Australian Adventures

My dear Matt leaves this morning, after missing cab 1 and feeling quite ill, poor thing. Now I am alone in Brisbane in a quiet, not entirely organized backpackers. After some deliberation, I changed my flight to Auckland to a few days earlier. I am now clicking my heels and leaving the magical land of Oz for the familiar comfort of kaNZas.

We've covered a lot of ground since Sydney. Australia is BIG, and after the small island I've been living on for the previous months, this size has been hard to get used to. We flew from Sydney to Mackay, a nothing little town with quiet humid nights. We walked for 45 minutes trying to find a restuarant, ate average food and went to sleep. Things looked up the next day, when we traveled north to Airlie Beach. The rumors I heard about this town were true, it is touristy to the extreme, but sunny and friendly with a multitude of cafes and used book stores. We stayed for a night before going out on 3 days sailing outing on the good ship "Spank Me". (I know I know). For the next several days we experienced piercing sun, lashing rain, and a pleasant exfoliating wind/salt burn around the beautiful Whitsunday Islands. In the evenings people hung out on deck listening to music and quietly talking. I usually was in a corner absorbed in a book. Always the geek.

The highlight of the voyage was diving. We went on two amazing dips underwater to the magnificent colorful coral and fish filled reefs. We fed a large fish named Elvis and got to pet his fishy sides. We touched a giant clam and slimy sea creatures. We were breathing under water! It was absolutely incredible! We snorkeled too, saw a few beautiful beaches, a aboriginal cave and a few sea turtles. It was worth every penny. (And it cost a fair few)

From Airlie we took a 10 hour bus trip to Cairns, stayed in a disgusting packpackers called Nomad's Serpant Lodge (don't go there!) then rented a car a drove up to Cape Tribulation, through the Daintree rainforest. For two days we read books and napped in the tropical surrounds. We watched rain poor from the nylon tented roof and felt completely relaxed. We stayed in lush green jungle, a few feet away from an empty sandy beach and saw such exciting jungle creatures as a huge black python hanging out in a tree, enormous Golden Orb spiders the size of my right foot and terrifying above all, the hideous jungle chicken.

Australia has been exciting, varying so much from south to north. I miss NZ though. Different pace and fewer people. I am happy about my ticket change and extra time in NZ before departing friday for the happy land of Fiji.

Hard to believe I will be home in less than two weeks though, this portion of my trip over with! It seems like I left home a mere few weeks ago.

Oztralia!

I have been in this beautiful land for how how long now? A week and a half I believe... there is so much to see and do. A completely different sensory experience to the peaceful unpeopled En Zed. I am happy to be in cities again and happy to see different people and cafes and restaruants and food and buildings and sounds. My first few days in Melbourne I felt like the little mouse in the big city, but I have settled back in to the hectic dirty life of city living.

Melbourne was wonderful with loads of creative stimulation and indie pretty people and vegetarian eating. Sydney has been amazing though, and is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. My first night included sipping champagne at the Opera Bar as the sun set overlooking Sydney harbor. Afterwards we went to a beautiful amazing ballet collaboration of the Australian Ballet Company and the Bangarra Dance Company in the Opera House. Is this my life?

We've had perfect warm weather and wonderful company here. Tara has been a tour guide extraordinaire. I've met loads of people, traveled to the Blue Mountains and saw my first kangaroo (and then took about 287 photos of it), been to markets all over the city, wandered through galleries and along Bondi Beach and tried new foods.

And at the last minute Jo, a beautiful woman who happens to share my day of birth decided that Sydney was where she needed to be for her 30th celebration. Lucky for me, I then had her, Adam and Rich to share my weekend in this trendy sexy town. My darling Matt arrived groggily on Friday night, and so far we have been keeping him in smiles. Our birthday was perfect,laughing so hard that my face hurt in a park overlooking the bridge and Opera house for 5 hours on a warm balmy night.

Happy happy happy.

Matt and I fly out on Wednesday, and I am looking forward to what is next, though sad to leave Sydney too.