Sweet as, bro!

After adjusting to the change in weather I ended up having a nice time in Melbs catching up with the friends I had met when I was there. I stayed with Nerys half of the time...



and Damien the other half....


On Friday Kara (who I met while working at the Red Cross) took the day off and drove me out of the city to Ballarat. We went to a museum and learned about the settlers in Ballarat and a small civil war (I think about 12 people died) that they had over gold and who should have to pay taxes on finding it. Here I am super excited to learn about the history...


It didn't take long for us to start acting inappropriately...

Really inappropriately...
I found a Canadian flag in the mini-movie theatre in the museum...

AND there was a place called "Canadian" on our way home which I made Kara stop at so I could take a pic...

One of the dudes who first came to Melbourne had the last name Batman and apparently they considered naming it "Batmania". How awesome would that have been!? Still, having a Batman train station is pretty great.

I also caught up with some old Cirque friends including Ashley and Lucy on my last night in OZ at my favourite bar in Fitzroy called The Black Cat...

Kara came too!

Then I flew to Christchurch on the 22nd, spent one night in a hostel there and then went to meet Nathan in Oamaru which is about a 3 hour drive away. I met Nathan in Sydney last December and we have kept in touch. He had lived in OZ for many years but recently moved back to New Zealand, where he was born. I was pretty happy to catch up with him after several failed attempts at doing so previously.

Nathans sister Tania who I had never met before picked me up and drove me to Oamaru because Nathan was having an art show that night. Tania and I got along sooooooo well. The conversation flowed easily and her 10 and 17 year old daughters Erin and Julia (who are also insanely awesome) were along for the ride as well. When I happened to mention that I owned all 7 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer our friendship was sealed and I was immediately adopted into the family. I even spent the day with her when I got back to Christchurch before flying to Wellington and she did an astrology reading for me and cooked me dinner. Nathans Mum drove me from Oamaru to Christchurch after my visit with him had finished and we got along swimmingly as well. She made me laugh so much. Such an awesome family!

I was in Oamaru for about a week and stayed with Nathan and his lovely flat mate Kate (on the right)...

and her 2 dogs Lurch...

and Slade. Who despite how cute they look in these pics proved that they can be vicious animals at times when they got into a fight and bit Kate's hand during her attempt to pull them apart. She was bleeding quite a bit and had to go to the hospital and take a few days off work. It was rather scary. As usual my reaction was to walk away from the situation. Don't ever rely on me in an emergency. I just can't deal.

The night that I arrived Nathan had an art show. He is a Graffiti artist and now uses other mediums for his work as well. The show was called Scratch and Sniff. Here is some of his sick work!

This is an instillation which he entitled "Sin City".

At the end of the show he did a live paint for an hour. It was pretty fun to watch.

Hellz yes!!!

The next day we headed out of town to do some touristy stuff cause Nathan had a few days off. On the drive we saw this dude and I couldn't help but take a pic of him. How long do you think he's owned that bad ass outfit for? It's hard to see but it has all these badges sewn onto the arms. Amazing.

Nathan's lovely bosses let us use their trailer about an hour outside of Oamaru.

The view from the trailer was amazing and so green and hilly compared to Australia...

Even though the trailer itself was super rustic with no running water or electricity...

But it was cozy and cute and Nathan and I managed to make dinner on a gas burner and play a 5 hour game of Scrabble which he ended up winning by 5 points. So gutted.

The next day Nathan took me to see the Moeraki Boulders. The website for the boulders claims that they are a number of huge spherical stones, found strewn along a stretch of Koekohe Beach near Moeraki, a small settlement just south of Hampden on New Zealand's Otago coast. These boulders are grey-coloured septarian concretions which have been exposed through shoreline erosion from black mudstone coastal cliffs that back the beach. They originally formed in ancient sea floor sediments during the early Paleocene some 60 million years ago. The boulders weigh several tonnes and are up to three metres in diameter. Maori legend tells that the boulders are remains of calabashes, kumaras and eel baskets that washed ashore after the legendary canoe, the Araiteuru was wrecked at nearby Shag Point (He he he Shag point).

But Nathan and I reckon they are Alien pods. Some of which have hatched...

Some of which probably still contain Aliens who are spying on us...

They slowly make their way from the cliffs on the side of the beach. Creepy!

Nathan also took me to see the Lanarch Castle in Dunedin. It cost $25 to go in though so we just hung around in the garden and had Devonshire tea (Scones with jam and whipped cream yum!)

