Bye, Down Undah! Love Ya! Hel-L0, U. S. OF A.!

 I’M BA-ack!  And so excited to be home!  The American accents and attitudes everywhere in the San Francisco airport are actually quite heartwarming, surprise surprise.  We’ve got the spittin’ image of “Fargo” (the movie)’s "Jerry Lundegaard" at the adjacent table (Minne-SO-tah accent, looks, AND level of conversation!), a San Fran microbrew porter, and a 4.5-hour layover to enter into the homeland s-l-o-w-l-y.

Let’s backtrack a few days.

From Sydney, Oz back to Kiwiland and to Millie the Magnificent’s waiting arms – er, axles? Boy, did her bed feel great!  Her interior is sooooooo comfy and cozy.  We had only 3 nights/2 days left together before meeting up with her new owners in Wellington. Even though I can honestly say I have been looking forward to going home to my very-much-loved-and-missed-husband and Mid-coast Maine life these last couple of weeks, I still felt nostalgic that the “Millie & Me” chapter was drawing to an end. Along our southbound route, we had the fortune of helping a Maori hitchhiker get home to visit his family, with some interesting conversations over which we whiled away the kilometers.

Millie and I had a short bit of time to explore the southwest area of Mt. Taranaki (although it was foggy and rainy, so the mountain was not visible), the gorgeous Forgotten World Highway and the Republic of Whangamomona (a teensy town with a population of 30 that has declared freedom from NZ and claims it is its own republic/country!) They even have their own passport stamp, and entering/leaving Republic of Whangamomona signs on the “republic’s” borders.  Their first two presidents, consecutively, were a real GOAT and a TOY POODLE.)  It being the day before Millie was transferred to her new home, she decided to take our last day’s itinerary into her own hands by losing connection between the battery to everything else that matters: thus, she played dead.  Of course, she tested me by doing this on the very, very remote Forgotten World Highway.  LUCKILY, I found this out while parked on a hill (where I stopped to take photos of the never-tiring gorgeous NZ landscape), so I rolled her and popped her clutch (YAY for driving old cars most of my life – they have taught me well!)  In Whangamomona (leaving Millie running while I dashed into the hotel/pub to get my passport stamped so as not to get arrested (wink)), I turned us back south again toward civilization so we could figger out what was going on under the hood.  As we ticked off the kilometers, Millie acted more and more funky and we proceeded more and more slowly; to the point we were driving in 1^st gear the last kilometer, limping into the town of Stratford and almost stalling on the roundabout in front of my oasis – a Shell petrol station.  And then !the little bugger! said “HA HA!” by COMPLETELY reconnecting and recharging when I simply reversed into a parking spot! What a little stinker! (Mind you, I had reversed her at least once before in her “new condition”, with no effect.)  The employees at the Stanford Shell station were super-helpful in putting me in touch with two mechanics, and whacking at Millie’s battery connections with a wrench.  Spilling out Millie’s symptoms over the phone, the mechanics affirmed my suspicions: just a loose connection.  What a little tease she is! (Affectionately meant - didn’t spend a dime to fix anything!)

Drove on south to Wellington the next day for Millie’s transfer. Backtrack: I had been intending to reunite with a few people before going home: one being Elizabeth, my new soul mate from the Takaka/Buddhist Meditation Music Festival Chapter of this journey.  We were sending each other some quickie emails detailing our current whereabouts (as well as loving hopeful vibes) and planning to connect somewhere between Wellington and Auckland.  However, it seemed circumstances weren’t going to work out as deadlines and different locations were at play. We were bummed. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do…who should appear standing by the roadside (1 hour from the home of Millie’s new owners) but none other than opposite-direction-bound LIZ, with her thumb up!?!?!? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!  (Both of our reactions when we realized this profound serendipitous connection #2.) I swung Millie back around, jumped out of the van, and we hugged and laughed like there was no tomorrow! So awesome and bizarre and profound, this meeting up! Three reasons right off:  1) to my knowledge Liz was still driving her own camper van, 2) she was only the 2^nd hitchhiker I’d seen since Auckland 2 days previously, and 3) I am an extremely unobservant person and the fact I recognized her – especially out of character in an unexpected place - is such an ANOMALY! (ask Jeff!).  To put it shortly, for me, this happenstance was MAGICAL. PERIOD.

