A week in Tasmania

Hello mates!
Well to say that I survived my week in Tasmania would be an understatement. I freaking loved it there! I wanted to extend my ticket, and i had arranged to work for and hour cleaning at the hostel each day in exchange for free accomodation...but alas...it was too expensive to change my flight. At this stage in the game, that's just how the cookie crumbles (or as they call em here, "biscuits"). So I'm back in north Sydney, recovering from an epic 5 day campervan adventure around the Apple Isle. I drove 1434 kilometers across the most beautiful countryside and winding roads. Seriously, there are no ugly parts of Tasmania, besides maybe the random insect-infested outhouses at the free campsites along the journey. I have this irrational fear of being bitten in the ass my a scary insect lurking in a public outhouse, so it made bathroom experiences unendingly traumatic and highly entertaining for my travel partner, Megan, who actually has a degree in biology with a concentration in entymology, which is the study of insects! seriously!

So heres a little day by day recap of my random road trip...enjoy!
Day 1: Arrive at the rental car company and nervously sign a damage deposit waiver which holds me legally responsible for up to $2500 in damages to the campervan. As if I wasn't already nervous enough to be the sole driver! We set off for the open road, stopping first at the grocery store and McDonalds where i enjoyed some delicious fries to calm my nerves. Drive the winding road to some touristy scenic lookout places. Stop for an hour tidepooling adventure (yay for meeting a fellow nerd travel buddy with similar interests!). Ended up at the historic site of Port Arthur. This place used to be a penal colony where the worst of the worst repeat offenders were shipped to. Now all that remains is a bunch o' ruins of the church, asylum, museum, overpriced gift shop, etc... I had the satisfaction of recognizing a group of elderly women from Texas and making the comment, "Are ya'all from texas? Yeah? cool. I'm from the only state bigger than yours!." I love dropping that line on unsuspecting texans whenever possible, so evil. Camped out in a proper caravan park where i watched my first sunset in almost 2 months. I've been on the east side of a continent for so long, it was nice to see the familiar scenery.

Day 2: Visited the Salamanca market back in Hobart where I purchased the largest and most delicious iced coffee concoction ever. We toured the "sea sheppard Steve Irwin" vessel, which was in port after a successful campaign/war against the Japanese whaling fleet. This boat is captained by the founder of Greenpeace, and it goes on these crazy excursions to fight illegal species killing and whatnot. They even have a documentary show on animal planet. While on the free tour of the boat, I had been munching away happily on fish and chips from the harbour. That is, until our tour guide took us to the galley and explained the evils of eating any sort of animal products. (all meals on the hippie-ship are vegan!). I felt pretty guilty at this point...but that didn't stop me from eating that fish right up! Wasn't Simon Peter a fisherman?? Eat THAT, greenpeace! ok ended up driving down to Australia's southernmost point, where we endured a painstakingly long gravel road.

Day 3: Woke up to pouring rain, which was just fine until i attempted to back out of our dirt campsite, which had morphed into a mud campsite overnight. With Megan's navigation and my Alaskan snow-driving skills, I managed to get the van turned around and out of dodge. whew. a shaky start to what became a 7 hour drive! Visited the mole creek caves, where I sweet talked the cute park ranger guy to admit us at the senior citizen rate. Amazing how far a smile goes sometimes...so yeah, saw these amazing caves full of stalactites and mites and even glow worms! The temperature in the caves was 9 degrees celsius (49 F), which felt sooooo cold. i'll be in for a rude awakening when I return to AK in 11 days... The other highlight from day 3 was the gourmet meal that I cooked over our champion coleman gas stove that night. Best cheesy scrambled eggs, homefried potatoes, and aussie sausages (they really know how to make sausages!) ever. Then I took a glorious "shower" which involved dumping numerous buckets of freezing, yellowish creek water over my head.

Day 4: An epic hike to the summit of Mt.Roland resulting in chocolate bars and handstands on top of the misty peak. Then an even more exciting drive through winding mountain roads littered with various roadkill and frequented by huge logging trucks. did I mention that our gas light went on (some things will never change with me...) in the middle of one of these places?? The next half hour was spent in complete silence as I prayed that God would somehow increase our fuel economy as I barreled up hills in 3rd gear and/or that he would strategically place a gas station at the top of the hill. Somehow we made it to a little town with a gas pump just in the nick of time. Ended up that day with a romp around huge, red lichen-covered rocks at the aptly named "bay of fires."

