoying a beautiful sunset and our wine and cheese. The next day we made it to Adelaide, a half way marker on our journey, around 2pm, and spent the next six hours in a McDonald's getting our online Responsible Service of Alcohol certificates. For bed that night, we drove out of the city and parked at a lookout, gazing down at the spread of city lights, refelcting on this crazy adventure we're on.

It was up and away again as our next destination, while only about 100kms away, was probably the most anticipated one, at least for me: the Barossa Valley. Aka wine country! I love wine! And one of only two things I knew I wanted to for certain do whilst I was in this country was take a wine tour through the Barossa. And I did just that! I tasted over 50, but no more than 80, different wines while I was there, it was so worth it! If I ever do another one, I'm going to make sure I break a full day tour up over two days, as you're pretty pissed in the afternoon, even if you've had lunch. After enjoying a few days there, we took Norrington into get serviced before we embarked on the Nullarbor, possibly the world's longest, straightest, most boring, and factually one of the most dangerous highways in the world; there is a 146.6km straight stretch at one point and all you see for miles and miles is scrubby bush, with the an odd road killed 'roo or two on the roadside, just to give you an idea. From Adelaide to Norseman, the western gateway to the Nullarbor, nothing of great import or excitement happened. From Norseman, we turned south to drive along the Southern Highway, and then cut up to Perth. We spent Australia Day, January 26th, in a medium sized town called Albany. We enjoyed a few ciders, and hung out at the community event outside their rec centre for the afternoon, Aussies decked out in I <3 OZ shirts and flags. The festivities finished with an impressive fireworks display, and we drove out of town to yet another rest stop.

And then we reached Perth! Finally! After more than 5000 kms, over 1000 photos, a 146.6km straight stretch, 16 bottles of water, 12 1/2 bottles of wine, 11 nights spent sleeping in our car, 5 state/territory lines, 3 phone calls from concerned friends, and one hot, sweaty journey later, we arrived in Perth! I completed my first legitimate road trip, and now I am thinking that I might just drive around the north coast back to the East Coast, if it should so tickle my fancy!

We stayed at Ann's friend's (Michael) grandfather's house for about two weeks, trying to get work organized for ourselves, and by stayed, I mean that's where we spent 98% of our time. It started to drive me crazy around the end of week two, and having bought my WWOOFing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) book when we were in Brisbane, decided to try that out whilst I awaited potential employers' responses to my applications. Ann, having sent out numerous applications and getting few bites, decided to fly back to Brizzy to try her luck there. I wish her all the best.

I ended up going to an outlying area of Perth called the Perth Hills to help out at a horse riding school. Although I really enjoyed being around the horses and getting my hands dirty again, it unfortunately it wasn't a good fit for me right at this time, so I decided to leave after only five days to have a bit of a sit down with myself and figure out what it is I'm even doing in this country... at this point, besides priority numero uno of getting a job, I'm thinking I want to do five things here, which are, in no particular order:

get my SCUBA ticket

cage dive with great whites, which I am terrified of, which is precisely why I want to do it

take the train between Darwin and Adelaide, and maybe have some kind of Outback experience in the middle

check out Tasmania

learn to sail and sail in/to the Whitsundays

It's long enough to be short, short enough to be long, and has enough in it that should keep me occupied whilst I'm here until December, I reckon. There might be some things added, and some things removed, but that's what it stands at :). And that's all the updates I have for now!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi!

I've been in this country about two and a half months now, and in that time, I've managed to do two pretty cool things I didn't thing I'd be doing when I left Canada in September.

The first: I spent from December 11th-Jannuary 5th at the grounds of the largest folk music festival in the Southern Hemisphere, the Woodford Folk Festival. There were over two thousand performances and something like one hundred and sixty thousand patrons over the course of 6 days. I found out about Woodford from Michelle, the Canadian girl I met in Samoa at Lalumanu Beach. Ann and I rocked into Sydney on a Wednesday, sent out our volunteer applications on a Thursday, got a call on Friday to come up (Woodford is a couple hours north west of Brisbane, which is 15 hours bus ride north of Sydney), and hopped on a Greyhound overnight, and then another bus once we got to Brizzy, as the locals call it, before finally getting to Woodford. We did two weeks of set up, getting free meals and accommodation on site, Ann was part of the Visual Arts department, and so, was helping paint and build things, while I did Organisers and Performers Camping, which basically entailed figuring out camping areas and helping artists get there. For a number of reasons, this turned out to be a lot more complicated that it should have been, and I wouldn't be lying if I said I was so relieved when the festival finally started, so I'll say it: I was so relieved when the festival finally started! And wow, what a time that was! There were so many amazing acts and performances I had the privelage of seeing- I got to go on the Mystery Bus!- including Xavier Rudd, who although I really enjoyed his music and the performance, there was one point he got a bit political, namely against mining, that left a bit of a sour taste on my tongue. Of course, when you're surrounded by a bunch of hippies, you keep your mouth shut. I also got to watch Gotye, Owl Eyes, Husky (in the Mystery Bus), Tin Pan Orange, Hanggai, a phenominal Canadian R&B artist Matt Anderson, and so, so many more. These artists I've mentioned are definitely worth checking out!

