It's a Wrap

So a conundrum.  I left on January 14 at 2:40.  We had a sunset and sunrise in Rube plane and I arrived at LAX at 10 am on January 14. So did I have a Bill Murray moment and live there 14that twice,  or a 40 hour day?  Of course,  on the easy over, I missed January 1stay completely.  Oh,  the joy of crossing the international date line.

So I've decided to end with a list of what I will and won't miss.

Will:
Australia's domestic airport security
Free public transportation.
Australia and Aussies.
Summer and warm weather.
The people I meet from all over the world.

Won't:
All the ladies wearing gauzy, see-through clothes.  I just don't get it.
Figuring out a city just as it's time to leave.
Looking all over for free Wi-Fi.
Walking everywhere
How expensive food is.  McDonald's hamburger: $3, bottle of water: $4. Lunch at restaurants: $15-$20. (unless it's "take-away" , what they call "to go",  then $8-$15).

By the way, from January 4, Bingo Beach entry,  rocket is what the Australians call Arugula (thank you google).  It's a spicy leaf that the Australians seem to love.

Well that's it.  Hope you enjoyed going to Australia with me.  I sure enjoyed having you along

Final Day In Australia

My last day in Sydney, and I have lots to to do.  I started the morning touring the Sydney observatory.  It was built in 1858 to keep accurate time via the movement of the stars.  Until the skyscrapers came,  the observatory could be seen by all of Sydney, and was relied on to drop the ball at 1 pm everyday (think smaller, less glitzy version of Times Square NY's eve ball).  Sailors would watch the ball drop and then set their clock by it,  they called it "dead reckoning".  With accurate time, compass, and navigational charts, sailors could get wherever they were going.  Accurate time was extremely important, since five minutes error could set them off course by 80 miles.

Next I headed for the opera house.  Yesterday I heard that they were selling last minute tickets of today's shows for $25.  Sales start at 12:30, and I was told to get there early.  It was a good thing I did,  as I got a lot of misdirection before I ended up in the right place.  I chose to see the matinee (2pm) showing of Blaze,  which was being shown in the big theatre.  I had a choice of being up front on the side with some blockage,  or fifth row in the balcony.  I chose the balcony.  

While I waited do for the show to start, I walked around the quay.  The quay is the main harbor, with views of the opera house and the Sydney bridge (when HUGE cruise shops aren't in front of it ).  There are tons of restaurants, and many people doing shows for money.  I saw singers, aboriginals playing the didgerido, and a unicyclist juggling bowling pins (one on fire).

The show was not what I expected, although I had few expectations since I had only seen advertising on a poster.  i was expecting a musical with at least ammo light story.  Nope, just contemporary music and great urban dancing.  In the middle of the show they has an easy dance based on the DJ's favorite food, and had the audience learn it, turning our into a competition between the right and left side I'd the theatre.  They drew the audience to dance with them again at the end.  For the encore,  they had a few young boys from the front row come and dance with them.  I'm not sure if it was planned or not, but I saw several excited parents with their cameras, while their sons jumped up and down on stage. 

It was an enjoyable show,  but some older patrons might struggle with the contemporary music of Lady Gaga, Kanye West,  etc.  It was hilarious to hear the WII tune, seven dwarfs' "heigh-ho", and other unexpected tunes in the middle of the hip-hop.

After the show I met Brett and Heather, my boss' son, daughter-in-law, and their new baby, Sienna.  After a great meal at a Japanese restaurant, I left for my final tourist stop this trip: a night show at the observatory.  Unfortunately it was cloudy, so were didn't get to use their really big telescopes to see the night sky.  But we did get to see some movies,  here a talk about the planets (including a good explanation as to why Pluto was declassified from a planet; most of what I have heard before sounded more political than anything else.), and a planetarium show of the southern hemisphere.   I'll admit I had a hard time staying awake in the dark that late at night,  and I missed some of the planetarium show -which was what I moody looked forward tip once the telescopes were ruled out.

Final Random Thought of the Day:  Why do we call bathrooms "bathrooms"?  There is seldom a bath in it.  Aussies call them toilets.   That makes much more sense to me.

I've added pictures to some of the previous blogs,  and hope to continue to do so in the next 24 his or so.  if the title contains the date,  I've added pics.

Back In Sidney Again

I had a new airport security experience on my way to Sydney.  I got tested for detonation residue.  They touched a wand to a few areas of my clothes and ran it through a random pocket of my backpack.  Then they tested for the results - I was clean!

The flight was uneventful, except on one leg I briefly sat next to a woman with heavy perfume on.  I'm allergic, so it made my asthma kick in.  Just when I was about to break protocol and get my inhaler from my overhead bag, the flight attendant asked her if she wanted to sir in one of the empty seats across the aisle. I have never had anyone do that before, but I was glad she did.   God was looking out for me.  I don't understand why people wear perfume on a plane.  Do they really have to inflict that on the rest of us, when were are on such close quarters?  I should note, it did help some when the air on the plane finally came on.

Got to Sydney minus my luggage.  Seems it missed the connection in Canberra.   At least this time I only had to wait an extra hour our so, and I was on my way with the luggage.  I swear Todd jinxed me.  Since Sydney has free Wi-Fi, i was actually glad to get time to catch up on email.

I checked into the Station YHA.  I'm staying in an old railway car with seven other ladies.  Just like the other YHAs,  this one appears clean and organized.

I had made a long list of things to do this afternoon,  but I got delayed within 10 minutes. I passed by the Central City Market and had to stop by.  It's a combination flea market, farmers market, outlet shops, food court.  I walked around the flea market section and quickly realized that it was not for me (although I did get a small leather wallet for $3).  I went to the outlet mall and bought some jewelry, to the farmers market for fruit, and to the IGA for water. By the time I took it back to there hostel and started out again, I had lost over two hours.

