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!