Goodbye Australia!

Cheers from rainy Adelaide!

I'm finally back from the Outback. The last two weeks were definitely the most remote of the trip, and as we chose a much more budget tour, they were also the more basic. There is nothing like appreciating a warm shower after having spent two nights sleeping in 3 degree temperature in a swag, which is an Australian roll-up mattress with a PVC cover in which you put your sleeping bag.

So, within a matter of five days the temperatures dipped from 30 + degrees in Darwin to about 15-20 degrees in Alice, going down to 3 degrees at night. Alice Springs was small and quaint and definitely very dry. It's a small town of 27 000 souls, a good percentage of which are Aborigines. The sad part is that the only visible aborigines were the drunk kind hanging out in the town square, the ones that had been kicked out of their community. So most backpackers and tourists, not knowing better, think that they represent the brunt of Aborigines; very much like the Inuit in downtown Montreal. It makes Alice Springs one of the least safe places to walk at night, which we didn't attempt. But it also misrepresents Aboriginals as most live healthily in their community and are definitely hard workers...

Aside from that, our stay in Alice was unremarkable. The highlights were 1) shopping for a Crocodile Dundee hat for my travelmate K (I gave up on the idea, it looked slightly ridiculous on my skull anyways) and 2) watching Star Wars, which was a lot of fun. I also befriended two girls from la belle ville de Québec and we had fun listening to my only Québécois music, Daniel Bélanger...

From Alice we started another tour with swags and early mornings. The first day was hiking Kings Canyon, which was absolutely stunning, a little bit like Grand Canyon (from what I remember of it) but lots more colour. The nights in the swags were cold: had to wear pj's, long sleeved shirt, sweater, and my borrowed fleece and hat and gloves. But it wasn't exactly unpleasant, just different. Then the next day was the Olgas/Kata Tjuta, which were stunning as well. And then sunset on Ayers Rock/Uluru, which goes through every shade of orange and pink with the sunset before finally settling. The next day we were supposed to hike it up but then it got too windy! We were very disappointed as the previous day, the climb was open but hey, if it's dangerous, it's dangerous. So we did the hike around it instead, with some frustration which lead to a much faster hike than planned. The event of the day was the fact that one of the Québécoises accompanied me to climb up part of Uluru on the other side while the other took a picture. The only thing is that 1) we hadn't seen the 'do not climb, it's a sacred site' sign which was after and 2) it was right in front of one of the rangers! So we got yelled at by a Uluru ranger (but still got the picture on Uluru!) who softened out when we pretended with stoopid grins that we didn't speak English. Definitely a funny moment. That was wonderful, otherwise we could have had a 3000$ fine to pay. Oh well, gotta live dangerously. It all turned out well.

Downwards to South Australia after that. We spent one night in Coober Pedy, capital of Australian opals. Apparently the next Star Wars is supposed to get filmed there, and Mad Max also used it as a backdrop. One of the strangest towns I've ever seen. Because the temperatures go to extremes in that part of the desert, people build their houses underground and call them 'dug-outs'. 'In a hole there lived a hobbit' - the first sentence of Tolkien's book just would not get out of my head. They're far from the surface and are usually old opal mining sites; 10 m under the ground the temperature remains a cool 24 Celsius all year long, so there is no need for heating or air conditioning. The decoration is very Spanish hacienda-like, with a constant darkness to the house as there is no daylight. To add an extension to a house in Coober Pedy one only needs a shovel and mining tools. Because residential areas aren't supposed to be used for mining opals anymore, if one suspects that there is opals below one's kitchen, one only needs a permit to extend the house to mine more. So as the local guide said, there are people in town who have permits for underground swimming pools and squash courts and numerous more bedrooms; everyone knows they're onto opals instead :). Very strange indeed. As well, in Coober Pedy a litre of water was 8 cents, so I took a short shower indeed. At one point it was cheaper to brush one's teeth with beer than with water. How Australian is that!!!

We then headed on to Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Range, a chain of mountains shaped like a giant crater. There was a beautiful hike up Mount Olsen Bagge at 941 m that we did with joy after endless hours spent on the bus crossing the desert. I think I'm picking up this hiking thing, and my new friends said that I wasn't so bad at it, so maybe more is on the way when I get back. It wasn't an easy hike, a little like Kings Canyon but steeper and longer; but it was such a reward to reach the top after 2 hours. Took tons of pictures. Our final stop before Adelaide was in Parachilna, population 5, oops, one's deceased in the last 2 days, it's now 4. A tiny little town where people really get excited when the train passes. And a lot of backpackers on working holidays, mostly cuz the work involved can't be too hard when the population is 5 and only our tour company stops there :).