The market is in the middle of Chinatown, and the influence could be heavily seen.  They even had bubble tea,  for those who went to Brooklyn.

I then took the free bus to the harbor. Wish I would have known about a free bus when I was here before.   Could have used it a few times.

Started out for the botanical gardens,  but realized time is running out, so went on a tour of the opera house.  That is, after a linner? dunch? of fish and chips.  They know how to do fish and chips at the harbor .

I didn't realize the opera house was built in 1973. I thought it was newer than that.  And the design was from the mid-50s, which seems very forward thinking for that time.  The movie we saw showed alternate drawings from the competition,  and they were either rectangle shaped (boring), or spaceship looking (dated).  The had already passed on the final drawing when a new judge came into there mix and pulled it back out.  The city owes him big time.

I also didn't realize that there are actually six venues within the building,  and am additional seventh outdoor amphitheater is available when needed (Oprah did her show at the outdoor amphitheatre).  There is the large theatre (seats about 2800), which does all kinds of shows, EXCEPT opera.  The smaller theatre (seats about 1600), is where they hold the operas and ballets. It seems the operas got kicked out of the larger theatre.

There traditional view we see of the opera house from the harbor is actually the back of the building.  When you go out for intermission, you can have a drink at the wall of windows overlooking the harbor.  The larger theatre is "in the round", with a large pipe organ at the far end.  With certain shows,  like musicals and plays, the back is draped off , and only the front used.   Because of the organ,  they only lose about 800 seats when they do this.

I did end up seeing the botanical gardens briefly on the way home.  But I didn't get to the rest of my list.   A few will have to be passed on. I lived the sign at the entrance,  "please walk on the grass.   We Salado invite you to smell the roses,  hug the trees, talk to the birds, and picnic on the lawn. " 

I'm hoping to go to the observatory in the morning.  I'm having lunch with my boss' son and daughter-in-law in the afternoon

Random Thought of the Day:  I've decided today must be tulle skirt day, and no knew told me.  Everywhere I went I ran into little girls wearing their tulle skirts. I don't know if it's the weather (gorgeous and warm), Christmas present,  or what, but it's too cute.

I saw My First Tasmanian Devil.. .He was asleep the whole time

Today I'm of for a trip to Mt. Fields , Mt. Wellington,  and Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary.   The tour is smaller than any of the others - only 10 people.  The give is extremely knowledgeable of the wildlife, plants,  and area - probably the best I've had this trip.

Four of the others are from Japan.  One of the young girls went to college on Wyoming and worked in DC for a while.  One couple is from Canada but have been working in Adelaide for 6 months,  returning home in January (they've lived all over Canada, including Vancouver and Edmonton).  Another couple is from Italy.  A single girl is from Germany.

We were unable to go to the top of Mt. Fields like were planning because there are brush fires to the north and there's a chance they could turn and go up the mountain, making it potentially unsafe there.  So were just went on a walk at the lower past of the mountain.  It is a "mixed forest", meaning a mix of cool-temperate rainforest and tall tree forest (ie. Eucalyptus, aka Gum trees).  The top is mostly firs.

The walk was nice.   We saw two waterfalls:  Russell and Horseshoe (again the American name for a place). 

There are over a thousand varieties of eucalyptus trees.  Today we saw the eucalyptus regnus.  With the eucalyptus regnus, the bark at the bottom of the tree,  called a stocking, is different from the bark at there top.  The bottom is more like the bark we're are used to (rough,  dark brown).   As it moves up the tree, is more like strips peeling off the tree and is a lighter tan (like the dried pulp of our trees).  The top looks bare, and is very white.  When a fire occurs, the bark at the bottom push the fire up the tree to the white house part, where the seeds are.  The seeds are pollinated, fall, and create new trees.   The top of the tree dies,  but the lower part survives and continues took grow.

I found out last time I was here here that fires are a normal part of the Austrian ecosystem.  They occurred naturally prior to the aborigine (this is why certain plants/trees survived).  The aborigine practiced regular slow burns to clear out the underbrush for farming, or to attract kangaroos, etc. to the new growth for hunting purposes.  Once the Europeans arrived, they stopped the slow burns.  This has created two problems: 1) Many plants in Australia  require fire to pollinate, and 2) undergrowth has become so full,  that when a cute does occur,  it is extremely hot and less manageable.  There is note some belief that some slow burn would be beneficial and help them to manage fires better, but not all are in agreement.   Each state is able to make its own decision.

All of the tap water in Hobart comes from Mt. Fields (20%) and Mt. Wellington (80%).  It is all snow and low cloud water.  Because of this it is very pure and requires little treatment - just a little chlorine to kill any microorganisms.

Stopped by a winery for a little wine tasting.  The wines were okay,  but what I liked were the fermented ciders.   I had the pear cider,  which is fermented pear and apple juices.  Its considered a type of beer here,  but you can tell its made by a vintner.   It tastes like a fruity wine on steroids with a lite carbonation.  Very refreshing on a hour day like today.  They grow most of Australians hops in Tasmania.  To export, they turn the hops into pellets.   Beers made here use fresh hops , giving it a different flavor.

After the winery,  we went to Bonorong, where we saw wallabies running free, tasmanian devils,  wombats,  koala bears, emus, and various other animals indigenous to Tasmania.

We ended the trip with a drive to there top of Mt . Wellington at the edge of Hobart. 

Random Thought Of The Day:  At a site we were near today, 42,000 year old artifacts were recently discovered.  If people found our artifacts in 42,000 years, what would it say about us?

Boating To The Southern Ocean

Wildfires have been a big issue here this week.   Most of the island is effected in some way.  Many have lost their homes already,  and it could be days before the fires are under control.  The good news is that, as of now, no lives have been lost.  This is amazing, given that in one area, they thought they had a couple of days to get out,  but the fire surprised everyone. by traveling at 20 m/hr.  I am doing a cruise today,  and the tour company used their boats to help people get away from Port Arthur, which was cut off by the fires.   My guide today got a video of the fire jumping the bay, much to everyone's surprise.

