Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Normal 0
Blog entry No 1 -8/12/2008Sydney - Christchurch - Akaroa
Picking where to start and what to start on is quite tricky, I am sure that over time it will become easier an my tangent will flow a lot more fluidly.Butin the meantime excuse this fisrt entry if it seems alittle drab, or on the opposing front a little too over the top.
I guess I start in Australia, we left Adelaide onDec the 1st after an excellent send off by Xavier Rudd at the roots festival on the torrens (again thank you Kath, so much for organizing the free ticket for me). There were no tears, no fears, and to this point I am still wondering why.I felt kind of like an emotional cripple, but I think I have drawn this down to the fact that my last month and indeed my last week were so jampacked, that I didn't really have time for it to hit me that I was going to be leaving so much stuff behind for such a long period of time.The last few days and as I write this I think it hits me a bit more.So I apologise to everyone, especially my immediate family If I seemed a little nonchalant before I left. Trust me if the first week is any indication this trip will make me respect the things and people that are most important to me.
Anyhow enough of the deep and meaningful, I am sure that over time you will get sick of those moments, unless you're my mum, and of course I love you ma, and I expect D+M moments will largely related to my family and friends will earn me brownie points, something I am sure I have been deducted of a little lately after deiciding to do something completely selfish.Sorry I digress, we left Adelaide and flew over the Riverland on our way over to Sydney, I would have liked to say that I saw home one last time, but I think between the clouds and the fact up at 30,000 feet everything kinda looks the same meant that I couldn't distinguish the Riverland, despite my attempts to burn a rather large dashing,heroic self portrait in the mallee during the 2008 control burns at Calperum.The girl sitting next to us was on her to Singapore after her trip to Mumbay was understandably cancelled. Thank god we aren't going anywhere near there at the mo.
We arrived in Sydney and were quickly greeted with the hustle and bustle of the seemingly cramped city.After some dodgy rides on Sydney's dilapidated public transport system, we had seen the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the opera house (why tourists need to spend weeks there is beyond me, maybe if they concentrated on taking an actual photo of the monument instead of their mugs blocking the view they could avoid the embarrassing fights with the pixie photo developer at Big W and unnessecary repeat visits (sorry tangent, you will find my blog littered with these, much like the aftermath of a certain woolshed party at Calperum). However was severely disappointed when I missed out on what seemedreally good deal/time waster ($5 steak, free wii/playstation and bingo)… I know the child within me was conflicted by the "break out the lawn bowls and legs eleven' eldery man within. I had seen it on the bus ride in, but for some obscure reason that I am sure some pompus council member could tell me the bus did not go the same way back on the way home.So we were forced to eat some chips suggested to us by a gambling addict in the Sydney suburb of Mascot (which seemed to be the location that all mentally unstable people were allowed to wander the streets freely ( I seriously heard two guys talking about the fact that they did not want to back 'inside' over the Christmas period).This was while they eyed off the chips I was holding with an unmoving seagull like glare.I quickly moved off to the bus stop, where we caught a bus back to the airport maintaining the safety of our precious chips from the homeless mentally deranged men… wow, when I put it that way it sounds kinda cruel… meh!
Our contacts in Sydney had both fallen through, so we were forced to spend the night in the Sydney airport.At first this seemed alright, we could eye over cheap alchohol and contemplate taking up smoking at ridiculously low prices within the duty free store. We even grabbed a few beers at the local Italian bar within the airport, and sussed out our sleeping area (several rows of chairs with no armrests upstairs) to which we could chill out to our ipods and enjoy complete bathrooms to ourselves where I could sing bad renditions of the Lion King's Hakuna Matata (Don't ask, I think I was on a Disney induced high, or the impatient Hungarian at the starbucks slipped some meth in my banana bread as recompense for demanding the perfect chai tea).However this all fell apart when the stores, bars and even McDonalds closed, and some security guards informed us that we were being forced out of our now rather homely (in as*** spread out everywhere, as opposed to the doormats n wall paintings kinda way) looking chairs.We were forced into this tiny little area, that people could hang out in while they waited for their train to come in.The floor was cold and hard, chairs were joined with immovable armrests (which I am sure were made from some warmth sucking concrete). To top it off the only patch of carpet in the whole area just happened to be next to the door to security… You can guess how long we lasted there before we were moved back to armrest country by a largish abrupt security guard whom I am sure still had some of his strawberry jam on his face from his recently devoured jam doughnuts.
