Melbourne, Australia

Upon arrival, I discovered that Melbourne, Australia can be a difficult place to find your way around.  The sun is on the wrong side of the sky, the cars are on the wrong side of the road, and your head is muddled by jet lag and lack of sleep after a 14 hour flight.  My disorientation was exacerbated by the fact that the bus from the airport left me off in the center of downtown and I had no idea how to get to my lodgings.  Instead of staying at an easily accessible hotel downtown, I went on the cheap and got a room at Ormond College, a small school somewhere outside of the downtown area.  I had only a bad map and general sense of direction (in which I had little confidence) to guide me.  After trooping across Melbourne streets for over an hour with two stuffed backpacks, trying to remember to look the correct direction when crossing streets, I finally arrived at Ormond, tired and sweaty.  I got to my room, threw my bags down and immediately collapsed on my bed and fell fast asleep.

The first thing one realizes when you get to the other side of the world, is how messed up your internal clock becomes.  The first night I struggled to stay awake until 8 pm (even after my 3-hour post-arrival power nap).   Then I awoke at 3 am, wide awake with nothing to do.  So I roamed around the college until breakfast.  I could see the British influence in the building's architecture - it looked like a stunt double for Cambridge.  I felt like I was in the "Chariots of Fire" movie.

The British influence was even clearer at breakfast.  We ate in a big hall right out of Harry Potter or Oliver Twist - stone walls, big fireplaces, long wooden tables, large portraits of previous college presidents on the wall.  And the breakfast itself was classicly British - bangers (sausage), eggs, and tomatoes were served every morning.

After breakfast I wandered into town and discovered that Australia isn't so much akin to Britain as it is to Canada - lots of gardens, clean streets, friendly people.  The main difference from Canada, as far as I could tell, was that the people tend to end their sentences with "mate" instead of "eh".    I walked into the shopping district and came upon a sports apparel store, figuring to find some rugby or Australian Rules Football jerseys, maybe a cricket shirt.  Instead, I encounterd a guy standing outside the store hawking an authentic Colorado Avalanche jersey - I came halfway around the world to find something I could get just down the street!

Austalia is a melange of tastes for the palette.  It of course has the British influence, so kidney pies, fish & chips, and other traditional British fare is readily available.  It also has many native dishes - I had a kangaroo burger for lunch once - tasted like hamburger, but with a bit more kick to it.  Australia's proximity to the Far East means that there is a large selection of Asian cuisine.  Beyond the familiar Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Indian restaurants, there was also Malaysian, which is where I had the best meal of the trip.  There is also even small Greek and Italian sections of the city.  However, the busiest restaurants I found were, of course, McDonalds.  There were at least three in the downtown area and each time I passed by, the places were packed.  Another place many of us frequented many times during our stay was a small wine bar where we imbibed many excellent Australian and New Zealand wines.

The wildlife in Australia, is of course quite exotic.  We visited the Melbourne Zoo to see kangaroos, wombats, platypuses, and Tasmanian devils (which looks nothing like the Warner Brothers character by the way - big disappointment).  We also saw flying foxes - large bats that hang from trees until dusk, in the Botanical Gardens.  However, the highlight of the trip was our trip to Phillips Island.  Friends Marika, Todd, Drew, and myselft rented a car to drive out to the island, which is about an hour's drive outside Melbourne and looks out over the Bass Strait south toward Tasmania.  

Our first stop was at the Koala Preserve.  We were able to walk right up to the koalas (which are not bears, no matter what Teddy Roosevelt may say) and take photos from within a couple feet.  These are very strange animals.  They move very slowly and methodically - not at all lifelike.  They looked like a Disney animatronic version of a koala.  I searched for the battery cover so that I could demand my money back for passing off these 'fake' koalas as real animals!  Alas, I couldn't find it, so I have to assume they were actually alive though I still have my doubts.