One of the main differences between OZ and New Zealand is how green and lush it is since there is no drought here. It's very beautiful.

We also went to Baldwin street which is the steepest street in the world. Pretty crazy. I wasn't keen to drive up in fear that the brakes would give out on the way down, especially since it was a rainy day and the pavement was wet so we walked up instead. Apparently a while back a few college kids died after going down the street in a wheely bin and going head first into a car.

Nathan demonstrates the reason why caution is needed when walking on Baldwin Street...

After staying with Nathan and hanging out for a week I headed back to Christchurch for 4 nights. I stayed in an amazing hostel called Around The World Backpackers. It was run by a charming couple who made everyone feel really welcome and since it was small it was easy to make friends. I did a lot a partying in those 4 nights (apparently the bars don't close until about 5am in New Zealand and there is tons of live music so it's easy to get caught up when you go out). I did manage to get to the Museum one day though and saw some cool things including this house which a local had decorated with shells. It was the tackiest thing I have ever seen.

I also got to (pretend) to ride on this super awesome bike...

The night before when we went out we found THIS bike locked up outside the pub. Yep that's right, someone rode this bad boy to the pub. I really should have waited outside for them so I could have proposed.

There was a river which ran through Christchurch which was really pretty...

and you can take romantic boat rides on it...

they also have old trams not unlike the ones in Melbourne...

So yesterday I took a 45 minute flight to Wellington. I am staying in a hostel called Wellywood and for the first time in my many nights spent in hostels I had a bad experience with a room mate. This 18 year old wank who was waisted came in at 3am, turned on the light and started chatting to us while eating chips really loudly. I told him to shut up, turn the light off and get out. He kept asking what my name was and I wouldn't tell him. When he finally went to bed (after sitting in the corner loudly finishing his chips) he moved around all night and once and a while did this crazy loud snoring thing which another girl in the room later described as scream snoring. He thought it was all pretty funny in the morning. I didn't. I moved rooms.

I went to see a flat today and took it on impulse. I am kind of skeptical as I haven't met the other 3 flat mates yet but apparently there are 2 girls in their early 20's and they haven't found the 4th person yet. I guess the main reasons I took it were that a) it's a 3 month sublet which is hard to find b) it's furnished which saves me the hastle of buying furniture and then selling it a few months later for half the price and c) it's a 5 minute walk into the centre of the city (not that Welly is that big. You can pretty much walk anywhere). So I move in a week today. Hopefully I won't have any aweful room mate experiences between now and then. I have been emailing my resume to temp agencies today and tomorrow I will drop it off at cafes and restaurants. I am excited to start working again. It's amazing how much you can appreciate working when you don't have to do it!

If you want to hear what an exagerated NZ accent sounds like and some of their crazy words/sayings...watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA. I have already started saying "sweet as" all the time!

Exes and Ohs!

I left a piece of my heart on Magnetic Island

My last few weeks on Magnetic Island flew by and for the first time on my travels, I had to leave somewhere that I didn't feel ready to leave yet. I had no idea it was possible to fall so in love with a place. Even if I was having a hard day, at some point every single day I would think to myself...I LOVE MY LIFE SO MUCH! It was like I escaped the world for 2 1/2 months. So I tried to make the best of my last few days there which included visiting Alma Bay for the last time...

Taking photos of some of my favourite things about the island...like these rocks that always look like they're about to tip over...

Making sure I went to my favourite beach as much as possible (Rocky Bay), which I actually cried when I left the last time...

One of those last times I brought Franck with me thinking it would be nice to have some company and he did this the whole time...

BORING!!!


Some more of those pretty rocks at Rocky Bay...

Balding Bay (which Laura took me to on my last Friday on the Island). It took us about half an hour to walk there up some pretty steep rocks in the heat and on the way we got yelled at by this crazy man who lives on a boat in Horseshoe Bay who told us we were "stupid females"and needed to "get a man". But it was worth it!

This one is at Picnic Bay and looks like the profile of a face. Can you see it???

Another one at Picnic Bay. Tired of looking at pictures of rocks yet? How about a picture of a Cockatoo than?

This Cockatoo flew down quite close to us at the hostel which is unusual. They normally stay high up in the trees eating mangoes and making crazy noises (not unlike most birds in OZ).

One of my last sunsets on the Island...