I was determined that I could do better than sleeping upright in a chair that I am sure the airport specifically designed to give people piles, so with stuborness an ingenuity by my side I discovered that if the chairs were flipped onto their side and lent up against the wall, my sleeping bag layed down over the 2mm thick top section of the chairs, I could squeeze myself into a cosy little section that proved rather comfortable , well at least compared to Mikes resort of sleeping straight on the cold hard floor. I had to use my ipod to drown out the many people who insisted on making as much noise as possible to get to sleep.And just when had drifted to sleep listening to Ben Harper (whom interestingly despite how much I love his music aided sleep dramatically), I was again woken by another doughnut smuggling security guard to check my passport and flight details, how rude!
Despite all this all I got a descent sleep and we awoke the next morning to check in, make our way through customs and onto our flight to Christchurch, where we were treated to lunch at 10 in the morning. Food is free on Quantas YAY, so I took liberty in feasting on the airline food, of which I am told certainly has traces of cardboard to help'clog' and prevent people from using the amenities.Either way I fed up, utilizing my most stingy and resourcefull of skills that I have honed so well at Calperum.Apparently Mike felt the same way, but rather than stocking up on food, rathered the free mini bottles of red.
We arrived in Christchurch and made our way through customs rather speedily (well at least I did, someone else in m party was carrying hiking shoes and so had to empty his bag out to ensure he wasn't smuggling foreign dirt or dog related excrement)He was also slowed down by the fact that he seemed 'shifty' to the customs officer and could not understand what they meant when referring to any pronounced 'tints' that he might also be carrying.Fortunately he survived his first accent related confusion to reveal that he wasn't hiding any tents in his backpack and I wasn't forced to endure Mikes snowglobe like chest to ensure he indeed didn't have any tints. I got my first batch of New Zealand money and set about looking for a pay phone to contact a couch to surf on.However we realized that the payphones here don't really accept money, apparently coins are a foreign exchange product to New Zealands telecom network and insist on cards alone, a product, I sure is readily available to the average New Zealand bogan.We eventually got hold of Ian whom directed us to his house in the city centre.So we caught a public bus at extortionate prices ($7 fare, when normal is $2.80) to the city centre. On our way I realized that Christchurch reminded me a lot of Adelaide, and then found out it was designed by the same person (somebody smith, suckers fell for the same lets put a dodgy tram in the middle of the city thing).After the bus trip we had a bit of a hike to Ians place, where we discovered that the house we were staying in had three other couch surfers (including 1 aussie from Perth) and 5 flatmates, along wth their various friends that seemed to just wander in continuously.I soon realized that apart from the fact that this place reminded me a lot of the bach pad I lived in Adelaide(complete with a giant pile of dishes) the housemates were extremely trustworthy and I instantly felt at home.We went down to the local bottlo and got some Kiwi Tui beers (remarkably similar sounding to tooheys back home and tastes much the same).We also found a shop which sold $1 pies, pasties and sausage rolls, which were remarkably good for a dollar, despite tasting remarkably like chihahua.We went back to "bach pad' as I will refer to it as, to meet up with some of their very interesting friends.There no shortage of weed here and hence some of the conversations were very interesting, however all were very friendly even the very different kiwi chicks, hard to describe, but lets just say they would get along really well with Hollie (extremely honest and a lot of bogan).
So after having a big night we woke up the next morning to head into Christchurch city and go to the library, in the hope that we could use the internet to let everyone know we were safe. However this did not work as the computers would not let you post anything on facebook, or check your emails. So we headed to the markets, where we listened to an awesome solo cover guitarist, a weirdo jesus preacher who continued to preach that jesus had touched him despite being abused constantly by several people (Ill give it too him despite his dribble he was determined and persistent, he was still going when I left two hours later, bible and milk crate in hand).Dave the Perth guy found a formerly Tasmanian clown guy, who taught us how to juggle and I refused to leave until I had broken the fifty consecutive juggles… Needless to say Dave wasn't even close, he only just managed to reach 20…. Yet another career choice for me…haha! (Next to my fast blossoming career of fitting bottle caps up my nose).So after learning to juggle we cruised passed the local river which runs crystal clear through the centre of Christchurch (unlike the Torrens in Ads).After briefly considering cruising down the river on a lie-low (air mattress) but reconsidered when we realized it would probably lead us to the middle of nowhere and was bound to be cold. We seriously downgraded on the thrill factor by checking out a local Chinese coffee shop and getting a chai tea.Or as I decided to invent a chai-oothie, which I asked the lady to make after reaslising I wanted a chai tea without the hotness.Lets just say the recipe is a secret but it was absolutely awesome! Even mike agreed. Copyright is pending. So if I come back and its huge in Australia I wont be happy - Jan!