Next was the Penguin Parade.  Each day small faerie penguins head out to the ocean to feed and then head back to shore at sunset to feed their young in burrows at the edge of the beach.  The penguins are skittish around humans and so to prevent any stress on the animals they've built large bleachers so that masses of people could come watch as the penguins waddle across the beach each evening.  One thing the penguins are particularly sensitive to is bright light.  Thus, tourists are asked to not use a flash when taking pictures.  Of course, most modern cameras default to an automatic flash that tends to go off in the dim dusky light.  And apparently most tourists aren't bright enough to figure out how to manually turn off the flash and/or cover the flash with their fingers.  Flashes went off repeatedly despite the threats by workers to confiscate cameras.

The next day, we went to St. Kilda's Beach, which looks a lot like Southern California - beaches, palm trees, etc. - except it was much cooler.  Since it was July, it was of course midwinter in Australia.  Although it tended to be cool and cloudy, the winters are not near as severe as in the U.S.  Even though Melbourne is about as close to the South Pole as New York is to the North Pole, the surrounding ocean moderates the climate and we rarely required more than sweater or light jacket.   Generally it was in the 50s F.

One of the unique Australian cultural events to partake in is Australian Rules Football, or 'footy' as the locals call it.  This is played primarily in Southeast Australia - mainly Melbourne and Sydney.  It's a cross between American football, rubgy, and 'kill the QB'.  The fans really get into the affair and show their support for their team by waving flages, wearing colorful scarfs with their team's logo, and yelling 'bloody' a lot.  We watched the Western Bulldogs defeat the Carlton Blues 110-74.  Where baseball has the hot dog as the iconic food, footy has the meat pie.  This a pastry stuffed with beef (similar to a chicken pot pie but you eat it with your hands) that is eaten with ketchup, or tomato sauce as the Aussie's call it.

As I mentioned above, my sleeping patterns were very messed up when I first arrived.  Through the 10-day stay, I gradually became acclimated and started getting onto a more normal cycle.  The final night I finally stayed up past 11 pm.  Actually well past, which was not good.  We went to the large hi-rise hotel/casino in town.  One claim to fame of this casino is a bathroom with one of the best views in the world.  On the top floor, one wall of the bathroom is a floor-to-ceiling window.  So, you can relieve yourself while looking down on a panoramic view of the entire city.

The casino was very crowded and it was difficult to find a table for blackjack, which is what I wanted to play.  Todd was more successful, finding a spot and winning $50 (Australian).  Todd took his winnings and gave his seat to me, where I quickly lost $50.  Thus, for all practical purposes, Todd stole $50 from me - I'm still waiting for him to pay me back.  By this time, it was quite late and I had a long trip back to Ormond College.  As I got outside, it started pouring rain.  So, drenched to the bone, I got back to my room after 1 am, where I had to sleep quick before catching a 5:30 am cab to the airport for the flight to New Zealand.

New Zealand

Todd and I continued our Southern Hemisphere tour with a few days on New Zealand's North Island.  After our arrival in Auckland, we headed to the Waitomo Caves, where according to our tour book, there was something called 'blackwater rafting.  We didn't know what this was exactly, but it sounded interesting.  It isn't rafting through rapids like in the U.S., but rather rafting, or more accurately tubing, through the Waitomo Caves.  It is quite the adventure.  After you put on a wetsuit and a hardhat with a lantern, you hike a mile through a rain forest.  Then you're given an innertube and told to jump backwards into a river from about a 15 foot height (to make sure you can handle what you'll run into in the caves).  Finally, you're ready to head into the caves, where you alternately clamber over rocks, jump into dark pools of unknown depth, and float down dark tunnels.  The dark tunnels are the centerpiece of the trip.  While floating along, you turn off your lantern and look to the ceiling where thousands of glowworms hang.  These worms have a small light at one end of their body (much like a firefly) that they use to lure prey.  With our lanterns turned off, you stare at a ceiling that looks like a moonless sky, with thousands of glowing stars.