So on to my adventure.  I went on a speed boat cruise of Bruny Island.  We go around the shore looking at dolerite cliffs and caves.  With one underwater cave, called breathing rock,  you hear a sound,  and then a few minutes later,  water explodes into the air 40 feet our more.   It was really cool.   We learned about lichen,  which covers the rocks and gives them color.  Rocks in some areas were golden,  other areas green.   I'm not sure what drives the different colors.   Lichen grows where both fungi and algae exist. If one dies, the lichen does.  Yet it is its own living organism.  In between the sights, we sped over the water.  I was near the front and it was often like a roller coaster ride.  They give everyone all-natural ginger seasick pills before we left to minimize people getting sick.

After exploring Bruny Island,  we left the Tasman Sea and sped through the Southern Ocean to some rocks in the middle of nothing that contained dozens of Fur Seals,  mostly relaxing in the sun.    On the way back we came across some albatross flying just over the water.  A couple of days earlier,  some girls I met had seem a baby whale swimming along with their boat.  I was hoping for something like that, or even dolphins, which are not unusual,  but no luck.

To get to and from Bruny Island, you drive to the coast, take a ferry to the island, and drive over Penguin Island,  across an isthmus, to Bruny.  I asked of we would are any penguins while were driving on Penguin Island,  and was informed there weren't any there.   It seems that when the first explorer landed on the island,  he saw a penguin and gave the island its name.   Add far as anyone knows,  there has never been another penguin on the island since then.  But they're suck with the name.

Bruny Island has only 650 permanent residents, but jumps to over 2000 in the summer.  Besides tourism, salmon farms and oysters are big business.  One the way home,  we speed at what was literally a but,  and several purchased a dozen orders or $2.00. These are the same oysters that are shipped to the restaurants in Host and throughout Australia.

Tomorrow I go to Mt. Field,  Mt. Wellington,  and Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary.

Random Thought Odd The Day:  if you have an isthmus connecting two islands, to which island does the isthmus belong?

Goodbye Melbourne, Hello Tasmania

Got up really again to catch a flight.  I like the early morning flights - it means getting up really early,  but I still get most of the day in the new city.

Because it was so early, the shuttle to the Skybus wasn't working,  so I had to walk the 8 or so blocks.  It was pretty quiet, although I did have to run the sprinkler gauntlet by the park.  I won!

The flight was uneventful. I flew Tiger Airways, and had a hard time finding their private terminal.  I started wondering what I was getting into.  In the end, it was fine, and one hour later I landed in Hobart, Tasmania.

A quick last words about Melbourne before I move on.  I love the city.  It was my favorite this trip.  The town is small, quiet, but active at night (but not annoyingly so).  I'm not sure the streets are ever completely empty.  Also, there's lots to do in the area, from hiking to beaches, shopping to restaurants.  I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling to southern Australia.

Now about my hostels.  I stayed at the YHA in Melbourne.  It was clean, helpful, and offered lots of opportunities to socialize with others.  It reminded me of a hotel, except I shared a room and we had community bathrooms.  I lucked out in Melbourne, with great roommates.  the Sydney hostel was so-so, but the distance from everything really hurt it. 

In Hobart,  the YHA was filled, so I'm staying at City Backpackers.  This hostel is built in an old building, so there's lots of quirkiness.   Wi-Fi is free (for the first time this trip), as is coffee.  That's the plus side.  On the negative, the place is really dirty,  furniture very old,  and I have a roommate who likes to keep the windows open, even in the current 50° weather.  She puts a blanket up on front of her bed, which means she is likely getting less air, but for me, in front of the window, I freeze.   I told her I needed to close the window to sleep, and spent most of the evening in the common room where there is Wi-Fi anyway.

When i arrived in Hobart,  I decided to just walk around.  It was only 10 am, so I had coffee and a REALLY good tiramisu at a restaurant on the wharf (one of my two favorite desserts).  Then I walked a road along the waterfront.   The Salamanca Market had a bunch of shops and restaurants on the waterfront. I grabbed some food for dinners and breakfasts at a grocery.   After storing most of it in the hostel refrigerator, I grabbed food for a picnic and headed off to the Botanical Gardens
 
I took my own, unique way to get to the gardens.  The front desk at the hostel said I could go through the short underground tunnel under the busy street , and get there that way.  But it's not as straight forward as she implied.  I walked between an aquatic center and stadium,  up a hill, across a remote walking path,  down a tall grass hill (there was a vague path through some some of the parts ...), across a street, down a waking path,  and eventually I found the gardens.  I saw several lorikeets in the trees of one of the fields I cut through, but I  didn't bring my long-distance camera,  so just had to enjoy them.

In the evening,  I got situated on my room, talked with some people,  and had an early night. 

Tomorrow I take a boat cruise around Bruny Island.   More then.

Random Thought Of The Day:  Okay,  not so much a random thought,  but a realization - I'm staying one day later than I thought.  I leave Monday instead of Sunday.  Still getting home Monday, but not until evening.  Guess I'll have one more day in Sydney.

Great Ocean Road

My last tour in Melbourne is the Great Ocean Road.   It was built after WW1 to provide jobs for veterans returning to too few jobs.  It is the world's biggest war memorial

This tour is heavily dominated by Germans and Koreans.  Two new countries represented on my tour:  Ireland and Argentina.  Still no current Americans except me.

The first stop was Bells Beach.  This is the beach Patrick Swayze went to to get out of town in Point Break.  We had our normal tea.  The sun is just coming out (it seems to be cloudy here most mornings).  The problem is the wind.  Its making it cooler than the weather forecast.  I wish I would have brought the jacket I decided this morning I didn't need.  Surprisingly, the waves are not that great - lots of surfers sitting on their boards waiting a long time for their opportunity to ride. 