Day 5: more driving... our van only had a cd player and we only had 1 cd...so we were about on the twentieth listening of our 1 cd. I actually still have song number 12 burned into my brain and can't get it out. Hiked up to the wineglass bay lookout just in the nick of time, as it is an uber popular guided tour destination. Busses full of eager tourists were starting to pull in just as we were coming back from the top. score. Ended the day with massive cleaning of the van, getting to the airport, and flying back the the urban sprawl of Sydney. I managed to get on the right train and bus back to north sydney after a few sighs, tears, and asking nice strangers (thank you random pakistani store clerk at the wynyard 7-11!) for directions. Arrived back at Fred, Sarah, and Penny's completely wiped out and stinky. Fred threatened to hose me off before I could enter the house, actually... tis but a small price to pay for an exciting and adventurous week!

Thats all folks, I'm off to the beach for some relaxation. Can't believe I have less than 2 weeks left!

Tasmania

Hello all! I am writing this from a public library (yay free internet!!) in the beautiful and magical town of Hobart, Tasmania. I am currently staying at quite possibly the coolest hostel that i've been in so far. Its called Central City Backpackers and I highly recommend it. Hobart reminds me a lot of home. Its smaller and less crowded than the urban sprawl that is Sydney. The town is right on the coast (pretty much everything is; Tasmania is a rather small island) with a vibrant shipping/boating/fish n' chips/wharf atmosphere. The temperature is much cooler too (about 55 degrees F). It's the first place where I can walk around and not feel sweaty. In short, Tasmania is a perfect annecdote to the little bout of homesickness that I was feeling last week in Sydney. Original plan was to fly down here with my buddy Rheanne and do a 6 day hiking trip. That plan fell through after a colorful 5 hour sydney King's Cross Hospital emergency room visit/wait after which she was confirmed to have Mono. So the poor thing is on a plane back home early to Canadia to rest while Mono takes its course. Meanwhile, I endured an arduous morning of public transportation through Syd and managed somehow by the grace of God to not miss my plane out of Sydney to Hobart. Travel advice for everyone: don't sleep through your first alarm on the day of plane travel, allow yourself and the slow public busses plenty of time to travel during peak rush hour, and PACK THE NIGHT BEFORE! But I digress...

So I arrive in hobart just a little sleep deprived and nervous cuz once again I don't know anyone and my plans have been completely dashed to the rocks. Once again the good Lord places a random person in my path that completely solves my issues. As I explained my sob story to the hostel front desk (and consequently got sympathetically rewarded with a free room upgrade and linnen), a random girl asked me about the hike. We started chatting and, long story short, made plans to rent a campervan and drive around Tasmania this week! Turns out she is from Canada also, just graduated with a Biology degree, and had absolutely no plans for her 2 weeks here in tas. Also turns out that she hates talking on the phone and making reservations and driving and is shy (pretty much the opposite of me), yet somehow she started talking to me. Thats the plan. We have spent the day collecting heaps of travel brochures and figure that we can do all the same stuff that the guided tours do....just at a fraction of the cost. Brilliant!

I only have 3 mintues left of my free 'net, so here are my highlights from last week:

1. swimming at the sydney olympic pool aquatic center place
2. Laying on the beach
3. Going to the Hunter Valley wineries and getting completely smashed on free wine tastings all day
4. homecooked meals courtesy of Fred and Sarah
5. Making it up to 40 minutes on a run! yay!
6. Going to the movies by myself (i actually kinda like it and nobody steals your popcorn!)
7. Taking a ferry on a gorgeous sunny day and playing photographer for the multitude of tourists that wanted a picture with them and the harbor bridge in the background. (i'm pretty much a local now...)
okay love you all, until next time!!
-Holldawg

Lessons and annecdotes

I've been so busy that its been tough (and expensive, i'm on a backpackers budget here!) to keep everybody updated for the last couple of weeks. So I decided that I would randomly insert some things from my hardcopy journal for your amusement. All of the following are true experiences.

Neat things
1. Lemon juice and sugar on pancakes is absolutely amazing! They don't have maple syrup here. Nor do they have regular drip coffee. On the other hand, instant coffee is crap. (yes I am aware at the new developments around Starbucks)

2. If you are going to drunkenly go skinny dipping slash stargazing with random young norweigian boys on Australia's Fraser Island (known for its purest and wildest dingo population), please don't leave your bikini bottoms unsupervised on the beach. They will get torn in shreds by a dingo, leaving you as the brunt of all jokes amongst the 8 other strangers that you are camping with for the following 2 days.