After our rafting tour, the other members of our group told Todd and I that if we liked the blackwater rafting, we needed to go bungy jumping.  Bungy jumping, at least as a tourist attraction, began in Queenstown on New Zealand's South Island.  Neither Todd or I were real sure about the idea of bungy jumping, but somehow our car ended up at the Taupo bungy jump the next morning.  A sign in front said there was a student special, so we had to go in and check it out.  We wandered around the place, looking at t-shirts and other souvenirs, delaying a decision that I realized was basically mine to make.  I knew Todd wasn't too sure about it - heck, he was unsure about getting on the airplane for the flight to Australia.  So, I knew that if I said no, Todd would happily comply.  However, I also knew that if I did decide to do it, Todd would have no choice but to go along - he wouldn't want to face our friends back home with me telling my bungy jumping story.  I mulled it over for a while longer before I thought, "what the heck, who knows if we'll ever get a chance to do this again, especially in the country in which bungy jumping was invented".  [Little did I know at the time that 5 1/2 years later, that very chance would indeed present itself - read about it here].  I said to Todd, "I'm going to do it."   Having made the decision I wanted to get it over with as soon as possible before the nerves really started kicking in.  So, I went right up to the counter, followed with some trepidation by Todd, and said, "We're going to do it."  The guy at the counter said, "Great mates.  The guys have just left for their lunch break - so you'll be first to go after they come back in an hour and a half."  So, we were left with nothing to do but to wander around downtown Taupo for an hour and a half, trying to keep our minds off the impending doom by browsing cheap Australian souvenirs.

Finally, there we were - out on the platform getting ready to go.  Of course, Todd ended up being picked to go first.  They wrapped his ankles in a towel and velcro strapping (which didn't seem too secure, but the guys assured us that there'd be no problems).  His ankles wrapped, Todd waddled to the edge.  The guys counted down from three with Todd and he - well, he just stood there.  Then, they counted down again and Todd disappeared over the edge.  There was complete silence for a moment, until a primal scream came from below.  Despite my tension, I couldn't help laughing.  Next it was my turn.  I was nervous, but not terribly.  I love roller coasters and figured this was just short roller coaster ride.  When I started falling and my stomach jumped into my throat, it was just like a good coaster ride.  However, I kept falling for what seemed a very long time - far longer than any coaster I'd ever been on.  I would've screamed too, but my throat was too tight.  Todd and I hiked back up from the bottom exhilarated from our death-defying feat.  When we reached the top, we were told that we could go again for half price.  We looked at each other and briefly considered it until we saw that a busload of Japanese tourists had just arrived and it would be another long wait.  Our three second freefall had already taken up much more of the day than we had planned, so we skipped it.  Afterward, Todd noted that New Zealand was proving to be much more adventurous than Australia.  After a sedate ten days in Melbourne of sitting in conference sessions, visiting penguins and koalas, drinking in a wine bar, watching some footy, in less than 48 hours in New Zealand, Todd and I had already bungy jumped and went black water rafting.

New Zealand is a fascinating place of tremendously varied environments.  It seems like the whole of the U.S. is crammed into these two small islands.  Outside of Taupo, we visited Craters of the Moon, a park full of mudpots, geysers, and hot springs, much like Yellowstone.  Later, we drove through the rainforests of the Coromandel Peninsula, which is lot like Hawaii.  The mideastern coast of the North Island has California-like beaches, the mountains around Rotorua look like Colorado, the mountains and glaciers of the South Island are just like Alaska, and the rolling hills and pasture lands of the middle of the North Island are like Wisconsin.

The drive around the Coromandel Peninsula was an adventure to almost rival bungy jumping.  We drove through rainforests on steep, winding, narrow dirt roads in which passing an oncoming vehicle meant hugging the edge of a precipitous drop off.  Todd did the driving because we had a stick shift and I wasn't ready to handle a stick shift and driving on the opposite side of the road.  While the Coromandel Peninsula was the biggest challenge, driving through New Zealand in general takes some getting used to.  You are on the opposite side of the road of course, but you also have one-lane bridges to deal with.  Since many of the roads are not heavily traveled, only one lane of a bridge was built and if cars are approaching the bridge from opposite directions, you have to read the signs carefully to determine whether or not you have the right of way.  As navigator, I tended to say "go left" when I meant "go right", and vice versa, to Todd's continuing consternation.  Another problem is that the accessories on the steering column are also reversed, so that when Todd when to put on the turn signal, he often turned on the windshield wipers.