Ah so the Mystery Bus, what is it? It's an old city bus that's been turned into a venue. Being such a small stage, there's really only room for two mics and the singers and a guitarist/drum box percussionist squeezed into the corner. The mystery of the Mystery Bus is that they don't schedule or announce artists who're going to play for it, you just show up for the ten minute set.

Basically, it was a week of living in Wonderland. There's a lot of work that goes into it to making it look and feel really top notch, and it was quite sad when it was all said and done. But then, it was time to move on!

Samoahhhh!

As I wrote this post quite after the fact, the majority of it is very brief, and, um, to the point. Good for a quick study break ;).

Day 1 November 22nd

My time in Auckland was fine, I slept decently at the airport (can't say the same for the Christchurch airport, bastards...). Got up around 4am to be down and in line for 5am, which seems like it would be alright, but then you must remember that everybody else is also going to be there two hours before, and it really doesn't help when you're standing in the wrong queue. In my defence, the day previous the Airport Information guy had told me to  stand in that particular queue. But all is well that ends well. I had to book it to the gate, sans breakfast or an opportunity to buy a camera charger, but I made it in time to exchange a bit of currency and buy a sandwhich before boarding the plane, of which I was one of about four super white people.

There was only one other guy in my row of seats, a Samoan guy, Paulo was his name, who pretty much offered me a place to stay before we got off the ground; I've heard about how legendary Samoan hospitality is, but really? Awesome! He's a pastor in one of the villages inbetween the airport and Apia. We chatted a bit, though I slept for a majority of the flight. And then we were there!

I was all smiles disembarking the aircraft: I made it to the South Pacific! Woot Woot! (It always kinda seemed like something older, more established people do). I cleared customs and claimed my bag, said goodbye to Paulo as I had arranged to meet somebody from Couchsurfing already though I hoped to get in touch and do a homestay, and headed out into the heat (sidenote: I was wearing my Canadian rugby jersey, yoga pants, and my runners...it was supposed to be raining) to hop on a local bus, bogged down with all my crap, politely declining the multitudes of "You need a taxi?". It just so happened that the bus was pulling up as I got there, which is fortunate because, well, Samoa is an island, and according to Lonely Planet, it's quite comfortable running on island time, so I could have waited for a long time for the next one.  I hopped on and the locals made room for me, Dude, and Little Dude (my packs).

The local bus is such an experience! First of all it's like a wooden school bus with out galss in the windows and they BLAST redone-in-polynesian-songs! Everybody was staring at me, obviously as I'm kind of alien like to them, the little kids on the bus, giving me smiles and laughing with me. A fellow, hilariously named Paradise (seriously!), started chatting me up and asked me if I was married and if I wanted a Samoan boyfriend or husband! hahaha! Even just walking down the street I get smiles and "Hello!"s. It's a bit bizarre, and all I can do is laugh.

I got into town, to the bus station/flea market and was super confused and disoriented. I was supposed to go to the Clocktower for 2pm to meet Calixto, so I just hopped on another bus that the locals assured would get me to my destination (turns out I probably could've just walked to it). I ended up getting off by the police station and then grabbing a taxi to the Tourist Information Center so I could take a breather, figuratively and literally speaking; it had air conditioning, bless it's little inanimate soul, and I have never experienced heat/humidity quite like that before.

The girl at the desk was pretty concerned that I didn't know where I was staying that night (still to be confirmed for sure if I could stay with Calixto's host), so she kindly let me leave my bag there whilst I went to the clocktower to meet Cali. I stopped in at a supermarket, maybe one of the only ones in Apia, so therefore the country, for a "refridgerated" Coke (thankfully the bars have operating coolers) and an icecream, before continuing to the corner to wait for Cali. I felt a bit pressured, maybe it was the heat, so I bought a lava-lava, or basically a cotton sheet with tropical floral design on it, for WST$10 (Western Samoan Tala), which was fine because I knew I would want one anyways as it's still pretty traditional in the villages for women to be covered up. Men also wear them too. Anywho, so I waited, then Cali rode up on a bike, thinking he was late, though because my iPhone was still set to NZ time, I thought he was early. He confirmed that yes, I could stay with his host tonight, but that we were supposed to wait for a German Couchsurfer. So we did,  and we did...and we did. I got a Samoan SIM card in the meantime as Cali had said it was worth it, which I'd say it was. This girl didn't show up though, so we said screw it, I went and got my bag, and I took a taxi to Supy's, where we chilled out, then we went to a bar and met up with Supy and his friends Blakey and Troy. They were all very nice people, we had a good time enjoying the local brew, Vailima, over some good conversation.  Supy and Blakey are in their third and final year with the Peace Corps, an American volunteer organization, and Troy is 4 months into his 1 year stay in Samoa with an Australian NGO. We hopped bars to a newly opened one, enjoyed the sunset and played chicken with the rain. During one of the forays inside, I met Tony and Catherine, a kiwi couple contracted by the Samoan Finance department for 4 months. They had ordered a huge platter of battered fish, fresh tuna I think it was, and kindly shared with us as we exchanged stories. As everything closed at 12, we headed home shortly after, but not before getting some drunk Micky D's, which I can assure you, even in a developing country, still tastes the same as it does back home. I PTFO'd, unfortunately not before I was able to get the mosquito net untangled, waking up in the middle of the night with a bad tummy to the sound of a terrential downpour....man when it rains in Samoa, it POURS!