And so are the Days of Our Lives…   Ha ha!  More to come!  (Gotta catch a plane to Chicago...Chicago, that toddlin' town!)

I HEART Sydney!

Sydney and the folks who live there are amazing!  What a wonderful surprise to me, Sydney being the largest city in the country with 3.5 million inhabitants and growing.  People walking down the streets and waiting at traffic lights are so personable, with a wide range of smiles and humour on most faces.  This is a far cry from most big cities I have visited; with Chicago, Liverpool, and Dublin being other surprising exceptions.  But Sydney beats all!

So I had a one-night layover in Sydney after I left Brisbane, on my way back to NZ to transfer Miss Millie the Magnificent Van to her new owners.  (Brief parenthetical:  even though the sellers’ market is fierce this time of year (winter), Millie was sold – albeit for $1400NZ less than I paid for her - through an internet car market in less than 24 hours because of my glowing report of our travels together and the marvelous pics of her with spectacular NZ in the background.  And more than 15 interested buyers continued to contact me after the sale was made.  Totally rad, as I was a tad bit worried I would not be able to sell her because there were so many vehicles on the market!)  I arrived in Sydney at 9pm on the evening of my birthday, so of course I was going out to see what Sydney had to offer!  It just so happens the 2011 Art of Lights Festival is in full swing:  there are artistic light designs on several buildings such as the Sydney Opera House, and in the waterfront park at night.  Lots of people were strolling around admiring them, as I did.  Pretty cool.

On my way back to the hostel, I passed the first social establishment with live music and just as lively dancers I had seen all night. Of course I couldn’t walk by without exploring this Irish Pub’s contents! Within 5 minutes, I had 10 new Sydney pals (in 3 separate groups!) who were eager to help make my birthday a great one.  J Lots of dancing to mostly American music, even some country – very typical of both AU and NZ.  Well, at 5:00am two of those very friendly and welcoming locals were still rarin’ to go, but for the first time in a long while I wasn’t the last one to call it a night. Must be getting old!  ;) Nah…for the record, it was because I had a flight to catch early the next day, and the thought of a few hours’ sleep was mighty inviting. 

I love ya, Sydney!  Way to make my nearly last impression of OZ a very special one!

Searching for the First Australians

It's been rough - this quest for Australian Aboriginal cultural encounters.  3.5 weeks later, and I've seen hardly hide nor hair of them. It's even hard to locate souvenir shops that sell hand-made indigenous crafts.  What a contrast to the thousands upon thousands of shops in the U.S. where one can so easily find a Native American dream-catcher, native-style drum, moccasins, or papoose doll!

I think I headed the wrong direction in this quest, for one thing:  I drove kilometers and kilometers and kilometers west into the Outback,  rather than north along the coast toward Torres Straight (a major "reservation" of sorts in the northeast corner of Queensland). The Outback I experienced was much like Old West, America - ranging cattle, O Pioneers! windmills, even tumbleweeds, and the obligatory outlaws frequenting the hotel pubs (Australian for "saloon").  (I even encountered a REALLY shady character in in an outpost town called Longreach - so dodgy, I cut my time in the Outback to an absolute minimum and immediately headed back toward the more familiar coast!) The Aboriginals were herded from of the Outback years and years ago, so the "whitefellas" could begin destroying the land with their mining practices, cattle, sheep, rabbits, camels! (domestic and feral), wild pigs, cane toads, cats and other imported pests and get-rich-quick schemes.  ("Fun" facts - Australia's feral camels, first brought in from Asia to settle and develop the Outback, now number more than 1 million, with pop. growing 10% each year - they are out-competing the domestic cattle! Backfire!)  This sitch-e-a-shun sound familiar, Americans?

