Melbourne Australia

So, here's what I've been up to in a nutshell:

After classes ended on Halloween, I headed off to Tasmania for a week with a group through the University of Melbourne. We got to see Tasmania Devils, go to a honey farm, and do a lot of hiking. I've posted pictures on the snapfish site. It was quite an interesting experience because Tasmania is separate from the mainland of Australia, but is considered a state. That's the closest I'll ever be to Antarctica! The hiking got a little intense at some points, but everyone survived.

I had to study a lot during the trip because the week after I returned I had three exams in 3 days (2 in one day!) I didn't leave my apartment complex for a few days... So, that week was rough. I finished with those on the 13th, and that Saturday I rented a car and drove the Great Ocean Road with three other friends. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be driving on the other side of the road and in the passenger's seat. It was a pretty packed weekend, but we managed to see all the sites we set out to see. We returned to the city on Sunday.

Monday 4 of my friends and I left for Byron Bay for a few days to just relax, do some sea kayaking, and swim in the ocean. Well, when we got there the forecast said it was to rain the entire time. We were able to kayak, but it was rather wet. We spent a lot of time meandering around the town and shopping. We took a bus tour to a close town for the day on Wednesday and did a mini rain forest walk there. The last day we were there we managed to get out on the beach for an hour until the rain came back.

I have one final to go (on the 27th) and I'm done with my semester. So, I'll just be studying off and on this week, hanging out with friends before they leave, and starting to pack.

Sorry this was a boring update, but I caught a cold and just want to crawl back into bed...

I know, I know. I've been neglecting this blog since I returned from NZ. So, here it goes. Returning to the big city was more difficult than I anticipated. After being in small towns for two weeks I got used to that lifestyle. I loved waking up each morning knowing I would see the ocean at some point during the day. I don't get that here. Melbourne is all hustle and bustle, nothing compared to NZ. AND I'm a good distance from the water.

The first two weeks after getting back nothing really happened. I went to class, worked on assignments, and spent time with friends. This past weekend, however, I did manage to get away from the city. My friend Elizabeth and I hopped on a bus and went to Phillip Island, southwest of Melbourne. We stayed in a hostel for two nights near the beach. Our first day there we rented bikes and found our way over to the Nature Conservatory, where there were plenty of Australian-native species to be seen. We received a complementary bag of feed, which we used to make friends with the Kangaroos and Wallabies. I was so thrilled to finally be able to touch them! All my friends already had done so in Sydney. Elizabeth got attacked by an emu because she was holding her bag of feed out where they could get at it. A pack of 5 emus saw the bag and just went for it. It was quite scary, but funny. I was smart and kept my feed in my shoulder bag. We also got to see cassowaries (relatives of emus and ostriches), venomous snakes, wombats, tasmanian devils, and a few other bird species. Once we were done there, we got back on our bikes and peddled to find some lunch. We ended up having to call a taxi to get to the chocolate factory because there was no form of public transport on the island. Biking there would have taken an hour....so we weren't up for that. We were picked up later that night from a shuttle service to go to the Penguin Parade, where you get to see the little penguins, smallest species in the world, come from the water onto the beach where they live. It was quite a sight watching these little guys come up in fleets from the ocean and find their way back to their burrows. There were about 500 of them over the course of an hour. We couldn't take pictures because we were viewing the animals in their natural habitat, and they get frightened from the flash. The next morning the weather was pretty crappy, so we just walked around town before we caught our bus home.

It was a good weekend, and it felt refreshing to get away for a few days.

Last night a group of my friends went out to dinner and a movie. We went to this restaurant where they serve sample platters of Australian dishes. I had the crocodile, kangaroo, wallaby, and calamari. I think the croc and roo were my favorite. Croc tastes a little like chicken, and the roo like sausage. Afterward we saw "Burn After Reading", which was alright.

This weekend I think I might get a few people to go to St. Kilda, where there's a beach, and hang out for the day. One more week of class after this week! I just had my last 3-hour lab practical for my genetics class today, so I was pretty excited.

Check out the snapfish account for pictures from Phillip Island.

Cheers!

I think I left off sitting in a café in Queenstown having nothing to do. Saturday was a pretty uneventful day, besides deciding to stay an extra night and have another go at skydiving. We watched movies with other people in the hostel and then went to bed.