I'm now off to Fiji tomorrow for a week of liveaboard diving; the thought of the sea is a little strange after having seen so much desert and dust. But Australia has struck me with its excessive colours: the blues of the Great Barrier Reef, the greens of the rainforest, and the orange-red of the Outback. It's so striking that it looks fake.

Yo from Alice Springs!

I'm still here in the Outback, recovering from the first part of the my tour in the Top End of Australia which included camping in Kakadu and Litchfield and in Katherine gorge as well.

Phew, Alice Springs is small. Australia's big, but the world small. Yesterday, in the Internet Outpost, the only internet cafe here, I sent an e-mail to a girl I befriended back in NZ on our Contiki tour right after I wrote to you. It turned out that she was here (which was not in her original plans) and that she was sitting right behind me at the same Internet Café. Soooo funny! Five weeks later, in a different country, AND the only girl from the NZ tour that I'm really keeping in touch with! Anyways, we caught up, exchanged stories on travelling up the East Coast and Fiji (she went backpacking there, not such a good idea, got bedbugs and all). She booked an tour for Uluru and was travelling up to Darwin afterwards to check out Kakadu. Can't get over the fact that we met again in Australia, in the middle of nowhere, five weeks after having said Adios! Anyways, some things are meant to happen. She warned me that nights in Uluru are really cold this time of year (down to 3-4-5 degrees Celsius) and because I left my fleece in Sydney with a friend to bring back to Canada, she lent me hers as she won't need it in the Top End. Then I'll send it home to her - she'll be back home in Toronto. Cool, eh?

Anyways, the day after next, we're off to Uluru (camping in swags again) and then the Olgas and Kings Canyon. Will pass lots of film there! Nothing exciting in Alice. Just planning to see Star Wars tomorrow, that's all :)

Greetings from Cairns!

Greetings from the Internet Outpost in Cairns, where finally the weather is warm and I feel like I'm in the tropics. It's nice out here, albeit incredibly touristy. The Contiki tour ends here, we're resting for 2 days before heading into the Daintree Rainforest.

Aside from that, the East Coast of Australia has been very cool. In Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast, which is incredibly commercial, I decided to do the rainforest trek instead of lounging on the beach. It was wonderful, we drove through the Tamborine Mountains and Lemington National Park looking at very weird vegetation like strangler figs and gimpi gimpi, very painful venomous plants. I'm glad our guides knew what they were doing as all these plants are incredibly dangerous here in Australia! So are the spiders, there are a few that are lethal. Isn't that lovely? But thank God we didn't get to really meet any of them :)

Then our tour got lucky in Fraser Island as we got upgraded to the hotel facilities at Kingfisher Bay, the only large resort there: it was very comfortable. I'm told the original eco-lodges where we were supposed to be were a lot less nice :) There, we did a 4wd day tour, going on 75 mile beach (cool beach which is also a highway and an airstrip :) and where it's not recommended to swim because of 1) undercurrents and 2) tiger sharks gathering near the beach at the start of whale season. Lovely. There were weird sand formations called the Pinnacles, and a shipwreck, the Maheno, the size of the Titanic lying on the beach. Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island, indeed there is rainforest and lakes and animals but the whole thing is just a gigantic sand dune popping out of the sea! It is said that there is more sand on Fraser Island (because it is 700 m deep below sea level) than in the whole of the Sahara. Pretty cool. It was a great place to see, if any of you have seen the Animal Planet episode with Steve (the crazy Australian guy) on Fraser Island, I saw most of what was shown. Dingoes, stingrays, microbats and fruit bats, large weird trees and lizards. Very cool.

Another dangerous beast that they have in this country is the saltwater crocodile. We actually got to have supper at a crocodile farm, where animals recuperated from zoos (because they ate their keepers!) and from areas too close to civilization are kept. They are true beasts: 15 feet, 800-1000 kg. Ça c'est de la bête! We ate some crocodile kebab - something between fish and chicken, really not bad at all! -, saw a baby crocodile and held a young 2 year old - with its mouth taped shut :). Pretty awesome.

