Chapter: Australia
Trip Start
May 06, 2006
1
73
81
Trip End
Mar 23, 2009
Melbourne,
Australia
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Anyway, I'm finally in Australia again. I'm feeling more emotional about leaving New Zealand than I was expecting and after mentally preparing (and exhausting) myself to leave, I got to the airport to find that huge delay on my flight to Brisbane meant I'd be missing the connecting flight so I'd have to stay another night. I could've spent the night in a hotel in Brisbane and moved on in the morning but I'd rather do all my flying in one day so asked if I could just stay in Christchurch another night. Their flights were getting pretty full where they were trying to squeeze everyone on so they loved me! I got put in a gorgeous room in a hotel by the airport and booked on to the early morning flight via Sydney which cut off quite a lot of my flight time. They also gave me $50 for food and drink and a $5 phone call! Awesome! Admittedly, it felt weird to be eating in a posh place on my own with families and business associates around but the backpacker in me certainly wasn't complaining! It's been ages since I spent the night somewhere like that and even better that it was free! Things like that never happen to me! I didn't sleep all that well 'cos I kept waking up thinking I'd missed the flight but it was good to be in a real bed in a room without snorers and stinky people!
Before moving on I'll update you on my last week or so in New Zealand. I have to say I really didn't like Dunedin. I think hate is probably too strong a word but the fact it almost made me book a flight home can't be a good thing! I'm sure as a student I would've loved it but as a 'grown up' I wasn't so keen so I booked the bus outta there. To be fair there were also a number of things outside of Dunedin that probably contributed to me feeling that way but I still maintain it's not a great city! I did manage to walk out to the steepest street in the world (in the freezing rain!) but I'm sure Gemma and I hiked it up steeper ones in San Francisco (not to be that annoying yank who's seen bigger and better!)! I was also unimpressed when I discovered that the bus I was on stopped there the following day anyway meaning I'd got cold and wet for nothing! Oh well, out of Dunners and onto Tekapo it was!
There were some amazing views along the way including some blue rivers and lakes - the colour of them has something to do with the glaciers grinding against the rocks on their way down and creating a powder which sits near the top of the water (yes that's the scientific description!). We were also driving all through some gorgeous mountains and quite literally in the middle of nowhere! The weather was perfect so I decided to take a traverse flight which was just plain amazing. The (silly) pilot let me sit in the front seat and I got to wear the headphones so I could hear all the ground communication and everything! Made for some great photos but of course it took everything in me not to play with all the buttons and try to take control of the plane I managed to pick life over death and kept my hands to myself but man it was tempting! The plane took off over Lake Tekapo and headed up around the glaciers and Mts Cook and Tasman. The untouched snow on the mountains was beautiful and seeing the glacier I'd hiked up from the top was so cool (no pun intended!). Some of the people on our flight were being dropped at another airport so we got a longer flight and to take off and land twice! An amazing experience and definitely another one I'd recommend!
That evening I was booked on to the star gazing tour. On top of Mt John is a big space research centre (or something like that!) as it's supposed to be one of the best places in New Zealand (maybe the world if I'd been listening) to look at and study the stars. I swear we saw more stars when we were in Franz Josef but I'm no astrologer (and have no desire to be one after that!) so what do I know?! Me and my new companion for the night thought that it would be a peaceful evening in a nice glass house looking up at the stars and being told about them. Oh how wrong we were! It was freezing cold and extremely windy and we had to stand outside while they fed us a bunch of star facts that my frozen brain had no intention of remembering. I did get to see Saturn (rings and all!) through a ridiculously huge telescope and some cool constellations and clusters including one of 3 colours - red, white and blue (name escapes me!). The full moon also provided beautiful views of the snow capped mountains around us. This is definitely not one I'd recommend though - not worth the slightly extortionate cost!
I had planned to stay 2 nights in Lake Tekapo but I'd done everything I'd wanted to do and I just wanted to get back to Christchurch. It was also a friend's birthday on the Monday that I wanted to be there for so I just continued on in the morning! I was almost as excited going into Christchurch as I was going home for dad's 60th birthday and I just couldn't wait to see everyone! I mainly spent the week catching up with people - it was good to see my NZ family and Skyla was so big compared to when I left! On Thursday Glenn and Ian arrived in town ready to fly out. We went out on Thursday night along with a big group of my traveler friends in the houses around the corner from me and later on I kept seeing people from the Dux turning up - was a good night with good company. I ended up passing out on my friend's floor and waking up to regret all that drinking! Friday night was dinner with the boys and then on to the Dux to say bye to a few people and a fairly early night. Saturday my good friend Kieran and his girlfriend Kim took me out for a very posh dinner (thanks again guys!) and we managed to get very drunk without ever intending to do so, I was expecting a quiet night out but it was a lot of fun! Thanks again to everyone who made my last week so much fun and to Jeanine, Euge, Lu and Rey for letting me sleep at their houses and saving me lots of money!
Sunday was spent saying some final goodbyes and stressing that I wouldn't get to see certain people before I left, I wouldn't fit everything in my bag, I wouldn't like Oz and I shouldn't be leaving somewhere I loved so much! Who knows? I might be back there in a few months. It could just be because it's the first time I've had a 'normal' life in 2 years and I might like Oz just as much. We'll just have to wait and see!
I'm now staying with Alli (a friend from Becket) in Melbourne and it's so good to see her, Luke and not so little Anouk again. It's been almost a year since I last saw her and she's walking, talking and absolutely adorable (Anouk, not Alli although she's capable of those things too of course!). As always, it's great to see some familiar faces and to be in a real house for a change. Mum and dad fly in tomorrow and I can't wait to see them and then we'll be buying a car and heading up the east coast as high as we can go in the time they're here! I'll probably stay up the top and do 3 months seasonal work before heading back down to Melbourne to earn some real money and travel around but as we all know, my plans change daily so I'll keep you posted!
I have to say I have had a mini culture shock arriving to Oz though which I wasn't quite expecting! They have real motorways which have more than one lane as opposed to New Zealand's one lane State Highways! I kept panicking that fast moving cars were going to smash into the bus... and I have to drive on these roads! It's also nowhere near as green where they don't have much rain and it's a lot colder than I was expecting - so much for me moving to the heat! There are also people and buildings everywhere - I really feel like I've been living in suburbia for the past year rather than the 3rd biggest city in New Zealand! Oh well, I'm sure I'll get used to it - the food's cheaper which means I can eat properly again and maybe shed a few of those alcohol pounds New Zealand kindly gave me! I will miss definitely miss the simplistic, easy going, slightly behind the times way of life in New Zealand and my friends with their funny accents for me to mock. It's a beautiful place with a fascinating culture, amazing people and so many things to do. A lot of the people I've met will be friends for life and thank you all for making my time there even better than I'd imagined. Please keep in touch and keep me updated on your lives and for those in New Zealand I didn't get to say goodbye to - I'll see you in about a year!