3. Hostels operate using the "either/or" principle. They will either be Clean or Quiet. Never both.

4. Don't run recklessly down massive sand dunes into pristine, crystal clear lake waters and expect to gracefully dive in at the bottom. Instead, expect that you will awkwardly trip and plunk head first into shallow water, rendering your neck and right shoulder useless for 2 days afterwards.

5. The beach upon a Whitsunday Island (i forget which one) may be the most beautiful thing you have ever seen, but its actually the world's largest sting ray breeding grounds. bugger.

6. Multiple free beers + ultimate dancing until wee hours of the night with your travelling girlfriends + early morning bus departure = wreckage!

7. Aussie rules football is the way of the future, the way of the future! Less stopping, more running, less padding, more exposed flesh, less popcorn, more meat pies. What's not to love?

In closing, a little piece from my journal after a particularly strenuous 3 hour hike up a mountain called "the pyramid" with a marathon-runner Aussie boy who was heaps more fit than I... "I feel capable of just about anything. God has instilled in me a strong body, strong mind, and a strong will. He will never neave my side nor abandon his faith in me. He knows every hair on my head, every secret in my heart, and every dream in my mind. At the end of the day, my friends, that's a beautiful thing. I miss you all very much!
Cheers!

Still alive!

Hi all, just wanted to drop a quick little blog and say that I am doing great, starting to peel from getting sunburned, and having heaps of fun so I don't really have time to write a bunch (as it should be :) But lemme run down some highlights of my trip up the coast so far. Right now i'm in a quaint little town called Rainbow Beach, which consists of 2 hostels, 2 tour companies, a sweeeeet beach, some overpriced shops (although i managed to buy a bikini with the australian flag design on sale) and, most importantly, an ice cream shop. I'm catching a greyhound to Hervey Bay, and from there I'm going on an 8 man adventure safari to this crazy island called Fraser Island. Its a 3 day, 2 night self-guided 4x4 camping trip. The best part?? Its absolutely free to me, because I won it in a raffle at a bar a week ago!

My favorite place so far? Byron Bay. Reminds me a bit of Homer. It's touristy, yet laid-back with plenty of international backpackers and random surfers. I went surfing once and caught a few waves (daddy mcfish would've been proud!). Started traveling on the ozexperience bus a week ago and I quickly met a group of quality people: 1 canadian named Rheanne who is going with me to do an 80K hike in Tasmania in 3 weeks, a german girl named Julia, and a few crazy blokes from England that i'm pretty sure never stop drinking. So I haven't been too lonely, although I really miss everyone from home (besides maybe extra caramel sauce buying/bathing lady from Starbucks, I never particularly cared for her...) At our hostel desk, the girls and I inquired about Zorbing (the human hampster ball rolling down a hill thingy). The front desk worker found some super shady company that could take us in---10 minutes only---. So this rickety van pulls up with an even ricketyer looking aussie fellow. We're told to buckle up-it would be a rocky ride to our Zorb. We get to the place which is just a small hill covered in cow pies! In fact, cows are at the bottom of the zorb track, just grazin away. There aren't any other staff around, nor any buildings, but ther is a rickety "launch pad" composed of an old mattress and cheap covering material. No wonder this was the cheapest zorb company!... So being the adventurous one, (and the one that got us into this mess) I awkwardly manuever myself into the zorb. Its HOT in there! strap myself in...1..2..3..push! I go rolling backward down the hill and quickly realize that I am not alone in the zorb! I have a large arachnid directly opposite me!! I'm pretty sure it looks exactly like the most poisonous spider in the world (which i saw ealier that week at the taronga zoo) This is where the screaming begins. in a ball that i'm strapped into rolling quickly down a hill! I prayed that this spider wouldn't take a tumble as the zorb randomly quished over cowpies. Long story short, I ended up surviving and the spider hung on for dear life too.

I only have a few more minutes so I'll end with synopsis of the town of "Surfers Paradise," which I stayed in for only one day. First of all, it is neither a paradise nor did I see many surfers. It's like the vegas of Australia. stay away from it unless gawking at picture-taking Japanese tourists and meatheads with tribal arm bands of conflicting ideologies is your cup of tea...

cheers!
I'm off to catch the bus!