Drove by a replicated colonial house,  which was made of bark (vs. the American log cabin).  Saw a lighthouse at Airey's Inlet, which was in the background of the first Mad Max movie.

Brush fires are a big issue here.  There was a really cool house I would have loved a picture of (wrong side of the road). It is a small house built on a tall pylon or tower.  It was an odd looking house, but it survived the fires.

I sat on the left hand side of the van, as someone have me a heads up that it was the ocean side, and therefore the best view.  But what I didn't expect was all the trees and vegetation that blocks much of the view.  I also didn't expect it to rain the second half of the day.

Drove through Great Otway National Park.  We stopped for a 30 minute walk in another cool-temperate rainforest, called Mait's Rest.  And then ate lunch at Cape Otway.  There was another lighthouse here, but this is where it started to rain so I just saw it from a distance.  

Next we drove down the road where we were supposed to look for koala.  Because of the rain and how many I've seen here, I only did it half-heartedly.  As we drove down the road, you could see the ramification of the koalas - they're eating son the leaves on the trees and killing the trees.  Because of the rain, the koalas were huddled against the trees, so all your saw were lots of lumps.

After an hour trip, which gave the rain a chance to stop, we came to the highlight of the trip:  the 12 Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge at Port Campbell National Park. 

The 12 Apostles are plops of rock on  the coast.  They were formed by the ocean eroding the land, and this is all that's left of the prior coastline.

Originally, the rocks were called the Sow and Piglets, but later changed to the 12 Apostles.  No one knows why they had the name change, but speculation is that 12 Apostles is a more dignified name.  I think it was to attract tourist to, what was then, a seldom visited area. 

It was freezing, and given the 90° predicted, I had left my long pants and heavier jacket at the hostel.  But even with the cold and overcast skies, it was well worth bearing with the weather to see the view. 

A couple of miles down the beach, is Loch Ard Gorge.  It got its name from a shipwreck that occurred there.  Australia's version of the Titanic.  Sailors on the Loch Ard were supposed to be keeping watch, but due to fog, didn't notice they were close to the shore until they looked up and saw cliffs.  Only two survived the wreck, an 18 year old poor sailor and an 18 year old rich girl that the sailor saved.  They ended up on the shore, but due to the cliffs, couldn't be rescued from the beach until morning.  Newspapers played up the story and tried to create a romance between the two, to no avail.  She returned to Ireland and married.  He continued as a sailor and survived two additional shipwrecks (I would have given up after the one!) before dying of a heart attack at 48.  The ship is still at the bottom of the ocean.

My guide thought the gorge was better than the 12 Apostles, but I disagree.  The only thing the gorge has is that you can take steps down to the shore, whereas you can only view the Apostles from above.

So tomorrow, I'm off to Tasmania.   I wish I had more time here.  I'm going to miss Melbourne, although I am looking forward to seeing Tasmania.  I just heard they had snow on Mt. Wellington in Tasmania - I'm going there day after tomorrow.

I'll try to get some pictures loaded into previous day blogs if I can.

Random thought of the day:  I've decided tour guides are like the three bears.  Some give very little information beyond the name of where you are ("too soft") some give so much extraneous information you start tuning out ("too hard").  Some give just the right amount if relevant data ("just right").

Philips island

Went to Philip Island today, which is a small island,  only 14 by 6 miles wide at its longest points, but is known foe their penguin walk.   The penguin walk is a natural occurrence of blue penguins returning to there homes via the beach at nightfall. They have set up bleachers and boardwalks for people to watch the occurrence,  however no cameras or disturbing the penguins is allowed.

Again the people on the tour were multicultural.  There was a new country represented:  Spain.   And I  met my first American, although she's living in London now, so I don't think that counts.

Out first stop was the Moonlit Sanctuary.  I expected a sanctuary to be like the preserves I've been to.  I guess they age active in saving near-extinct animals.   But I want impressed with how they tasted the non-extinct animals.   There was a large Woody habitat for the wallabies. However the enshrining animals were kept in pretty small pens.  I got pictures of animals I'm unlikely to see close in the wild, but I was bothered by how it appeared they were kept.

Next week went to a working heritage farm on private Churchill Island. Got to watch a border Collie herd several sheep and two turkeys using both voice commands and body language.  Border cookies are considered the smartest dog (although I'm sure those of you with your own pet may disagree), and can learn up to 1000 words.

Than we got to watch a sheep being sheared.  I am amazed at hope much wool comes of just one sheep.  A shearer can shear about 150 sheep a day. A gun shearer is someone who can shear 200 sheep a day (that equates to one every 2.5 minutes.

We ended with  bullwhip and boomerang demonstrations.  I got to try to crack a bullwhip - it's harder than it looks.  I did it eventually, but our took longer than I thought it would for me to seeing it and get a crack.

After that,  we went to a Koala Reserve.  Saw several koalas and a few birds. Saw a mother and joey (that's what they call a baby).  Like kangaroos,  koalas are marsupials.   Babies are born hairless, undeveloped, and blind.  They will immediately go in the mothers pouch and not come out for 180 days.

Koalas are viewed as lazy  animals because they don't move much.  Two things play into this: they have very slow digestion (can take up to 200 hours), and their diet consists solely of eucalyptus leaves,  which means a high fiber, low protein diet.  On the other hand , they do get a natural bug repellent, which Aussies use in their repellent.  I was told eucalyptus oil stinks,  so maybe I won't  bring it home as an alternative to deet.  The koalas are very picky eaters too - there are a ton of varieties of eucalyptus trees here, but a koala will only eat their variety and can starve if moved to an area that doesn't have their specific type.  A female koala has prettier nose and fluffier ears than a male.