4000 road kilometers (2400 miles) into Australia, and I have barely scratched the surface of this massive, largely uncharted continent; not to mention discovered much of its immense amounts of unique and ancient human cultures, flora and fauna. It is actually quite overwhelming to be here with so little time to explore it all. 

Let’s roll out some fun number facts, boys and girls (says Nerdy (and proud of it!) Ness):  

The Continental United States and Australia are about the same size in land mass (the lower 48 being 178,000 square miles larger – subtract California from the land mass equation). 

However, the population of Australia is only 23 million.  The state of New York alone has about as many citizens.  (California has 1.7 times more residents than the entire population of the entire country of Australia!)  And ALMOST ALL of these AU residents live in 5 major cities (with pop. greater than 1 million) - all but one (Perth) are on the East Coast, where almost all the rain falls. Like right now in Brisbane - it is absolutely raining AND HAILING [feral] cats and dingos at this very moment ... I get the picture now why these cities flood as they do!  See figure below:

(The pop. stats of this figure are off, but the pop. density is my point here. All the people are in a few isolated little pockets of a huge country.)

Compare trying to get a decent feel for this large, mostly impenetrable-via-a-tiny-rental-car country (with its fair share of dangerous creatures - e.g. outlaws) in only 3.5 weeks (and not much spare change in my pockets); to a long 3 months in NZ, a country almost exactly the same size - and population - of Colorado. Get my drift about feeling overwhelmed?

But hey, I met some kangaroos, kookaburras, a few awesome Ozzies, dingos, emus, my first monotreme (an echidna), camels, an Ozzie outlaw, didgeridoos, Aboriginal rock art, a Captain Cook impersonator and a replica of his Endeavour, the Great Barrier Reef, etc..... 

Perhaps a future trip to this land Down Under to specifically seek these anthropological experiences with the Aboriginals (who have been here for 60,000 years) shall go on my bucket list. Certainly my time here has inspired me to read much, much more about the First Australians.  In the meanwhile, I'll 35th birthday party it up with Brisbane bud Sunny & crew on my 2nd-to-last night in Oz!

This week's photos:  HERE THEY ARE!

Roo sightings from choppers, fishin’ with the Aussies, Outback-bound

The scene begins at an oceanside camping ground in 1770. In steps Adele and Jason, 2 Aussies cruising their own country. During the 2 days and nights our paths intersected, we shared stories, a fishing boat, divine mud crab, philosophies of life and living, and beers. Nuff said.

Well actually, not enough said. These two rock. They took me into their home-on-wheels as instant family in the evenings, and out fishing and crabbing on their boat (and equal dibs on what came out of the crab pots) by day. Adele and Jase are on a 2-year journey in a 4WD “Troopie” (Toyota Trooper) to find themselves in their preferred, nomadic and free lifestyle (to which I can relate): on the road, and with absolutely no itinerary!

This tiny village of 1770 (pop. 56 or so) has special significance. It is where Captain James Cook first landed in Queensland… the beginning of centuries of horrible luck for the aboriginals. Betcha can’t bet what year this occurred. This weekend’s festival marked the 241st anniversary (another hint) of that moment in history. And what a coincidence it was happening while I was there! (I’ve been reading books on NZ and AU history and culture while traveling, and one of them is about Captain Cook’s explorations, specifically his encounters with the indigenous peoples, in the South Seas.)

So, after the phenomenal snorkeling experience in the GBR, and wild kangaroo tours zooming around on a “chopper” (see photos), I had a couple of days to explore surrounds before the festival. Thought I’d go scuba diving, but as mentioned in the last post, too expensive. I found myself in completely-off-the-tourist-circuit Gladstone, one of the fastest growing cities in the country (the area is rich in minerals and natural gas). Slept one night in my car to save a few bucks. Next day, socialized with locals and – surprise surprise – two more Awesome Aussies, Allen and Kate, welcomed me into their fold and hosted me in their apartment for two days! I love informal CouchSurfing!