Sunday we woke up early to call the skydiving place to see if the weather was good enough to go. It was a gorgeous day and the trip was on! The three of us walked down to NZONE Skydiving and signed our life away. We were the first three to jump that day and were whisked off into the country. I thought we would have to sit around and receive lots of instruction on how to jump, etc. However, that was not the case. As soon as we arrived we were suited up and met with the instructors who were going to jump with us. They briefed us on how to keep our body in the “banana” position throughout the jump, and that was about it. We loaded into the plane with our instructors and photographers (we opted for photographs) and took off. It was about a 10-minute plane ride up to 12,000-feet during which we began to hyperventilate. Megan was the first to get shoved off, I was the second, and Elizabeth was the last. I chose not to look down before Markus, my jumper, threw us out. I didn’t even get a countdown and was taken by surprise when I started to feel my body rock forward and leave the plane. I’ll admit, I screamed. I didn’t think I would, but it sort of just came out. The first thing that shocked me was how high up I was, and then how cold it was. After a few seconds it didn’t even feel as though I was falling; it felt more like I was floating. In reality, I was dropping at 200 feet per second. I attempted to make faces at the camera guy next to me in the air, but I gave up after a while because I wanted to focus more on the scenery. We were above The Remarkarbles, a mountain range part of the Southern Alps. After 45 seconds of free fall, Markus pulled the parachute and I was yanked upwards. We were in the air for another 4 minutes where I got to take in everything and process that I had just jumped out of a plane. My instructor pulled the chords in such a way that caused us to spin around in circles, occasionally, while we were on our way back down to Earth. That was a pretty intense part. We had a smooth landing and I began to jump around out of excitement while still attached to Markus. I was the last one to land out of the group; poor Elizabeth had less time in the air than I did! We freaked out together for a while on the lawn before heading inside to warm up. I didn’t do a very good job of covering my ankles with the suit, so they were exposed during the trip. They were bright red and numb when I got back inside. We collected our belongings and were driven back to Queenstown to get our photographs. Mine turned out okay, but I was hoping for better shots. A couple of them are amazing, capturing the snow-capped mountains in the background. I’ll try and put some up on the snapfish site.

I’m so glad took a chance and stayed another day! Skydiving wasn’t as scary as bungee jumping, but it was more exciting. Our instructors had warned us that things like bungee and skydiving can be addicting. I see what they mean now. I think I’m done giving my parents heart attacks for this trip, but I’m working on what I can do once I get back to Australia.

“To venture is to risk death; not to venture is like having died already”. –Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Monday we woke up early for an 8-hour bus ride, including several long breaks, from Queenstown to Franz Josef. Along the way we stopped at a fish farm, where Elizabeth and I had salmon chowder, which was delicious. We drove through mostly temperate rainforest-like areas, and it was raining the entire day. Good day to travel, eh? We got into Franz Josef a little before 5, got some food at the grocery store, and headed to the hostel. We ended up running into someone from the village that had gone on the rocking climbing trip earlier in September with Megan and I. We chatted with him for a bit, watched TV, and just hung out for the rest of the night. I ended up finishing A Thousand Splendid Suns, which I had bought in Christchurch. A really good book; I recommend reading it.

Tuesday we headed into town for our glacier hike! The Franz Josef glacier is the fastest moving glacier in the world, I believe. It’s also a “warm” glacier, which means it is situated above water and rocks. We were given these horrid hiking boots, crampons, a huge jacket, gloves, and a hat for the trip. I can’t tell you how many times I tripped during the hike because I wasn’t used to wearing such big boots. It was a 10-minute drive out to the car park of the glacier and a 2.2-km hike to the ice. Once there we put on the crampons (spikes) and climbed up the man-made stairwell that had been cut into the ice for us. We explored the glacier for a little under two hours, taking lots of pictures and trying not to topple over. It was awesome to climb such a rare structure. Surprisingly, we didn’t need warm clothes. I wore yoga pants and a sweatshirt for most of the trip. Some people were even comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt. By the time we got off the ice, I was dreading the hike over rocky terrain back to the car park. When we got back into town, we grabbed a take-away lunch and caught our shuttle to Greymouth, which is further north along the west coast. After a 2-hour ride we arrived at our hostel, which was further out of town than I had expected. After finding a close grocery store, we settled in for a movie, Team American, and played games for the rest of the night. We were going to wake up to kayak down the river right next to the hostel with the free kayaks the hostel had, but that night it started raining and didn’t stop the next morning.