Next stop was Cape Woolamai. At the most southern tip of the island.  The sand is very soft and not hot,  which is surprising given how it was hot today.The water is coming from the Arctic Ocean,  so it's ice cold.  I waded in it, but can't imagine swimming in it without a wetsuit,  although people did.  Saw people surfing.  The waves today were better than what I saw at Bondi Beach - their both huge surfer beaches,  so I know it has to do with tides,not quality of the beach..

Dinner was held at the Nobbies and Seal Rock.  After dinner, we went for a quick walk on the boardwalk to see the blue penguins.  The penguins dig burrows for homes.  The islanders help then out by building boxes filled with dirt as an alternative house.  I saw one penguin sticking its head out of his nest, and another came completely out and posed for us.   On top of  that,  the view was gorgeous.

Them it was on to the Penguin Parade. I learned a lot about the blue penguins, which I guess have been endangered "little" penguins (that will be hard to get used to).  They only get 2-2.5 inches tall. If you didn't know better,  you'd think you were seeing baby penguins.   The little penguins have dark blue top feathers help them stay hidden from overhead while in the ocean and the white underbelly make it difficult for ocean pursuits to not look up and notice them.  They spend 85% of their time in the water.  They molt in the Fall,  after which they take a few weeks break from the water until new feathers come in.

Their feathers when born are brown, and about 7-10 weeks they turn blue and become waterproof.  Until that point,  they remain on land and their parents take turns staying behind and caring for them. The parent that goes sites some of the fish they eat to regurgitate for the baby.  This is part of the reason they come back so stuffed they can barely get out of the ocean.

About dusk,  the birds start circling, and a little later a little penguin washes up with the waves,  but is too full of fish to get on its feet.  After coming in on the waves a couple more times, he finally gets to his feet and toddling up on the beach.  Another penguin went through the same process. The,  the  next thing I know, a group of 20 out so penguins pop out of the ocean en masse.  Three to five minutes later, another batch come out of the water.  This must have  five or six times, with batches of 20-60 penguins.  They them make there way up the beach,  some up the 20 foot dunes,  most waddling up the beach past us, all going to their homes. 

I paid an extra $14 for "plus" seating,  which is a smaller stand than general seating (think high school football, small bandstands at end of some fields vs home stands ).  While I saw hundreds of penguins,  those in general saying saw 9-50, depending on where they sat.  I would have been disappointed to have paid all that money and seen so few.  But that's one if the risks anytime your dealing with animals in the wild.

One of the difficulties in these tours is how much your rushing to the next item on the list.  really felt this way in the Blue Mountains, where we were rushing to catch a river boat cruise.  In that case, I would have rather given up the cruise for more time in the mountains.  In today's case,  there's nothing I would have given up, which means unless you do an overnight stay (which one couple did) rushing like we did was the only answer.

Random thought of the day:  I love all the public toilets here.  They're everywhere, big cities and little towns.  And they're reasonably clean.  Small town restaurants don't even have bathrooms - they direct you to the public ones.  I've only had to use them when we stopped on tours,  but it's nice to know if I needed one even in the city, they'd be on the street corner for me.

Jan 6 - Grampions National Park

y roommates are great.  At least the two I've meet. One is from China and the other from Norway.  I've had good conversations with each of them separately.  I hope all my roommates are this easy to get along with.

Went to Grampions National Park on a tour today.  The park its about 2.5 hours from Melbourne. 

Unlike the last tour, instead of families,  this group is largely single,  and even better, mostly traveling alone.  I feel less like the orphan cousin they are trying to include.  Again, it was a multi-cultural group.  There were people from France, Germany, Sweden, Scotland, Brazil, Australia, Korea, Japan, and China.  It took 2.5 hours to reach the mountains,  and everyone was quiet.  Most fell asleep both coming and going.

The day started cloudy,  but quickly cleared to a cloudless sky.  It was a gorgeous deep blue.  It was hot.  I can't tell you the temperature because it's in Celsius, and I forgot tool look at how to convert.   I asked one of my rooms roommates I'd it was going to be nice today,  and she said yes,  it will be some degrees, I don't know what.  I hated to tell her that that really didn't help since I don't know Celsius.  I just wantc to know rain or shine,  hot or cold.  No rain means bring i don't need a rain jacket, just a long sleeved shirt for nightfall.  Cooler means wear zip-off pantspants,  just in case .  Otherwise,  it doesn't matter.

The Grampion Mountains are pretty short for mountains, but that's due to their age - they're the oldest mountains in the world at over 400 million years old.  they are past of a larger chain,  but these mountains are only 60 by 30 miles wide.

We went to the cultural center first.   I wanted to see the exhibits,  but first decided to go on a walkabout with a few others to look for deer and kangaroo.  Yes,  deer.  It seems a man imported deer to raise,  then moved away.   Since he didn't have time to sell them,  he just let them loose in the wild.  We saw some deer, but as everybody scrambled to get pictures, I got suck behind others and only got a poor picture as they were leaving.  Needless to say,  i got away from the group as soon as i could ago i could sneak closet.

I did get some great shots of kangaroos, including several with a Joey in the pouch looking out.  I had never seen that before.   My other favorite moment is when I would move and the makes would turn their heads and glare at me, as if to dare me to come any closer.  Broke I knife it I realized I only had a short time to are the museum,  shoo I decided to go back.  But I head gotten turned around,  and went the wrong easy.   I ran into a couple of people as I was walking and asked if the way they were going was the way back to the cultural center,  and they all said, "I don't know."  What I didn't pot together until later, is they proudly meant they didn't know what I was asking.  I should have figured with that many people cooking from that direction,  it was the way to go,  but hindsight...  anyway,  I found a complex of buildings and an Aussie (who understood English) cleaning upup,  and he sent me straight.   However,  by taking the long way back,  I completely missed the cultural center.  But I think the handouts were worth it.

By the way,  I found out how kangaroos got there name.   When the Europeans came, they asked the aboriginals the name of the strange animals, and they answered,  "kangaroo", which means,  "I don't know." 