Around came festival day and back to 1770. I missed what I wanted to see most – the Aboriginal celebration dance to open the festival. (Rather ironic, isn’t it? Aborigines helping to celebrate the beginning of the end of their culture.) Next on stage, a re-enactment of Cook’s landing by a local group of actors. The acting was so horrible it was funny! They didn’t practice their lines much it seemed. That was about it for actual events at the festival, all occurring within the first 2 hours. So after consuming some yummy Spanish tapas, I hit the road once more.

I’m heading inland: away from the big, blue, bountiful sea and into the wild, remote, rugged Outback. First scary encounter with wildlife – a mouse in my tent last night! Eek! ☺

This week’s photos: click here!

The Great Barrier Reef - Marine Life Extravaganza!

WOW.  It is so much better up close and personal than watching National Geographic films (surprise surprise!).  During my two hours under water at Lady Musgrave Island lagoon, I swam with sea turtles (6 of them together!), butterflyfish, sea cucumbers, a sting ray, convict fish, unicornfish, brilliant blue starfish, all sorts of brilliantly colored corals (my fave colours were the neon greens and blues), triggerfish, wrasses, sea anemones and their buddies, the anemonefish & clownfish, tangs, angelfish, gorgeous & weird longfin bannerfish (I mean, what is that thing?) – and soooooooo many of them, up close and personal!

(A little aside: I learned about most of these organisms while volunteering at the Minnesota Zoo while studying Biology at UWRF.  Other than the prairie dogs & bison exhibit, the coral reef aquarium was my favorite.  I anchored myself there whenever possible, and was happily mesmerized in that underwater world while interpreting the organisms to the zoo goers.  It was my mission then to swim with their wild relatives someday…horay!  Mission Possible!)

It was unbelievable diversity, from a snorkeling point of view.  And I was virtually alone in this underwater paradise: all others stayed close to or on the boat.  Because the experience was so awesome I feel no urge to spend more $$$ for a costly scuba experience to mostly see the same creatures, and for less time under water!  (The Great Barrier Reef is quite a distance from the mainland, so prices for dive excursions are steep!)

HOLY [INSERT ANIMAL NAME HERE]!!!!!

WOW.  They’re humongous, and look like a Bigfoot/deer-mix!  Scared the livin’ bejeezus outta me! 

After a 6 sweet days of being pampered by and playing with my friend Sunny in Brisbane, I’m on the road again (just can’t wait to get on the road again!): jetting up the Queensland coast in a tiny, superfast little Hyundai rental car.   (Rather be driving Miss Millie Magnificent, but the Tasman Sea is a vast body of water and unfortunately she can neither fly nor float.)   This week’s Mission Possible:  SCUBA dive & snorkel the Great Barrier Reef!

So at dusk yesterday, I was driving along to my destination - Town of 1770 (teacher Ness says, read up this cool little village, pop. 58, and on Captain Cook!).  Only a minute after turning off the main highway, I saw my first wild kangaroo.  Just like when I saw my first moose in 1996, tromping out of the woods in broad daylight on the University of Alaska campus, regardless if I was by myself or not, I exclaimed, “A [INSERT ANIMAL’S NAME]!!!!” (In this case, of course, “A KANGAROO!” I tend to do this when an animal sighting surprises me.)  This roo was the size I’d imagined them to typically be – about 75 pounds or so.  Cute and harmless, like Winnie the Pooh’s  Kanga.  Awesome!  I’d really hoped to see a wild roo or two while in Oz.  Check!  I was all smiles until, less than kilometers down the road, I swerved to avoid running over a roadkill – sadly, a koala (cute even when deceased).  L  This road trip was quickly turning out to be an Aussie animal safari.  My level of awareness cranked up to that of super-alert, a bit nervous, music off, driving-at-dawn/dusk-in-deer-infested-Northern-Wisconsin mode.  RIGHTLY SO.  Another 10 km further down the deserted road, I narrowly missed hitting A CREATURE FROM A HORROR FILM and I SCREAMED, my hairs standing at attention!  IT had to be 175-200 pounds, and looked like a thin brown gorilla.  The Thing’s head was less than a meter away; with wild, shining eyes staring into the headlights with a ferocious look, as if it were going to attack the car – or jump in front of it.  As my heart rate slowed to normal and the goosebumps subsided, my thoughts ranged from the freaked out, “OMG!!! WHAT IS THAT THING!?!?!? ARE THERE MORE?!?!  AAAAAAH!!!” to the more relaxed, “Wow!  I can’t wait to find out what that was…couldn’t possibly be a kangaroo, but what else that huge (and scary looking) lives on this continent?”