Wednesday I forced myself out of bed to run. I found my way into the city, and then it started to rain again. I had to take shelter at one point because it was coming down so hard. After a while the cold set in from standing still and I had no choice but to run back in the rain. I was pretty soaked when I got back, but it was good to actually see the city we were staying in. In a few hours we catch a shuttle to Christchurch, where we will stay there for the final days of our trip.

Cheers.

Check out snapfish!

Tuesday
Elizabeth ended up getting to the hostel after midnight and we all settled in for a good night’s sleep. The following morning I called a bike rental place and got us three mountain bikes for the day. We rode down to Cathedral Square, got some breakfast, and headed for the Christchurch Cathedral. We toured inside for a bit, took some pictures, and then went back outside. Then we biked over to the botanical gardens and walked around there for about an hour taking in all the different smells of New Zealand flora. Afterwards, we grabbed some lunch and went back to the hostel. The bike rental place had given us a map of some paths around the city, so we were very ambitious and chose the 12.5 km path (one direction, 25 km round trip). We only made it about 9km in because our butts were beginning to ache and we had little sunlight left for the trip home. We managed to stop at a beach and take some pictures before hopping back on and pedaling home. The return was treacherous due to the strong winds blowing against us. We barely made it back before the sun set over the horizon. That night we ended up walking down the street for a cheap meal: fish and chips for $3.20NZ; a very good deal indeed. We spent the rest of our time at the hostel reading and chatting with other guests.

Wednesday morning we woke up early to catch our bus to Lake Tekapo, about a 3 hours drive southwest of Christchurch. This town was literally a bend in the highway, with nothing down the road on either side of it. However, the scenery it provided was amazing. The color of the lake is a beautiful turquoise, due to the rocks deposited there years ago by a glacier. They are constantly grinding against each other producing this color in the lake. After lunch we checked into the hostel and took off down the road to a hot springs and spa place. There we basked in the sun on the mountainside in heated pools for the afternoon. We decided to treat ourselves to some New Zealand beer before we left. Once back at the hostel we made chicken dogs and vegetables for dinner, and settled in for the night.

Thursday morning we caught our bus to Queenstown, which is further south of Lake Tekapo. This city feels like something out of Colorado. Everyone walks around in ski/snowboard gear, because there are a few mountains in the area. It’s not that cold out, but I guess I’m used to 55-degree weather as being a comfortable temperature. We explored the city for the afternoon, grabbed a pizza for dinner, and headed back to the hostel. We ended up watching a movie with a group of people and heading to bed.

Friday morning Elizabeth and I woke up early to bungee jump! It was a 45-minute drive out to the site with 20 other people. Once we got there and saw the 134-meter drop over a small river the fear set in, for me at least. They harnessed us up and shipped us out to the pod that hung over the river. The weather was perfect that day. Almost immediately they began to organize us by weight to know what order people would be jumping in. Then one of the staff members hoisted each person up on a ledge to put ankle straps on from which we would dangle. Sitting up in that pod was both exhilarating and frightening at the same time. Once they called my name, I was guided over to a dentist-like chair where another staff member attached the bungee to me and explained what to do before and after I jumped. I was to pull a red chord on the second bounce to release my feet and allow me to be pulled up by the body harness I was attached to. She guided me to the edge and counted down from 5. I made the mistake of looking down before I jumped, and around number 3 I was physically unable to breathe. Number 1 came around and I leapt off the platform into the air. I had 8.5 seconds of free falling, during which I don’t think I took in a single breath. I didn’t scream, but rather groaned when I realized what I was doing. I soon felt the pull of the bungee and floated back up towards the pod. I managed to find the red chord on the second bounce and released my legs. It was a pretty awesome feeling hanging there alone, waiting to be pulled back up. Though the jump was relatively short, the significance of it to me will last a lifetime. Sometimes you just have to let go and understand that there are some things in life that you have no control over. This was the hardest thing, the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life, and it was the ultimate freeing experience. I feel as though I can conquer anything now.

