New Zealand, Finally!

...continued

So, a last minute flight landed me in Christchurch at the end of the week and all of a sudden there I was, reunited with my best friend once again! The next three days I was pampered and spoiled by Sue. If anyone is heading over that way, I recommend you stay with her. Boy, does she know how to treat a guest! She'll even get you work! The day after I arrived, Sue and I bartended a private party for a girl she knew from work. This house, or should I say "houses" on this property were incredible. This property is by the ocean, with a hot tub looking out over it. They had tents and tables set up everywhere and a hundred and fifty guests to fill them all up! It was a Rio/ Savannah themed party so everyone was wearing bright coloured frilled blouses and skirts (even some of the men) They even hired Rio dancers who wore big head dresses. Sequences and feathers everywhere! Did I mention Sue and I were in charge of distributing the alcohol......at the open bar? Let the party begin! The night did start out with one near disasterous mishap after the first attempt at serving a cup of lethal, antifreeze-worthy punch out of the 500 year old slushy machine. As soon as Sue pressed down on the lever, it decided to stay there and a geyser of punch like you've never seen sprayed, no, projected out of that sucker! It was impressive. While my first instinct was to stand in front of it with my mouth wide open, I went with my second instinct and tried to stick my thumb up the faucet (By the way, that doesn't work. In fact, it makes it worse) Meanwhile, Sue was running around like a chicken with her head cut off, trying to find a bin to catch it with. Although it was no "thumb in the faucet" tactic, it seemed to do the job. All we heard for the rest of the night was "So, have you learned how to use the punch machine yet?" At least we can say that every guest at that party will remember their bartenders that night.

Although my ordeal with Thomas should have taught me a lesson, I decided to give it another go and once again put up flyers at hostels, looking for others to travel the south island with. The very next day while Sue and I were climbing at her gym this couple showed up and basically said, "We're leaving immediately, are you in?" I had no time to think so I said yes and before we knew it, they had their tent set up in Suzanne's backyard for the night and we were on the road the next morning. Raoul the Irish man and Karen the German girl. Yes another one. Have I mentioned there are gazillions over here? I never have to go back to Germany because I'm getting the full experience over here! Carrie, are there any left over there? For those of you who don't know, Carrie, Fabio and Elliot are moving to Germany as I'm writing this. I'll probably know more German than they do by the time I get there.

The next few days were a total whirlwind. We first drove to Arthurs Pass and did a day hike that nearly killed me. 2 hours on rolling rock at a 45% angle. I thought I'd have a heart attack when we finally reached the summit, then this couple who had to be in their 60's plodded up next to me and say "Oh, wasn't that a nice walk". A NICE WALK? Apparently these people have blood made from diesel or I'm incredibly out of shape. I'd go with the latter.

The next day we spent the morning bathing in hot springs, surrounded by mountains where the clouds weren't hovering above us, but were around us. Very hard to describe how beautiful it was. Then we raced to Kaikoura to do an evening whale-watch, which was so fascinating! That night we camped by the side of the road beside this field of tall grass. I kept waking up in the middle of the night hearing snarling and growling, and thinking our tent was being attacked. It wasn't until morning that Karen admitted she snores.....ferociously. The very next morning we were on the ferry crossing the Cook Strait and landed in Wellington where Raoul and Karen went on there merry way and I was left once again to put up notices for people to travel with.

I've been in Wellington for only four days now, but it seems like two weeks! This is my favourite city so far and I really don't want to leave. Wellington's annual Arts Festival JUST started and I've been going crazy seeing plays and documentaries, not to mention all the free museums! It's unbelievable how they can afford to run these places without charging admission! Today I rode the old cable car up to the cable car museum. What was most impressive was how they created an entire cable car museum with only TWO cable cars inside! Now that takes creativity. After that I walked around the beautiful Botanic Gardens in search of "Lady Norwood's Rose Garden". There were signs for it everywhere, so naturally I'd be intrigued. This had to be some rose garden! After searching for it for 45 minutes, I finally climb the last hill before having this supposed garden of Eden revealed to me, when all of a sudden I turned a corner and started walking down again, only to pass another sign for it pointing back up the hill. There WAS no rose garden! Apparently by "rose garden" they meant a bunch of random plants that look exactly like the rest of the gardens, none of which come close to resembling a rose. I felt ripped off, so I went to the planetarium within the park thinking it would be a good idea to brush up on my southern hemisphere constellations before camping for the next three weeks. This place must have been a hundred years old. As soon as we got in there, we were warned that the stars were assembled on the roof in order to suit the electrical wiring and were not even close to what we'd actually see in the sky, "So keep that in mind". .....wwwwhat? What's the point of a planetarium that provides you with a totally inaccurate night sky? Instead of Scorpio I'll be looking for a Turtle, instead of the Southern Cross, I'll be looking for the Southern Octagon, and Orion's Belt had become Orion's shoes. On top of that, the projector actually casted it's shadow across the whole sky, and half the machine's buttons didn't work so we were kept being told to "imagine" whatever she was telling us about. Oh well, at least the museums were really good.

So I have found new travelling partners, both of whom I just met yesterday. They haven't actually met each other yet, but they will when Polly, an English girl and I take the ferry back to the south to meet up with Neil, an English lad who is in Picton waiting for us. So, onto another adventure. I have a good feeling about this one....... not that that means a thing. As long as he doesn't shave his armpits, this might actually work out. Wish me luck!

Pics

West Coast Nightmare...