After several lookouts, we speed at MacKenzie Falls.  It wasn't the tallest I've ever seen, but it was respectable,  and we could walk down to the bottom.  All 260 steps.  But what they don't tell you is that there 's steeply slanted sidewalks too.   If these were , that stairs, it would more than double  the number of steps. Loved the falls.  Took off my shoes and soaked my feet in the very cold water - it felt wonderful on my hot feet.

My favorite of the other stops was the Balconies Lookout,  which had the Jaws of Death.  It's just a rock formation.  It reminded me of a dragon head or a crocodile head.  another of the lookouts was very windy - If there hadn't been a rail, who knows who would have been blown away.

Australia has the coolest trees.  I need to get more pictures of them.  The genus, wind, weather, etc.  Make them have weird shapes.

The drive back was long.   You'd think after all the time it took to get here, a 2.5 hour ride would be nothing.  But it lasted forever.

Tomorrow I go to Phillips Island for sheep,  penguins,  and whatever else they come up with.

Random thought of the day:  Don't get a manicure right before you go on a backpacking trip.  The polish gets chipped,  and then your hands look a mess (girl thought).

Jan 5 - I Was Put In Gaol

RGot up at 4:15 this morning to catch a 7 am flight.  It's not as bad as it sounds - that's only a little after noon at home,  so really, I slept in.  I woke up before the alarm, allowing me a more leisurely morning.  I was glad for the extra time, as the food court at the domestic airport was amazing - fresh fruit,  high end pastries, meat pies (popular here), and steamed coffees (at last I think that's what its called.  It looked like they were making espresso and adding shots).   all i really wanted was plain black coffee , but who am I to turn down good coffee.  Even McDonald's got into it with extravagant pastries, including my favorite (although I didn't get it), a mango macadamia nut cheesecake.  There were only a couple of chains (besides McD's, also Subway & Krispy Kreme, who's everywhere) the rest were local bakeries.

I like flying domestically in Australia.  You don't have to take off your shoes, or clothes, or anything.  There aren't any liquid requirements (so I chugged my water bottle for nothing).  You don't have to show ID or a valid ticket to get through.   Basically, its like the old days.  I'm not sure  if this is because there has not been an issue,  or because they don't have enemies like the U.S. (who could dislike an Aussie), or if the "rebels" who claim a lot of our security measures don't really do anything,  but are done to appease people, are right .

I took the Skybus from the the airport to the city.  Them I started the 8 block walk to the information center. I wanted to take a bus, but was told it would cost $8.  For that, I can walk.

But before heading out, I snuck into the waiting room for an automated chair massage.  For $2, it massages the calves, butt, back, and neck, for 5 minutes.  I needed it after carrying my backpack around for 5 days,.

I got to the information center, reserved a room at the YHA (youth hostel assn), booked a hostel for Tasmania (the YHA there was full, so I'm at a City Backpackers - I guess there's a wine and cheese festival going on, yum), and tours for 3 days in Melbourne and one day in Tasmania. Afterwards, I left for the free tram that runs through the city.

I forgot about the difficulty in acclimating to a new city and its public transportation.  I finally figured out Sydney, and left.  Now I need to learn Melbourne - like there's a free tram that circles the city, and could have taken me to the information center. So I went out to the road to catch the tram, and accidently got on the free bus that circles the city...but doesn't go near my hostel.  Would have been nice to know there was both a tram and a bus.  So I got off after a short ride, walked back to a tram stop,  and then headed to my hostel. This is just one of many times I've been glad I packed light.

The street names in Melbourne are a trip.  You have Flinders Road, which runs parallel and is one block over from Flinders Street. And you have Howard Street, which has Little Howard Street running perpendicular.  I don't know if they ran out and had to start reusing names, or if it's a trick they play on tourists.  If you don't pay attention, you can easily end up lost.

So getting back to my  time in gaol.  I went to the Melbourne Historical Gaol in the afternoon.  The gaol was closed in the 1920's, and the Watch House (for short term stays like overnight or while awaiting trial) was closed in 1994.  Both were open less than 100 years.  The gaol was disturbing.  The cells on the first flour were 2.5 paces by 1.5 paces.  If you were really good, they moved you to the 2nd flour where the cells were a larger 2.5 paces by 4 paces.  Even better and you could go to the larger multi-person rooms on the 3rd floor.  At the end of the hall was the noose where they hanged 133 prisoners.  The disturbing part was reading about the different prisoners and criminal justice practices that were displayed within the cells.

I went on a tour of the Watch House.  Because it was the last tour of the day, I rushed to get there and didn't know what it was.  A man in a police uniform comes in, tells us to call him sergeant,  drop our belongings, and take off hats and glasses. It seems we were just arrested.  He then had us stand in one leg,  bend over,  shake out our hair, show we had nothing in our mouths, etc.  Then it was 8-9 to a cell, the doors were slammed shut, lights turned out, and we sat in pitch black.  The "next morning", we were taken out to the exercise yard,  which was a room without a roof.  After that, we were let loose to take pictures and explore.  Various cells had first person audio and video recordings of inmates.  On the way out, we were able to take a mugshot of ourselves with our cameras.

In the evening went to the Skydeck, a 300 meter observation deck,  both inside and out.  I didn't realize how big Melbourne is.  The metro city is no bigger then Cleveland.  The suburbs stretch forever.  The view was great,  although the outside deck was VERY windy.  Around the inside , they had lookout cylinders fixed on various buildings throughout the city.  There were a news ribbons with facts running on the floor.  I enjoyed it,  but not sure it would have been with worth $25. Luckily the gaol and skydeck were free because I signed up for two tours with the same operator.

By the way, I stopped by McDonald's and even in the city they have the pastries from the airport.

That's it for now.  Tomorrow I go to Grampian's National Park.