After picking up our pictures and heading back to Queenstown, we met up with Megan to walk around the city more. Later that evening we went to a bar called “Minus 5” where inside it is literally minus 5 degrees Celsius. Actually, when we went in it was -8.5. We were given winter jackets, mittens, and boots to wear inside as well as two drink vouchers. Everything in the room was made of ice, including our cups. We were only allowed in there for half an hour, but by the end we were ready to get out. We headed out to a few more bars only to find that we were out too early; places didn’t get busy until later in the night. Since we were already adjusted to going to bed early, we sadly retreated back to the hostel and slept.

Saturday morning we awoke to buckets of rain pouring down on Queenstown. Within an hour, the rain had turned to snow! Well, this ruined our plans of skydiving because they don’t go out in that weather. We kept pushing back our booking, checking in every two hours to see if they would go or not. By 2:30pm, after hours of doing nothing, they cancelled all trips for the day. We couldn’t understand this because the sun was out by this time. However, clouds hung over the mountains for the rest of the day, so maybe that’s what did it. Last minute we decided we would cancel our trip on Sunday morning to Haast, a small town between Franz Joseph Glacier and Queenstown, in order to give skydiving another go. This just makes for a longer drive, 7 hours to be exact, that would needed to be done on Monday. So, I am sitting here in a café called Patagonia Chocolates, the only place in the city where you can find free internet, working on this blog. Because we were banking on skydiving taking up a good portion of the day, we are left with nothing to do. We are going to try and take a trip up the gondola to mountain that overlooks the city. Other than that, today is a chill day.

Cheers.

After arriving in Kaikoura, I popped into a small eatery called the Why Not Café to grab some dinner. By this time, around 7pm, it was completely dark outside and I had to find my way to the Albatross Backpacker hostel. It was a good 15-minute walk from the center of town, but I didn’t have much trouble locating it. My room was nice, but small. I didn’t have to share it with anyone, thankfully. I hung out in the living area for the rest of the night, chatting with two girls who worked/lived there.
I awoke early the next morning (Sunday) to see if I could squeeze myself into a Dolphin Encounter tour, which takes you out into the ocean to swim with the Dusky Dolphins. By chance, some people didn’t show up and I was able to get a spot on the boat. So, I got into a wetsuit and headed out on the water with about 15 other people. It took a while to actually find a group of dolphins because they are completely wild and aren’t trained to swim with humans. A plane had to be sent out to cover more ground, and we finally found some after boating for close to an hour. Everyone quickly put on their hoods, footies, flippers, goggles, and gloves, and we slid into the ice-cold water for our swim.
Let me just point out that I was not prepared for the temperature of the water that caused me to hyperventilate for about a minute after I got in. It was a bitter 8 degree Celsius. After I finally calmed down I was able to dip my face into the water and witness these amazing creatures. We had literally landed on about 50 or so dolphins that were swimming nearly 1 meter from my face. They swam in circles around us, coming up every-so-often to do a flip or jump. 10 minutes into the swim, about 5 people had to get out because they couldn’t handle the cold. I noticed my toes had started to go numb, so I thought it was a good time to swim to the boat and ask someone to take a picture of me while I could last. When I pulled my mask off and tried to say, “Would you mind taking a picture of me? My bag is inside.” But that’s not what came out of my mouth. My lips were completely numb and felt like had swelled to three times their normal size. I had to rub them for a minute before trying to ask again. I managed to last a full 30 minutes in the water, but my feet and hands we completely white when I got out. I spent the whole trip back trying to get color back into them. On the return trip I decided to stay at the front of the boat inside to keep warm, which is the roughest part of the ride. Everyone else was outside at the back, and several were throwing up. The winds had picked up and the waters were quite choppy. I didn’t mind it, though. All those roller coasters prepared me for this trip. I just sat inside and enjoyed the view. One of the leaders came in a talked to me for a while about the dolphins and how rare it was for them to stick with the group for so long. We were very fortunate.
There are some good pictures of me decked out in my gear on my photo account, as well as pictures of the dolphins. I was so lucky to have the chance to swim with these animals and to swim in the ocean again!
The rest of the day was spent walking around the peninsula. Monday (today) I got up and did some more hiking around Kaikoura before boarding my bus back to Christchurch, which I am currently on. There I’ll meet my friend Megan at a hostel and roam around the city for the rest of the day. Elizabeth’s flight from where she was before coming to NZ was cancelled, so she’ll be getting into the city sometime after midnight tonight.

Cheers.