I couldn't contain my excitement after meeting the two Germans, Emi and Thomas, in Perth. It seemed like sharing the drive up the west coast, up to Darwin and back down to Alice Springs would work out perfectly. Let's just say I had no idea what I was in for..... Basically, all the luck that I've been experiencing over the last few months suddenly ran out. The first day I was driving was....strange. We were in the middle of the dessert and it already felt like we were on the moon, so when the sun started setting and everything just glowed these completetly unreal colours, Thomas decides to put on German folk music and it was such a bizarre experience it actually felt like I was hallucinating. I was actually expecting pink kangaroos to come out of the bushes and bounce beside the car in slow motion. That's when I first knew we were going to have problems. Thomas turned out to be an extreme eccentric. He shaved his arm pits, but I don't think he brushed his teeth. He drank a two litre bottle of coke every day (starting at breakfast) and chain smoked like you wouldn't believe (basically he breathed more through his cigarettes than he did regular air), yet would lecture us about healthy eating. He refused to buy groceries with us, but helped himself to ours. He made rules for his car that we'd get yelled at for breaking, but these rules didn't apply to him, of course. When we got up at 4 in the morning to make it to the beautiful, serene Pinnacle Dessert to watch the sun rise over it, he blared Star-Trek music the whole time! He wasn't joking either. He was constantly in a bad mood and just enjoyed annoying us.....for no stinking reason! It got quite a bit too much and was really no fun at all.

Besides the crazy German man the heat became unbearable and the flies were swarming us to the point where you can understand how people go insane permanently. FYI, northern Australia is not the best place to be in the summer time. It is officially the wet season, where temperatures rise to 45 degrees, humidity is around 80%, and it rains for days, bringing on cyclones and flooding. We stopped off at a gas station to use the toilet and the toilet water was steaming. Steaming toilet water is perfect for those who'd be interested in giving their bum a facial, but personally I think it's just plain gross. The heat was so intense that the road kill mummified before it had a chance to fully decompose. We came across a great red kangaroo that was almost fully intact, just chilling out by the side of the road, probably for the last 40 years! I put in a picture of it. Just for the record, we did not put the beer bottle in it's paws. There was no way I was going to take it out though! I wasn't going near it.

So, it's understandable that we became more and more apprehensive the further north we went. Between Thomas and the climate, each day was getting progressively worse. Just when I got to my breaking point, fate kicked in....or kicked us out.....and by "fate", I mean "Thomas". Yup, for 5 days we passed at least one town a day that was somewhat civilized, where people said G'Day and tipped their hats to one another. Okay, that's not true. Basically they were places where our cell phones worked. On the 5th day, however, we landed in Exmouth (which Thomas calls Esmouse because he's German and has a lisp). Oh Exmouth, where the tumbleweeds frequent, population: minus 5 and worst of all our cell phones didn't work. This is the place where Thomas decided he'd rather travel alone. He left two girls stranded in the middle of nowhere, where the only things to bat our eyelashes at to get help, were cows and mummified kangaroos! We couldn't actually believe he'd done it, but we didn't exactly argue either. To tell you the truth, I think both of us would have crawled our way through the desert just so we wouldn't have to spend another day in that car. When he dropped us off at our campsite, I was out of that car faster than you can say "leiderhossen", but not before I told him I thought he was full of Schnitzel and to kiss my Heineken. : ) Can you think of anymore? So, rejected and with a tent full of melting food (Thomas took the cooler) Emi and I decided to drown our sorrows in the ocean and spent the day in Turquoise Bay snorkeling. It turned out to be the best snorkel I've ever done. SOMETHING good had to come out of this experience! By the afternoon we'd decided the best thing to do at that point was to cut our losses and bow out gracefully. In other words, give up and turn the heck around! We were only halfway up the coast and five days into a month long trip, yet within hours of our decision we were on a bus headed back to Perth and 16 hours later, the whole ordeal was just a distant memory. We can actually laugh about it now. If anything it was a character building experience, and not ALL of it was bad. In Monkey Mia we camped by one of the most beautiful beaches, where the dolphins would come right up to the shore and brush by us when we were swimming. That was amazing. ...and..........um.....did I mention the Pinnacles were pretty?....Oh, I did.....um yeah.....I can't really think of anything else. Oh, getting back to Perth was reeeeeeally good, in fact, probably the best thing that had happened all week.

Both Emi and I spent one night in Perth, then went our separate ways the next morning. She flew to Alice Springs and I flew directly to Ayers Rock. The view flying in was amazing. The ground was so unbelievably red it just didn't seem real. I have to say, seeing Ayers Rock for the first time from the plane window was almost shocking. It is just SO HUGE! The flight was also interesting as I had one of the flight attendants sit with me and chat through half the flight. I found out some disturbing information the next day though, when I received an email from him informing me that as soon as we'd walked off the plane, it broke down. Something you never ever want to hear.....ever....especially me who HATES flying. Well I guess it's better broken down on the ground than in the air (*shiver!*). I got to the hotel at 2, was on the bus to the rock by 3, there until 8 to see the sunset, back to the hostel to book my flight for the next morning and back to Melbourne by the next afternoon. I'd hit 3 states in 3 days. A new record! So a few facts about Ayers Rock. The rock is actually grey but is so full of iron, that it rusts and turns the outer rock red. Who knew? Yeah, come to think of it, that's pretty much the only fact that might interest you, so I'll stop there. It really was magnificent though.

So back to Melbourne where I sought refuge after my traumatic ordeal...ha, not really. It was nice to be back with my friends though, and sleeping in a real bed without having to worry about snakes and spiders in it, oh yeah, and without an angry German yelling at me. I arrived the night of Lauren's birthday party, which had all the same people from my going away party only a week earlier. I've never seen so many people do double takes when seeing me there. I basically spent the week sleeping and relaxing. Valentines night, Ian, his sister Tina and I went to the beach and drank champagne at sunset. It was absolutely beautiful. It all had to come to an end though when I realized I had to move on before my money disappeared.

To be continued..........