Random thought of the day (unfortunately I get tons of them,  but I'll limit you to one a day):  I'm noticing that I carry my backpack & luggage in my right hand.  I switch to my left for relief, but before too long I've switched back to my right.   I'm trying to decide if that's because I'm a lefty and trying to keep my left hand free, or if I'm being ambidextrous again.

Jan 4 - Bondi Beach

Moved into the hostel last night for two nights - Lord Wolseley's.   Because I got there so late,  I got the last choice for a bed in the room I am sharing with the other females.  There are two bunk beds,  and the old lady got the top bunk.   Not only that,  I had to make the bed while one of the girls slept in the bottom bunk.  The steps were metal cylinders that rose flat against the bed.   I had no plans to get down until morning,  so I grabbed everything I could possibly want and put it inside my pillowcase.  I also got the last pillow,  and it was pitiful. Lucky I travel with my own blowup pillow that I am used to sleeping on.   Teach me to show up so late.  The hostel is fine with nice people, but it its a 20-25 minute walk to the neat train station and there is nothing but the bar on the first floor anywhere nearby.

This morning i went to Bondi Beach (the 'i' is pronounced long).   Actually that's not quite correct.   I took the train and bus to Bondi, but didn't go to that beach.   The bus let me off in town just before the beach,  and then I walked the path toward Bronte.  Then kept on going to the next beach, turned around, and walked back to the start of Bondi Beach. They are beautiful beaches.   And the walk along the coast great - lots of cliffs, sun, and waves.  I could have done without the ups and downs of the hills.  I'm not sure if the builders did it on purpose,  or because of the landscape.  I think they are just masochists.   Although maybe it's because it is a fitness circuit with stations along the way.  I saw several people jogging and doing the stations, but not me.

I had lunch at a cute restaurant just off the beach.  I had a great salad with rocket, pears, shaved Parmesan cheese, candied nuts, and grilled chicken.  I thought the "rocket" was a typo, but it wasn't.   Anybody know what it is?  I bet Annie B. being a chef does.  Any guesses?  And no cheating with google.

The beaches are a lot like American beaches,  except for the men in speedos and the grannies in bikinis.  I saw a few people surfing,  but I want in the right place at high tide,  so didn't see any great rides (Bondi beach I'd famous for there surfing).  It was fun to ride the buys and train with the surfboards.

Had an early night for me (10 am) due to an early flight to Melbourne tomorrow.

Jan 3 - Blue Mountains

Took a day trip to the blue mountains today. The bus showed up 15 minutes early. Luckily I was ready, just had to eat my eggs on the bus instead of the lobby. Unfortunately I forgot that other countries like their scrambled eggs and omelets done softly, and these were really runny. I always order them well done, especially when I travel. I ate about half and threw the rest away. I find it helps to take sips if coffee after every few bites.

The bus was full with 20 on the bus. The guide seems nice and knowledge. There are people from Germany, Switzerland, France, Russia, New Zealand, and Taiwan. I was the only one from the states.

One of the ladies, about my age, was also named Tanya (spelled differently).  She is also single, no kids (her sister and family are here for a year).  Her mom also named her after hearing the name in a movie.  She owns two small businesses (okay, here's where we differ).  She was one of seven who spoke German - I didn't realize I should have brushed up on it before I coming.

I've noticed before when I travel that a lot if the tourists are English and Germans. It's also not unusual to run into Europeans that are taking a year and either working short term our doing advanced studies. Two of the guys are lawyers (look to be their 30's) taking class for a year at the "uni" (ie. University).  At the end of the year, they'll go back to their job.  Although normal in Europe, this would never fly in the states.

Went by the Olympic Park. Surprisingly, the area is still expanding with new hotels and such, even 12 years later. Many of the schools use the facilities for matches, and the apartments are popular (they go for $0.5M) due to their proximity to both sports and the subway. They have poles in front of the stadium with the names of the olympic volunteers, and what look like mini-cranes with the names of previous olympic game cities.
I forgot that every tour in Australia and New Zealand includes a morning tea. You usually stop at a park and have juice, cookies (or as they say, biscuits), and dried fruit - but almost never tea.

I love the names of places here. The Blue Mountains have the Grand Canyon and Minne Ha Ha Falls. I remember passing over the Niagara Falls in New Zealand, which is only 1.5 feet tall at most.

Stopped at the kings tableland. It's a big rock overlooking the blue mountains. The edge is a sudden drop off, so they warn people to be careful. Unlike the states where fear of lawsuits would have ruined the natural beauty of the place.

The Blue Mountains are named so because in warm overcast weather there is a blue valor over the mountains that is created from the leaf of the eucalyptus tree (last time I was here our biologist guide said the eucalyptus here are a totally different genus from the States).
Went for a short hike to the lookout for Wentworth Falls. The way down was great; the way back up, not so much. The waterfall didn't have much water due to a drought. Supposedly phenomenal when water is flowing at full force.

Next we went to Katoomba.  The view was great, but we were rushed to catch a boat at the end of the tour.  I would have rather had more time.  At Katoomba, we took a skyway over the gorge, then a cablecar over another gorge, a walk through a cool-weather rainforest (I've been in tropical and subtropical, but this was my first cool-weather), and finally a train almost straight up a mountain.  You had to hold on to everything you owned or it fell to the front of the train.  The german couple is going to email a picture of me on the train going up.

Then it was off to the boat, where I got a mild sunburn and a picture of the Sydney Harbor.

Now I'm leaving the Marriott and going to a small hostel over a pub.  I'm there for two nights, and based on my experience there, will decide where I stay when I come back on the 12th.

Tomorrow I'm thinking of going to Bondi Beach.  There's a 2-3 hour hike along the cliffs that is supposed to be worth doing.

Problems with reading pictures, so none for now - I'll try to add later.

Not sure how much wi-fi access I'll have at the hostel, but I'll try to post again tomorrow.

