The Beginning of a New Adventure

Day 1 (25^th)- Christchurch

At the crack of dawn Dave and I flew into Christchurch. We scarffed down our early morning breakfast of an orange and two granola bars because we couldn’t bring them across the boarder. As stealth as we were, we mischievously snuck a snickers bar through customs. We passed out on the seats in front of baggage claim until about 10:30. By this time we wondered around looking for the city bus. We were the only two on the bus and had door to door service to the YMCA. We dropped our bags and explored the city. It was really interesting to see the aftermath from the earthquake which occurred almost two years ago. Half the building we falling apart and most of the roads turned into dead ends. The whole city center was closed and the restaurant scene was very limited.

 The only bit of sanctuary was the botanical garden which was just across the street from our hostel. We took a nap here and explored the huge and beautiful garden. There was a rose section and a scary looking green house. We hit the sack early excited for the adventures to come!

New Zealand: Home of the Sheep Shaggers

Australians love to pay people out. Kiwis are called “Sheep Shaggers” and there’s also the “Two Headed Tazzies”. There’s jokes like Kiwis invented Velcro gloves (to hold on to the sheep better) and that all Kiwis wear a size too big boots so they can put the sheep’s back legs in the boot cuff to make the whole process easier.

My favorite joke from a kiwi:

There are two famers, a Kiwi and an Australian. They’re checking on the sheep when they notice one sheep’s head is stuck in the fence. The Kiwi turns to the Aussi and says, “Well, you know what we have to do.” He goes over to the sheep, pulled down his pants, and does his business. He now says to that Aussi “It’s your turn!”. The Aussi walks over the sheep, examines the fence, and replies, “I don’t think my head will fit in the fence”.  

Ha! Jokes on the Aussi now!

It’s funny how big of a difference there is between Australia and New Zealand. New Zealanders are very friendly. I’m not saying Aussi’s aren’t friendly, but Kiwi’s are overly friendly. Australians don’t pay too much attention to their neighboring country. They call them sheep shaggers and that’s that. New Zealanders on the other hand are always comparing themselves to Aussis and explaining how their country and the people within it are better. There is quite a bit of New Zealand pride especially when it comes to the All Blacks (their rugby team). It is a lot greener in New Zealand. The south island is jagged snowcapped mountains with grassy plains. The north island looks a lot like Hawaii with more tropical plants and hills. It is a lot more humid in Auckland than in the south island, and is actually raining as I type.

Aside from the grotesque picture in my head of how the locals get laid, New Zealand is amazing!

A sight to never forget!

Logan, Kevin, Me, Cole, Travis

We woke up casually and hit the road in search of the London Bridge, the 12 Apostles, and Locke Heart Gorge. All of them were absolutely gorgeous. I knew the 12 Apostles were picturesque, but I couldn’t have imagined how picturesque they were. Anddd a ten minute helicopter ride over them was only $150 so we turned around, hopped right back in our car, and hit the next sight.

12 Apostles

The London Bridge

Loch Ard Gorge

Towards the end of the Great Ocean Road we stopped at the must see extinct volcano called Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve. We saw kangaroos, wallabies, and emus! One might have confused the parking lot with an emu petting zoo. With all of these giant birds around, what was I going to do but… CHASE THEM! : ) I don’t know why they are not extent yet. Their sporadic run is very impractical. They arch backwards, but stick their heads out; it’s very weird. Mother Nature’s ways… we’ll never understand them.

Kev and a kangaroo

That night we camped in Port Fairy and rolled up after all the camp sites were closed. The big question was should we sneak into a campsite and leave early in the morning or camping in the “no overnight parking” beach lot. After talking to someone who was paying $50 a night to camp we decided to risk it with the beach. We all romantically watched the sun set on the beach and then started our nightly routine of drinking. We started with games and ended with singing on the hood of the car. All in all, it was a great night!

The Great and the Ocean of all Roads

Logan, Travis, Kevin, Me, Cole

Entrance to the Great Ocean Road

We are quite the traveling squad of hooligans. None of us packed until the day of departure. We planned to leave by 9:30 which shortly turned into 11:00. A map was an unknown object to us and so we hit the road with just logic and intuition guiding us. With a few detours, we finally made it out of the city toward Geelong (the entrance of The Great Ocean Road). First of all, I must describe our car. Just before we left Melbourne Cole found some fabulous window flags that said “Proudly Australian”. Then, we had a surfboard strapped to the top. There were five of us in this small white car with bright orange tie downs running across our foreheads (luckily I am short enough that is was above my head and never a nuisance).

Car RAM ROD

First thing we did was stop for a bit to see a light house at Airley’s Inlet. Pretty cool I guess, but nothing spectacular. If you’ve seen one lighthouse, you’ve seem them all! Overall the Great Ocean Road looks very similar to Highway 1 in California. We drove through Lorne and continued on to Apollo Bay. It was about 5:00pm and we were curious as to what to do there. We made random turns until we ended up near the dock next to a fish and chips place. When in Rome! So we decided to grab dinner. We got heaps of chips and all packed in the parked car to eat because the restaurant was take away only. After that meal I think I consumed my yearly intake of sodium and fat. We hit the road again to make it to Johanna beach and set up camp before the sun set.