One night there was some live Latin music down by the beach close to where I lived so Franck and I went to check it out. The music itself sucked pretty bad (the woman was a TERRIBLE singer) but there was a dance performance which was kind of neat...

Franck and Vince decided they could do a better job (which they did) out on the Jetty.

At the same time there were people picnicking on the Jetty at Picnic Bay. Some people had really fancy food and decorations. It was super cute.

Here's one thing I won't miss about the island or Australia in general...

But I will miss having BBQ's with my Maggie Island family. This one was at Laura and Riccardos new amazing cottage-like flat in Horseshoe Bay.

Of course my last few weeks on the island involved some drinking and dancing and general mayhem (what night didn't, really). On this night we had our own dance party and the Frenchies decided to do a little Michael Jackson Thriller.

Jazz hands???

One night we went to X-Base because there were 2 amazing guitarists playing. Live music doesn't happen often on the island so when it does we made sure we were there.

Franck and Jeremy obviously enjoying the music. They are just too cool to smile!

Me enjoying the music...

Riccardo and I enjoying the music together!

Brilliant invention. Keeps the beer cold without having to water it down with ice!

After the live music was over they had a game of musical chairs and the winner got a bar tab. If you didn't get a chair you could choose to take an article of clothing off to stay in the game...

and the winner is...

I also went to the RSL Markets for the last time to enjoy some yummy Indonesian food with lovely Laura and Riccardo. Although I was very sad to find out that the cheesecake lady had sold out prior to our arrival because someone had come and cleaned her out for a dinner party they were having. Has no one heard of pre-ordering? Geez! So I had to settle for these little Dutch donuts which I still can't pronounce the name of smothered in chocolate and icing sugar. They were ok but nothing beats that cheesecake.

On my last Saturday night on the island we had a BBQ at Hideaway...

and Franck even helped out with the washing up. Amazing! Thanks Franck!

After we went to X-Base for our last night of crazyness. Unfortunately Paul passed out in the hammock before we got there and didn't make it out with us.

My last day was tear-filled and very bitter sweet. Franck drove me to the ferry and Laura and Riccardo met me there to say one last goodbye. Here they are waving to me as my ferry pulled away...

My first few days in Melbourne (I'm here for 10 days to say goodbye to the people I met while I lived here) were pretty emotional. My body was here but my mind and heart were still on the Island and to make it worse it was rainy, cloudy and cold for about 6 days straight which was hard for me after being in non-stop sunshine and warmth for 2 1/2 months (although today it's sunny and about 25 - hooray!). I fantasized a lot about going back but now that I've been gone a week I am starting to feel more excited about the adventures to come and trying to look forward (or to stay in the moment) rather than living in the past. It was an amazing time and with any luck I will be back there someday.

So...what's the plan now? Well, I fly into Christchurch New Zealand on Thursday night. From what I hear it's not a city I am going to want to stay in for any length of time so I am first going to visit a friend who I met in Sydney in December who I have kept in contact with and who has an art show the day after a get there in a small town about 200kms from Christchurch. We will probably do some sightseeing the next few days after that and then I will either meet up with a German friend named Hendrik that I hung out with for a few days when he came and stayed at Hideaway a few months ago and is now driving around New Zealand or fly to Wellington which is apparently the Melbourne of NZ and meet up with my Canadian friend Lindsay who I met while working for Cirque Du Soleil and is now living there. Nerys and some other friends will be in NZ for X-Mas and New Years so hopefully I will meet up with them. One day at a time...mate! I will post my new Mobile number as soon as I get one in NZ as I won't be able to use the current one I have after I leave OZ. As of now I plan to be there for approx. 4 months and then go to Thailand for a month before heading home in April.

Side note: One of my biggest pet peeves about travelling is when I tell people from home what I am up to (i.e. living on a tropical paradise island) and their response is "wow, you're so lucky"! Um...no...this trip has nothing to do with luck. If I had won the lottery, perhaps I could attribute this year and a half to "luck"but the truth is...I worked my ass off to save money to come here and I worked my ass off while I was here to save money again and I took a leap of faith and came to the other side of the world by myself and that is MY doing...not lucks. I created this reality for myself and so can anyone else. Thinking about it is much scarier than actually doing it. If you've ever travelled, you know what I mean. Ok, just needed to get that off my chest. Phew. That feels better. Hope I haven't offended anyone.

See you in New Zealand!
xoxo