And then in the last three days I just finished the three day sailing in the Whitsundays yesterday, we were 9 + 2 crew on a 40 feet sailing yacht, it was very well organized. The only thing, though, is that I got somewhat seasick during the crossing of the Whitsunday Passage in spite of wearing my patch. Didn't throw up but I really wanted to die at one point...it's a horrible feeling. In spite of that, the 3 day sailing (which was actually 2 1/2 days since we departed on the evening, spent 2 nights and 2 days at sea, and came back to the marina for the last night) was totally awesome. On the first day we got to go to Whitsunday Island and spent 1 1/2 hour on Whitehaven Beach, which was absolutely stunning. It's by far the best beach I've ever seen. An infinite spread of white, fine sand and transparent, turquoise waters. Too bad we had to wear stinger suits to go into the water as there has been stinger bites just 2 weeks ago, even though the stinger season is supposedly over in March. On the second day, we went to a few different snorkelling spots, and it was constantly getting better. An interesting one was by Langford Reef which is a sandbar that only appears at low tide; the quality of the coral really impressed me. Then on the last snorkelling spot, there was a big Humpheaded Maori Wrasse swimming around as we were feeding the smaller fish. Soo cool: got some pictures with my waterproof camera :). The weather was nicer on the second day than the first, but overall I was pretty happy. The bunch on the boat was diverse, we got to know each other quite well as we were in quite small quarters :). A majority (including the crew) were heavy drinkers; just another girl and I didn't touch alcohol because we were too afraid to get sick. The bunch went through 90 beer cans, a bottle of vodka, and a bottle of bourbon - drinking games and all. It was really fun. I'm really glad I got to go on this sailing trip; the 1 day sailing trip never got to Whitehaven because the seas were too rough. On top of that, it's resolved one thing: sailing is definitely not for me, I get too seasick! I'm a little terrified of the upcoming dive trip next week, because we'll be on even rougher seas as we're going to the Outer Great Barrier Reef. I don't know what I'll do... maybe I'll just zonck myself out with heaps of Gravol and sleep through the crossing...

Hello from Sydney!

Cheers from Sydney! It's a lot of fun up here, and the weather's been great to us. 25-28 degrees, no more room for the fleece!

If ever you do end up in Sydney, I really recommend the Sydney Central YHA as it is REALLY well located, extremely safe, renovated, comfortable and all. Even if you take a dorm room, you'll be in quad share with a locker in the room itself. It's very popular. Internet access is only 3$/hour, so I'm spending way too much time down here!

I met up with J one of my best friends from home, who's here staying with his girlfriend until tomorrow. On the night of my arrival, my travel buddy absolutely wanted to do laundry so I ended up out with J and his friends sharing a bottle of wine on the quay at the Opera House. Very magical scenery, especially at night, and it was nice to see people from home. In the days that followed, I went out with my friends and dined out on Asian cuisine (I was going into withdrawal :), tons of stuff like Sushi, good Phad Thai and spicy Malay. As well, you would love the seafood here; there seems to be way much more than fish and chips (which I can't look at anymore), unlike NZ. Just down from the hostel there's a little cafe and I had an excellent seafood laksa soup, it's like curry based stuff with calamari, mussels, crab, fish and scallops, yum yum. A whole meal, and fresh seafood at that:)

We went to Manly Beach 2 days ago and had a blast. It was Anzac day though, so it was really crowded. But the weather was very nice and we got to walk on fine, warm sand and suntan for real, with adequate temperatures (unlike Bay of Islands which was a tad chilly ;) ). Our friend from the NZ trip stayed with the tour hotel and is in a 3 share where one of the beds is actually a pull-out sofa! Sounds familiar eh :) we find that we're better off at this hostel, for less money.

Yesterday K my travel buddy had bought this package to go into the Blue Mountains. We thought that it was a hike - as usual, she looked too fast when she bought it originally and didn't pay attention - but it wasn't at all, it was just driving around for some photos and stuff. It was still a very good day though: we were driven up there, went to a few scenic spots, including the Three Sisters, and had a nice lunch of steak and sausage; finished the day attempting to throw returning boomerangs (these things are dangerous!) and went to a park at the base of the Blue Mountains where Eastern Grey Kangaroos roam around freely. Weird animals, but cute, and definitely very tame. After we got smashed in town in a few pubs that they knew well, so that was cool too. Didn't get home till 1:30 last night, so I had a late morning today :). If ever you are in Sydney, keep a day for the Blue Mountains ie. book a package with the agency at the YHA, just make sure that you get the one with the hike (it's cheaper, has the hike, but doesn't include lunch). The Blue Mountains are really worth seeing.