Missed the bus

Darn stupid technology. I love it and I hate it. I thought I had set my cellphone alarm last night to "5:40am" so I would be on time for my early morning ozexperience bus departure today. I suddently awoke this morning and quickly realized that something was terribly wrong. Checked my phone and i'll be darned if it wasn't 6:44am. The bus up to Byron Bay, that I had prebooked last week....had left 15 minutes ago. There goes my plan for the day. Turns out my cellphone alarm was set to the wrong day or something, idk I can barely work technology.

The silver lining in this situation became almost immediately apparent. One of the reasons why I'm traveling in a foreign country alone is to work on some aspects of my personality. One of those aspects is always needing a plan and being unable to cope to my meticulously groomed plans fall through. Well guess what Holly, your plans fell through, sweetheart. whatcha gonna do now, huh huh? I'll tell you what I did. I thanked God for helping me out with my personal mission, rolled over...and fell back asleep until now. Even though I got up at 9:30am I was still the first one up and out of bed in my 8-bed hostel dorm room! These people can sleep! Then again, these people also travel with multiple suitcases, cologne, hair straighteners, and computers...and their favorite tourist activity consists of getting sloshed at the local pubs. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I just don't feel comfortable drinking expensive and shitty beer (haven't found ANY IPA's pale ales, stouts, or porters! A case of MGD in the grocery store is almost fifty bucks!) in a foreign place with carnal strangers. My preferred mode of opperation is to buy a ten dollar box of shiraz, kick back with Fred and his roomies, cook dinner and then pass out, only to realize the next morning that the little box held 2 liters of wine which was consumed entirely by Fred and I. I'm slowly getting used to the metric system but thats the equivalent of about a bottle of wine apiece. oops. go Alaskans. runs in the McCune genes I guess :)

So anyways... i'm up now and had to check out of the hostel. I've got a huge pack that I would like to dump somewhere while I explore the city. I've now got people to stay with in Manley(north sydney)for the night and i'm heading to Darling Harbour to see what that's all about.

Oh I almost forgot to mention a great thing! Last night i took a courtesy shuttle bus from Sydney central to Hillsong Church. As I was deboarding, I noticed a young woman with a tattoo on her ankle, which upon further inspection turned out to be the big dipper constellation. Now my curiousity was piqued. Why on earth would anyone from any place other than Alaska have a big dipper tattoo. So I did what I usually do when I'm curious--I tapped her shoulder and asked, "Hey, are you from Alaska?"
I'll be darned if she wasn't from Palmer and only 2 years older than me! She had been travelling around New Zealand and Australia for a year on and off and her little sister goes to Changepoint. I actually felt tears well up as I conversed with this stranger, who had more in common with me than anyone I had met so far. She actually had a jesus fish tattoo on her other ankle, kinda similar to mine. And there God placed her, right at the entrance to my first night at church, a little reminder that the world is simply not as big as it seems on nights when you are tired and sick and checking into lively and intimidating hostels. As my journey progresses, he keeps putting people right where I need them. The message that night could even be applied to my trip. The pastor spoke on Jesus' encounter with the samaritan woman at the well (John 4) and how Jesus could have just walked right by but he was never too busy for people. He phrased it like this: In Jesus' walk upon this earth, "It was the stops and distractions along the way that caused lives to changed forever." May I never underestimate the value to my random stops and distractions and...well...missed busses too.

hollyout!

Support Crew

Oh what a day! At 6:30am Fred knocked on my door, sharply awakening my slumbering bliss. "um...so we have a bit of a situation...Is there any way that you could do a bit of driving for my multisport thingy today?" I'm pretty sure I was still sleeping when I said something along the lines of, "huh? uh okay...*wipe the crust from my eyes*..sure. whatever you need." So I jump out of bed, shovel in some toast, and hop in the passenger side of Fred's car.

So Fred apparantely is part of this gang of hard core dudes who find it fun to plan multisport adventure treks on the weekend. These things consist of kayaking, mountain biking, running, kayaking again, maybe another bike again, etc...they are not official races or anything, just "fun". These races necesitate a "support crew" that drives to each transition point with the appropriate gear and snacks for the next leg. Well, today I needed to be part of this crew which consisted of me and the 2 wives (Claire, a Scottish woman who ended up saying "blimey" a lot during the day, and Sally, an Australian lady who had just about had enough of the support crew business) of the other dudes. The deal was, I needed to drive Fred's car and I would just follow the other 2 ladies around from point to point. There were 3 kayaks and not all of them plus gear would fit on their car, so I got to drive with 2 HUGE kayaks on the roof. cool. oh wait, definitely not cool! Fred's car, like every other car in Australia, has its steering wheel on the right. Did I also mention that they drive on the left side of the road here? Did I also mention that his car has a manual transmission?? Oh yeah, and I should forget to tell you that most of the driving involved dodging a bloody CYCLING RACE in the middle of a winding national park road??! Well I actually got through that part just fine. I put on the Alaskan woman tough exterior and made it up until a lovely lunch in a charming little cafe with the other ladies.