When we rolled in we had countless looks at our beautiful car. The looks didn’t stop there. When we set up the tents we found out that one of our tents was missing poles and a rain fly. Being a crew of engineers, we figured we could make it work. With the assistance of the car, some string, two bungee cords, and a borrowed pole from the other tent, we had ourselves somewhat of a place to sleep. Our neighbors got a kick out of set up and warned us that a storm was coming. Of course we check the weather before we left… not! Because of the rain, our neighbors where hitting the road so out of kindness or maybe pity, they gave us some food to at least survive the night.

It was now goone o’clock! Since alcohol is sooo expensive here, we had become accustom to drinking box wine aka “goone”. It’s about $12 for 4 liters. We grabbed the wine, towels, and hit the beach. The storm was rolling in over the horizon so of course we made a drinking game out of it. Every time we saw lighting we had to drink. The five of us reminisced and told ghost stories until it began to sprinkle. We rushed back to the tent realizing we didn’t even have a flashlight! Once again, we are very prepared campers! To solve this problem, we just made some friends with surfers and chilled with them until it was late enough to hit the sack. Returning to camp we noticed our makeshift tent was now flooded so it was concluded that all five of us would spend the night in our three person tent. Goodnight boys!!

Goodbye Melbourne!

There is always an ending to everything. Be happy for what you had and keep a smile on your face as you walk away. New adventures are always just around the next bend. I’m going to miss a lot of things in Melbourne. The really good coffee will never be matched. I’ll have to find a new eye candy to crush on in my next class, but geo guy don’t worry, you won’t be forgotten! Living in a city in general will be missed. It’s nice to explore and discover new bars every weekend. The public transportation system is great and almost free (it’s not supposed to be, but if you’re smart about it, it can be). It’s never boring when you’re meeting new people left and right. You’ll always find someone to talk with in the clubs, at school, on the trams, and even the neighboring tattoo shop. I’m going to miss being different for having my American accent. I’ll miss all the rangers (gingers) you see here! Wow, surprising there’s a lot! The castle will defiantly be missed. It is so wonderful waking up every morning to the infamous castlemates. We have all grown so close that there are no boundaries and embarrassing moments no longer occur.

 I’m going to miss Tristan, my first real aussi friend; Peter, my first roommate who is unintentionally hilarious and so random; Scott, the long-haired, pink short-wearing, aussi mate who made it a challenge every day to try to get him to come hang out; Andi, the best German roommate I could have ever asked for with sarcastic humor that will crack anyone up; Chelsea, one of the nicest girls I’ve ever met who is so animated and fun; Jakob, all the euro boys, and our Sunday afternoon footy match “rednecks vs. euro trash”; the Americans, all the other exchange students who love drinking games and partying on Tuesday night; Luke, the cute tattoo artist next door; Conor, the Irish guy I went on three dates with and still didn’t know his name; Crispin, Joshi, Dave, Mike, and Jono, the Kew Church crew who are so much fun and welcoming; Eva, my crazy Australian friend who LOVES to dance and pump music in her car; Gabe, the present day Captain Jack Sparrow who I met by seeing him at all the free food events on campus; Jia and Sarah, the great first year res girls; Jimmy, the RANGER who dishes so much shit but can always take it and get a laugh out of it; Ron, the overly nice castlemate who moved out early; Tristan from Nosa, the best dancer who makes all his decisions by flipping a coin; and of course Rhiannon, our host in Brisbane who is such a wonderful girl.

Cole, Kevin, and Logan, I can’t miss you because I can’t get rid of you that easily! See you all in SLO! Wow, these guys. A friendship has bloomed that will never wilt. We’ve become a big family… literally. Cole’s my brother and Kevin and Logan are my sons. They even call me mom and I introduce Cole as my brother to most people. It’ll be really nice to have people in slo that I can reminisce with and bounce inside jokes off.

Wow. It’s almost over. What I’ve been looking forward to for so long has already happened and now has passed. IT WAS AMAZING! I wouldn’t have changed anything about it. I met some wonderful people and had a lot of great times! It’s not goodbye, it is until next time. I defiantly see myself returning to Australia not before too long. Though, I still need to travel the rest of the world first. I think my next stop is going to be South America or South Asia.

Recap:

-Meeting the Real Australian crew and going to Kew on Sundays

-Ocean grove with Chelsea and surfing Torque/Lorne

-E.A.R.

-Sydney

-The Great Ocean Road

-Halloween

-The Paper Kites and the Rave

-Selling bracelets on the street

-Dumpster Diving

-Andi’s Birthday- night I met the Ranger

-Wednesday Trivia Night at Nevermind Bar

-Brighton Beach

-Sunday afternoon Footy matches

-AFL games and the Grand Final with Temper Trap Concert

-Parklife

-Harvest

-The Ice Bar

-Healesville Sanctuary

-Phillip Island

-1,000 stairs at midnight with Joshi

-Skiing at Mt. Buller

-Tristan from Noosa coming to visit

-The Color Parade/small gathering

-Hoiser Lane

-Fairview Park

-Henna Sleeve

-Ice Skating

-Rafting with Ireland

-JBT concert

-the ass grab game with Cole

-Mumford and Sons /Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros Concert

-Tuesday night parties/Cole’s birthday

-Bedtime stories with Aboriginal stories

The one thing I’ll always have is my memories and those will never go away… well let’s hope they won’t for a long long time!