We decided that two minute noodles were not going to cut that nights tea, so we went to the local pack n save (a large supermarket chain) to buy some food, but stopped on the way home to check out 'the Grumpy mole' a very American themed bar that had $3 beers and free pool.We also decided that we wanted to head off the next day and so sort about checking out wwoofing places to work at for a week.Unfortunately between dodgy phone cards and wwofing host being full or on holiday, we had a bit of fun finding a place to go.We eventually got hold of one in Akaroa and were told we could head down there the next day.
We headed back to the bach pad in which we were immediately swept up and taken off to help the fellas at indoor soccer, a sport in which I have wanted to play for a while.It was awesome I loved it, and despite my many many fouls (there are a few main differences between indoor and outdoor soccer) I managed to get two goals for my team, which helped us flog the other team 5-2.All it cost me was an couple of ripper blisters a massive scabby knee and a reality check in just how unfit I was.We headed back to the bach pad where we found several young (under several influences) youth experimenting with skateboards n mantlepieces. If that didn't provide enough entertainment the evening conversation in which each demonstrated their own personal level of homophobia.Was hilarious!
We left the bach pad for the final time the next day, after contributing to the household by highlighting just what colour their kitchen bench was supposed to be underneath all the dishes.We had gotten to know the guys pretty well while their and was most appreciable of their offers, but it was time for us to head out of the city.We went into town, briefly paid for intenet and inspected the costs of a bus down to akaroa, a small volocanoe formed peninsula about 80ks East of Christchurch.We decided that $50 each was too much for such a small trip and so after hearing that hitching a ride was easy in NZ, decided to give it a crack. So after making it to the outer limits of the city by bus we hitched our way down to Akaroa (I know mum, smackypoos! Sorry). We got there in about a hour and only three rides to get there.The first a nice man whom administered a company which bought land all over the world to sell 'biodiversity credits' to rich companies trying to make themselves look greener.He informed us that they had just spotted a jaguar in one of their properties in Asia and would prove very beneficial to the price of their credits.The second ride just our of two rivers was another nice guy who had hitched across Europe. But he only took us as far as a cheese factory about 10ks out of Akaroa.We thought that we would have to walk from here, but shortly after arrival we were picked up by a local cop named Fiona whom politely escorted us to Akaroa.We couldn't put our bags in the boot (as she had it full of cats??? What the!) but broke every road rule by jamming our bags around our feet and squeezing into the cop car.As you can imagine we looked like quite the roughians when we rocked up into the town escorted by police. As a joke we contemplated running to make our scene even more suspicious, but reconsidered after two highly snobby looking women were already in danger of dropping their ice creams in disgust, and thought pushing it might result in a rum n raisin related facial injury.We had an hour or so to spare so went down to the local madiera for a beer and happened to arrive on happy hour (which resulted in free sandwiches and fries… Stingy Chris Strikes again!)We were picked up by Guy (our wwoofing host) at the local post office and headed back to his place at a speed which left Mike a little disturbed and possibly judging by his odour, slightly soiled.
We arrived at Guys and Tania' s in a picturesque hillside location with a beautifull old double story house overlooking pidgeon harbourwith mountains surrounding.As if we weren't both gobsmacked enough we were fed an awesome freshly produced salad, with homemade lamb savloys and various sweet potatoes (a welcome change from noodles n $1 pies), shown our upperstorey balcony rooms, with queen sized beds and told all this required only 4 hours work a day.We both slept extremely well that night with smiles from ear to ear.