November 23: Woke up with a million little red bites from mysterious and unknown critter, took bus to Matautu, almost didn't get to, but snorkelled and saw giant clams (they really are giant), stayed at Jenny's, had an interesting supper of hot dogs, bread, salad w/watercress, potatoes, all girls slept in one room, boys in the other as per Samoan tradition.

November 24: Did Waterfall Hike at Jane and Olsen's, adventure as no safety ropes, warm rain, refreshing water to swim in that got cooler the farther upstream we went, fresh coconut+banana+pinapple=yum!, jumping off waterfalls, feet cramped up about 3 times, I pansied out of the bigger waterfalls and jumps, but so did Cali, so it was okay.

November 25: Stayed in Apia, went to help volunteer at sports complex, but arrived too late, picked up some garbage instead and then enjoyed a delicous orange snowcone, met Juanita. Went to Fiesta later that night, got reasonably drunk, home and sleeping in a hammock by about 11:30/12am.

November 26: Rented car and drove to Lalomanu beach, did Piula Cave Pools on the way, Cali was unsure if we should pay for two nights, so we just booked one (silly man), was surprised in a bad way to see we shared a matress, but it worked out, he was a gentleman, met part of the crew ie. Michelle, Josh, Rob and Rachelle, then Sonja and Axel (all excellent people). Fia fia night. Some good looking Polynesian boys.

November 27: Did To Sua Ocean trench, stayed Lalomanu Beach. Took Michelle, Josh, and Katherine with us, met Ben With a Pen, enjoyed some drinks, watched the Kiwi school group do their cultural performance, the middle 3 school boys were especially into it.

November 28: Did a Turtle Cruise to Lamau Island, saw one on the way out to the island, snorkelled and saw some amazingly beautiful sea life and coral, lost camera in the reef :(, sunburned back, hiked the hill, very muddy and not worth it, slipped on the way down and got dirty.

November 29: Took the ferry to Savai'i, chatted with Rob, used tarp, rogue wave splashed Michelle, stayed at Tanu Beach Fales, Peter the taxi driver: super nice guy, amazing stars and moon out, free bananas, free coconut upon arrival, self serve at the store; honesty system, staff played Polynesian tunes and sung well into the night.

November 30: Hung out on the beach, went for a walk, sunburned my legs and stomach...so I matched all over?, ate at the fale place next door, which took forever, green salad=red cabbage and some carrots...?, that night I sang and played the guitar, was nervous, didn't sound my best, but they liked it anyway. The Samoans are so happy and funny.

December 1: Peter drove us around Savai'i. Stopped at Canopy Forest, Lover's Leap: saw a shark and turtles swimming, Afago Blow holes: tried and failed several times to get a coconut to shoot up, Afa'a Afa waterfall: authentic jungle vine swing, refreshing dip, a VERY large shrimp, then back to Saleopologo: market, bought cocao beans and souvenirs. Fia fia night at Tanu, then dance, then beach party and midnight dip in the sea.

December 2: Got up around 6 am and took some amazing photos of the sunrise, also some artsy ones. Packed up after breakfast, and took local bus to ferry. Cute kids selling banana chips. I bought some, and juice, and a fan. Ferry back to Upolu, got a ride to Supy's from some randoms. Spent a couple hours at Supy's, then partied with Juanita and her sister.

December 3: Up around 7:30, into town to get a Vailima tshirt, then back 'home' to Supy's to shower and pack and get a shuttle at Aggie Gray's Hotel to the airport. Had to have proof of onward ticket out of NZ, trouble connecting to the internet, thought I might miss my flight, but got it all figured out, refreshing coconut afterwards... they're always refreshing! Sorted Little Dude while waited to board. Good bye Samoa...I never will for-ge-et you...