We then set out on what we all thought was the correct direction towards the next transition point. I began to get a little nervous when the area quickly became urbanized...then we were on a freeway....then i started seeing signs "Sydney Olympic Stadium 3k", "Sydney Olympic Stadium 1k"...And then there was a bunch of traffic and I was stuck in the middle lane, desperately trying to stay right behind the ladies as cars randomly darted in front of me with reckless abandon. fuck. At least the horn worked on the vehicle, because the air conditioning most certaintly did not. The temperature kept on getting warmer (because we were headed west, towards the outback, as I later learned), but i'm honestly not sure if I was sweating on account of the weather or stress. probably both. anyways, it became apparent that we were going the wrong way, so we all pulled a u-turn. Pulling a U turn is not easy with large kayaks on your car. Then I heard a rumble and grumble from beneath my feet. The engine started sputtering. the car stalled. The ladies kept on driving in front of me, turning right into the distance, while I calmly reassured myself that it was just the clutch, I just needed to take a breath and start the car again. So I did just that, but something didn't feel right. I decided to turn left down the quiet street instead of trying to turn right onto the freeway. I managed to get the car a few meters to the side of the quiet road when it completely died. Thank God I didn't turn right.

So here I was, no cell phone, no way to get ahold of ANYONE, in the middle of flippin ghetto western Sydney and the weather was approaching 90 degrees. I did the only thing I knew to do. I prayed. Prayed for a cute Aussie automechanic to randomly cruise by on his day off, prayed for the girls to return to my exact spot, prayed for a cold beer, anything but THIS. Prayers were answered when the girls came back, rushing to my aid. Surprisingly I wasn't even crying (think i was too dehydrated for tears to form). Claire, the car-savvy Scottswoman, took a look at my engine temperature gauge. All the way past "H", We popped the hood and cautiously unscrewed the cap for engine coolant. yup. Tank was so dry it was brown and crusty. I had been driving for god knows how long with little to no engine coolant. It was by the grace of God the thing didn't blow up on the Freeway!

So...to end the saga, we ended up leaving the car and the boys eventually came back and diagnosed the problem. Large hole in the radiator, which apparently started off as a small hole weeks ago, according to Fred. It's amazing how people can pull together in a stressful situation like the girls and I did. If it weren't for the "support crew drama" I wouldn't have found out the Claire was a Christian and goes to Hillsong---so now I have a church date for their Thursday morning women's service.

God is good....but sometimes in the most random ways! Ocean water has never felt as refreshing as it did that evening during my swim. And the Holly lives on!

Awakening '09

What have I done for the last couple of days?
well...... the dude that I am staying with for this week (Frederick) goes to a particular church called C3 in Oxford Falls (a suburb of Sydney). Just so happens that his church was having a rather crazy big conference called "awakening '09". Basically a gathering of young people 18-30 and some phenomenal pastors/speakers/worship band stuff/God stuff. God laid a lot on my heart this weekend. It was so intense I can't even begin to convey the awesomeness of it all in a blog. But lets just say....there are no accidents. I stumbled upon a 3 day festival at the very begining of my trip and it really helped me sort out my own mind, as far as my goals and priorities and whatnot for the next 2 months are.
And guess what guys and gals?
I'm flippin pumped. so so so excited for whatever may lay ahead, because absolutely nothing that God leads me to during the next couple of months will be too difficult. yeah...sweet as.

Other exciting things that i've done include getting my butt kicked by waves while bodysurfing. I learned that it is a good idea to buy tighter fitting bikini bottoms. I have also been drinking my way through this town (espresso, that is). Australia has not lost the art of espresso, which is wonderfully refreshing for me to experience. I have gone running once so far, but only for twenty minutes which was enough cuz its sooooooo hot. Getting used to the heat slowly but surely. I don't think my skin has ever been this clear due to the fact that walking outside is like a steam bath. My big plans for the next couple days consist of getting as much sun as possible, hanging out, and taking some busses into the city center to begin my exploration there. But for now, I'm off to slumberland. Cheers!

p.s. aussie term for the day: "heaps", as in "I'm heaps tired" which means, "i'm really really tired."