The next day we awoke to a breakfast of awesome wholesome food again, and headed off to work.We spent the most of the day 'liberating' native trees from the evil grasps of rampant introduced grasses, dead keen on taking over the world one native plant at a time.Fortunately our many years of experience in the UN peace core (or just being extremely efficient aussies), we were done in no time and so set off up the Mountain to what I think is Mt Sinclair.My legs n blisters were already caning but I pushed myself up the mountain and after beating our way through flocks of sheep and cattle we arrived at the top to a 360 degree view of Banks Peninsula… It was stunning and so spent a good hour just staring in sheer shock. Im sure this is not the best we will see here, but already I am blown away.We came back to meet one of Guy's half maori mates Henry, who wasted no time givng us s*** about being aussie, fortunately I knew just how small NZ was and how badly we were walloping them in the cricket, so I don't think he really had a leg to stand on.We went out to tail and nuter some of Guy's sheep, something I hadn't done since high school ag classes, but I don't know if I was passively stoned, or what but I actually enjoyed working with stock and started to realize that i would like to set something up like this when I get back home.This whole organic farming and producing your own goods really appeals. Our tea this night was the beginning of what would be a chilli fest that would last two nights, much to my digestive systems disapproval. Fortunately they had bought some awesome local sour dough bread that I wolfed down in an attempt to stop my tongue from starting a mutiny.
The net day Saturday we liberated more plants, but also headed into Akaroa township to see if we could get a kayak to work so we could paddle around akaroa harbour.There are Maui (Critically endangered) and Hector's Dolphins (Endangered) (mostly caused by fishing nets and depleted food stocks) Seals, Little penguins (also endangered) in the harbour that we might have been able to see.However we couldn't work it in for a price cheap enough so decided we could do it somewhere else not as touristy or expensive. Mike decided to get double scoop icecream, and proceeded to lick gleefully at his icecream spreading boysenberry chips all over his face ike a primary school child, trying to convince me to part with my cash. I refused to yield and instead headed down to an awesome mainstream market where I could buy at least three hats, weird owl toilet doylies and half a dozen lavender related moisturizers… I cant understand why there was no one in there below 96 years old…
We headed back and chilled out for the evening with some local organic beers. Guy and Tania went out to a party, while myself and mike set about having a romantic night in watchin movies around the fire.'Mike is so awesome. I wish I could be more like him.' this bit was added by Mike who obviously read through my blog before I posted it, but thought it was so funny I left it in, at least he cant use the 'I don't share' and run off to the corner off the bus whaling his eyes out, while I am left to explain to concerned onlookers that no he is not in fact my retarded son and no I don't beat him regularly he is naturally that unattractive… take that Mike! Fortunately after a few awkward yawn moves we both realized we were lacking a few vital female attributes and quickly retracted our arms to our side of the couch… OMG Mikes bit on the end of that last sentence was hilarious, but not appropriate for this time slot, as you can see we have developed some friendly competition already… pretty soon it will resort to clawing and hair pulling!
On Sunday we were revoked of our liberating duties and did some other work around the house. We also did some more work dagging and drenching guys sheep.They don't really have many flies here and muelsing is illegal so as you can imagine there were some ripper dags. I was a bit disappointed that didn't get a go, I don't think Guy trusted my Velcro glove ability, innate in all Australians… Wow I cant belive I just said I was sad not to be clipping dags the size of a tennis ball from sheep… How sad, pretty soon ill be running around in wellies and chasing attractive sheep around the paddock. Later that evening Mike and I cooked up an awesome stirfry and Mike was forced to eat his words when he foolishly underestimated my cooking abilities and refused to add plum sauce to his stir fry - totally awesome by the by, so DO IT!
Monday was a bit of the same old, and I think it was that point we realized we wanted to move on. Time to organize Dunedin.I was able to organize some net time at their house so was able to organize a couch to surf on at the madteapartiers house, whom normally doesn't accept males, but apparently my profile sounded so good she decided to let us stay. Geez Mike lucky one of us is so addictive! Haha!
We spent Tuesday cleaning doors and then headed out across the countryside helping Guy with his fencing business, it was cool, we got to travel through the mountains in an old landcruiser fj 45 ute through clouds that topped the slopes in a misty haze that fully reminded me of sleepy hollow. We retired to the homestead for our final night and realized that although we have only been here a week Guy and Tania did there best to make us feel at home and it felt kinda weird to know that we would be leaving the banks peninsula an area I had quickly fallen homely with (it didn't help that our Australian charm led the townsfolk to love us).Tomorrow we catch a ride back into Christchurch where we will once again hitch, this time to Dunedin. To await our tea party!
Sorry if this first blod was long, intricate and full of tangents I did say I was a little unsure if where I would take it as it is written for lot of people including myself. But as a bonus comment if you think my tangents are bad Guy's were amazingly complex and complicated even leaving himself verbally lost sometimes.
- comments