So that's the news. I'm doing well, although I'm still a little homesick at times and I've thought of booking a ticket home to see my sweetheart. But anyways, I'll be a tough girl and continue this trip as I planned. I'm curious to see what kind of people will be on this tour. I pray that there aren't too many American girls like the last bunch we had.

12 000 feet is 4 000 meters!

Guess what I did?

12 000 feet falling at 200 km/h for whole 60 seconds

How crazy is that?

Let me start by the beginning...

Greetings from Queenstown, the capital of adventure sports of the world. Sitting in the valley of the Remarkable mountains (6000 ft) and by Lake Wakatipu, it is completely magnificent. Everything is available down here, from bungee jumping to paragliding, hang-gliding, sky diving, jetboating, whitewater rafting, and everything else...

So this morning, I was supposed to go hang-gliding (deltaplane). It got cancelled because the sky was too overcast, and rescheduled to 12 noon if it was to clear out. However I had a hiking/jetboating/4wd expedition by Dart River to do at 12 so that was it for hang-gliding. Meeting my Contiki guide at the Dart River expedition pick-up place, there was a misunderstanding and we missed the bus. By the time a taxi got there to try to catch up with the bus, it was too late. Royally pissed, my day was ruined. I was so mad (at the guide) that she felt awful, and she suggested to rebook hang-gliding as the weather had cleared out completely and it had become an otherwise perfect day. We passed by another shop instead and found out that there was 1 last spot left for SKYDIVING right now and then, with the rest of the Contiki group who went.

So in fraction of a second, the decision was made...

60 seconds of freefall (beats bungee anytime...)

complete exhilaration!

Gliding in the valley surrounded by the Southern Alps and the Remarkables.

Need I say more?

Life is great. Cheers all. I'm still alive.

Dying skydiving anyways is pretty painless :)

Have a great day!

Greetings from New Zealand!

Greetings from Auckland where I've started my 3 month trip in the South Pacific. It isn't as warm here as we'd thought, and it's quite rainy, but the sun shows up everyday. Thank God for fleece and the goretex jacket!

We went to the Bay of Islands in the last two days, and although the little dip in the South Pacific was slightly frigid (18 C) , it was pleasant. More amusing (and amazingly close) were the pods of dolphins playing with the catamaran as we sailed through the bay. There was even a mommy and a baby dolphin, soooo cuuuute! You know, me and dolphins... My travel buddy is also a fellow diver, and unlike me, cold water didn't stop her from diving a wreck off the Bay of Islands called the Rainbow Swimmer; it was a boat intended for Greenpeace in the time of the nuclear experiments by France in Polynesia; however, the day of its launch 14 years ago in the Auckland Harbour, it got sabotaged and actually, 1 Greenpeace activist got killed. So as a symbol, the kiwis dunked it in the Bay of Islands and it's a diving destination. I decided to stay on a sailboat throughout the bay and watch the dolphins; she was more courageous and went for the dive, which apparently was worth it, although the 5 mm suit was not enough.

Today we went sea-kayaking, which was awesome too. NZ landscapes are up to the reputation so far, and I can't wait to see the South Island. Unfortunately the 4 hours of kayaking killed the (little I have of) muscles in my arms. Can't move my shoulders anymore, ouch ouch ouch!

After tomorrow we are heading more South, which means colder weather. I intend to try some hang-gliding in Queenstown, city of extreme sports and bungee jumping. We don't know yet if the ski season has started, but if it has, you'll see me on the slopes (with 100% hired equipment as I couldn bring both ski and diving gear on this trip!!!). And of course I hope to see some of the places where the Lord of the Rings was filmed; hopefully there will be some time on the tour for that.

Hope all is well with you, and you should get a postcard from me from Kiwi Country at some point. We're here for 2 weeks and then we hit Oz for 5 weeks, then Fiji for 2 weeks.