Jan 2 - I've Arrived!

I feel old. First I walk into a few hostels to check out brochures, and my first thought is "this music is loud and obnoxious". Then I went on a walking tour (more about that later), was walking back with three, what I'll call young adults, feeling very young, and comparing travel experiences. When one made the comment I'd traveled more than her, but I had had a lot more years to visit places. I am actually more than double their age, but she didn't need to point it out.

Today was cloudy, but comfortable (I think it only hit 70). I thought I would explore downtown and the harbor. I remember now why I prefer outbacks to cities. It's a shoppers paradise - unfortunately I hate shopping. They took one block, turned the street into a walking area, and lined both sides of the street with shops, 3-4 stories high. There was a guy playing a pan flute, and three guys doing impressions. The pan flute guy was actually good; not so much the three guys. Their act made me think of something some drunk fraternity guys would have thought up.

Heard about a free tour of the Rocks area in one of the hostels I visited (with the obnoxious music). They start at 6 and last 1.5 hours. I got there just in time. They do the tour for the fun of it and the tips at the end. The tour was pretty good and gave me a feel for the seedier side of Sidney. The Rock area is where harbor workers lived. It was very poor in it's time. Now they have some condos going for >$1M,

I got my first glimpse of the famous bridge. I'm not sure if you can see it, but 1/3 from the top and just starting down from the middle are some bumps in the bridge. Those are people who walked up the bridge steps. The climb includes over 1300 steps, and takes 3.5 hours. I'm thinking I may do it next Saturday. We'll see if it works out.

We heard lots of stories about thieving, treachery, and killing. My favorite stories involved a pub (1 of three claiming to be the oldest in Australia). Men would go in and drink, and the bartender would give a few free to keep him there and drinking. When he was completed inebriated, they would trip a hole in the floor and he would fall down into cells, When they men woke up the next morning, they were forced labor on a ship in the middle of the ocean.

I know I had more to say, but I'm falling asleep. Tomorrow I go to the Blue Mountains on an excursion. Then I move from the Marriott to a hostel - not sure how easy it will be to get access to a computer, but I'll think of something.

Dec 31/Jan 1 - Back On The Road Again.. .

Well, I'm off. I have to admit to being a little nervous as I was preparing to go. Must be from the two year hiatus on travel. As soon as I got to the airport, I feel back into the groove...well more our less. I noticed that packing and checking in was not as natural as it used to be. All small, but a reminder that I need to do better at traveling annually. I left my sleeping pulls at home - I guess I'll just have to survive on aleve. And the pants I'm wearing have side pockets in the leg with zippers, which means I will have to be hand searched every time I go through security. In addition, I knew the pants were a little big, but I thought they would be comfortable. Little did I know they turn into balloon pants during a 29 hour journey (23 hours in flight, 6 hours in airports). And I'm wearing these pants home too.  So when Renee picks me up from the airport, she can look for the girl in the balloon pants. 

The Detroit airport was much nice than the last time I was there - not sure if it was the concourses I used, or a real change. The best surprise was the light and music show in the underground tunnel between concourses that you can see here. If there had been seats, I would have sat and relaxed for a while. A part of me is starting to get excited, but another part won't really believe its happening until I arrive.. .to 80 degree weather, ha, ha, ha. I'll just think about that when the long flight starts driving me crazy.

Here's the luggage I brought. My smallest yet. Figured if I could make it for a week in Kenya without any luggage, I could make it two weeks with just a small bag. My mom would need at least 8 suitcases. ..that's assuming i could even get her on a plane again. Speaking of Kenya, I thought my brother-in-law jinxed me. He said he hoped I wouldn't lose my luggage this time. When I got on the plane in LA , they told us there was an issue and would get back to us once they had a solution. that's how it stated in NYC when they lost my luggage. But this time everything was fine. Somebody dropped their cellphone and since it was turned on, they had to make sure it wasn't going to mess with the electrical systems. They take that turn of phones stuff seriously.

I left LA at 10pm on Dec 31, and arrived in Sydney on Jan 2, so I never had a 12:01 or a New Year's day.  Does this mean it's still 2012 to me?  Just a random thought...

The Delta international flight was great. Even in the cheap seats, I had plenty of leg and but room, lots of free entertainment options, decent food, and friendly flight attendants (three commercial is over now; wished I could say I got recompense for it ).

Here's the sunrise that greeted me to Australia. Okay, I saw it over the Atlantic, a couple hours of shoe, but close enough. It was gorgeous, a great way to get the day.

I got K9'ed in Sydney. They don't like people bringing any kind of food into the country. I'm used to fruit and nuts, but they mean ANYTHING. I brought protein bars and candy. So rather than take me through a full luggage search, they had a group of us put our luggage down, and a K9 dog went through sniffing and digging when he found something suspicious. It was cool. I asked the passport lady what he was searching for, and she said food. I wanted to ask more questions, but figured I better just leave since I had passed. I guess the dog doesn't like my tootsie rolls any more than Kathy B.

I decided to take the subway to My hotel. It's a could miles outside the city. Rather than taking a taxi, I took the subway. It was cheaper and a great way to get acclimated to a new city . Okay, I'm really just cheap.

It took me a little time to get used to their subway and get to my hotel. Did find one problem with purchasing subway tickets - they wouldn't take $50's (which is what the ATM gave me) and they won't take a credit card without a PIN. So I had to wait in line at the ticket both so I could sign. I don't get why the U.S. is the only country not to use PINs instead if signatures. Then I got on the train that has some stations the same, then splits off. By the time I realized it, I had to go back 2 stations and him up with the correct train. Met a nice ex-Pilippino on the train back. He told me I have an accent - I pronounce my "r"s; I guess Aussies don't.  You know, my sister Michele had the same problem as a kid - that's why she called my older sister Ne-ne...

Anyway, I'm settled now and off to see the city. Will likely write again tonight.