This morning’s inquiry at the camping ground office revealed that THAT THING was the largest species of kangaroo – a Red..  Probably a full-grown male, judging by the size of him and the length of his boxing arms.  Whew!  Not Bigfoot.  Er, actually, he is Bigfoot – Ozzie-style!

P.S.  You know those startling jungle bird sound effects in the movies that go something like “Ooh-ooh- ooh- ooh- ooh- ooh- oah- oah- OAH-AAH-AAH-AAH”?  My hypothesis is those sound effects come from Oz birds.  The 1770 Camping Ground is squawking with them, which is a little eerie even on a bright, sunny day! 

Horse Heaven to the Land of Oz

So after projecting rather emotionally, “Bye, Wild Side Farm…I love you!” I hit the road once more: this time for a short 3-day spurt northwest to Auckland, where I was due to catch a plane to Oz (Aussie nickname for their homeland).

I thought I’d check out the North Island’s wine country, as a potential stopover for the future guided tour itinerary.  The “capital” of this wine country, Napier (pop. 55,000), was a ghost town, even on a Friday night.  Locals’ reasoning: rugby game on the tele. Nuff said. But, that didn’t stop me from mingling with the few existing socialites and making instant friends!  One little off-the-beaten-track place was featuring a Maori reggae band’s first gig.  (Apparently, this was a gang event and outsiders were not typically welcomed, as Kiwi Kerry explained to me as we entered; but not being “in-the-know” about their social norms and emanating happiness while dancing seemed to do the trick to be welcomed into their party!) The night included lots of reggae groovin’ and a really soulful conversation with one of the Maori (gang member?). 

Napier itself was not very attractive to me. From what I saw, it seemed quite touristy, filled with expensive shops. So, Millie and I quickly moved on, bound for Waitomo Caves (black water rafting and abseiling!).  Stopped in Taupo to break up the drive (also quite touristy – man, I’m so spoiled now by the less blemished areas I’ve discovered!).  Went for a short hike to Huka Falls, recommended by Max from Wild Side.  Then continued on to yet another touristy town, Waitomo.  Wow, it was like an American reunion!  It seems we all condense here to do cave-exploring adventure tours… we crazy, adrenaline-loving Americans, I tell ya.

Abseiling (i.e. rappelling) and cave tubing was so much fun!  Hanging over a 105-foot-deep tomo (Maori for “cave”) was right up there with sky diving in scariness – and this time, I was in control of my decent!  The 5-hour underground tour in caves filled with beautiful, star-like “glow worms” (actually fly larvae), included jumping with a tube from a cliff into the water (hoping to land bum-first so the tube doesn’t flip), whizzing down a flying fox, oozing through a small hole in the cave wall (dubbed the “Rebirthing Canal”), zipping down a “flying fox” line, clambering up underground waterfalls, and floating down-current while gazing up at the glow-worm constellations.  Now, that is my idea of FUN FUN FUN! 

I got the heck out of mini-America lickety-split, as I had only one night more in NZ before heading to another land Down Under, AUSTRALIA.  In a tiny Maori fishing village called Kawhia, picknicked on a remote beach while watching a beautiful sunset over the Tasman Sea.  Sigh.

So, I am now in Brisbane, Oz ~ hanging and playing and eating well with my dear friend Sunny (who is a chef) and her family, whom I met in South Korea 4 years ago.  Where the ever-winding road goes to next…nobody knows…well, actually, I’m 99.9% positive it will go straight to the Great Barrier Reef (SCUBA!) and the Outback (kangas and Crocodile Dundees!).  Oh yeah, and tonight is Salsa dancing and tomorrow is crab potting.  Whoo hoo!

Photos for this week - click here!