We stayed primarily in hostels, which were very affordable, generally very nice (much nicer than in the U.S.), and often came with perks.  One common perk was free use of sea kayaks.  We took advantage of these in Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula, which was quite enjoyable.  However, when we tried it again in Russell, we ran into problems.  The winds were kicking up and we could not control the direction of the kayaks.  As a result Todd stayed close to shore.  However, I decided to be a bit more daring and kayaked several hundred yards to a small island.  About halfway across, struggling to keep going in one direction, I realized several things nearly simultaneously:  (1) this was only the second time I had been in a sea kayak, (2) it wouldn't be hard to capsize in such strong winds, (3) the water was quite cold, (4) I wasn't wearing a wetsuit, (5) it was much farther to the island than it initially looked, (6) I was in the middle of a shipping line with limited mobility to get out of the way of any boats that might come along.   Suddenly, bungy jumping and blackwater rafting were looking downright sedate comparatively.  But I struggled on very carefully, watching for any boats that might run me over, until I finally made it to the island where I rested my tired arms.  Then I realized I had to turn around and go back.

After days of adventure via intertube, bungy cord, automobile, and sea kayak, we decided to do something a little less intense and learn about some of New Zealand's history.  Russell, on the northern part of the North Island is one of the main historical sites in New Zealand.  It's one of the first European settlements in New Zealand and contains many of the country's oldest buildings, including (1) Christ Church, the oldest New Zealand church (1840), which Charles Darwin contributed money to the building of when he stopped by on his tour with the HMS Beagle; and (2) the Duke of Marlborough, the oldest bar in New Zealand, where Todd and I enjoyed a beer.

Near Russell is the Waitangi Treaty House, where the treaty between the European settlers and the native Maori was signed in 1840.  The treaty ended several years of fighting between the Maoria and the Europeans.  While there have been some problems between the two groups since, the relations since the treaty signing have been largely amicable, in stark contrastto the treatment of natives in the U.S.   The Maori language is an official New Zealand language and Maori culture is well respected throughout the country.

Our final day in New Zealand was spent in Auckland, the capital.  Dominating the Auckland sklyline is the Sky Tower, the tallest man-made structure in the Southern Hemisphere.  As such, Todd and I of course had to visit.  However, when we arrived, we discovered that it had just been finished and wouldn't be open to the public for another week.  [I did eventually get to the top of Sky Tower, although Todd still has not].  So, we headed off to Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic and Undersea Experience.  This is an interesting place - half aquarium and half Antarctic museum.  In the Antarctic section, they have a replica of Capt. Robert Scott's hut in Antarctica.  This was his base camp from which he began his ill-fated and tragic trip to the South Pole in 1911-1912.  They also had an Emporer Penguin exhibit that you went through in little cars on tracks, like a Disney ride.  Then there was an exhibit on Sir Edmund Hilary, the first man (along with Tenzing Norgay) to climb Mt. Everest.  Hilary is New Zealand's national hero (although Peter Jackson is now giving him a run for his money).  The aquarium was unique in that you walk through the exhibits via clear tubes so that it felt like we were right inside the aquarium with fish swimming not only on each side but also above us.

Then it was time to head back to the U.S.  I stopped over for a day in Los Angeles to vist my friend Bob.  My senses were assaulted by the hot summer sun.  I drove through an LA rush hour fighting the urge to drive on the left side of the street.  And my sleep patterns were again completely out of whack.  However, before leaving LA, I had one more thing to do.  We drove out to Santa Monica and went out to the beach.  Days earlier I walked out into the western edge of the Pacific, 6500 miles from my current position, and now I completed my trip by walking into the eastern end of the Pacific Ocean.