Return of the Seppo

Sadly, we've really dropped the ball on keeping this blog up to date over the past three months, but not without good reason.  Although not yet mentioned on this blog, Lydia and I are ending our tenure here in Melbourne to repatriate back to the US, specifically Atlanta.  The move is bittersweet and was not an easy decision; it involved a number of aspects and life choices (family and friends, financial, and temporal considerations), but ultimately we believe the time is right.

We will sincerely miss our friends here in Melbourne and it is with great regret that we'll have to miss some of their key life events- engagements, weddings, and babies.  Although we won't be able to celebrate with each of them in person, we're looking forward to staying in contact via Google Hangouts and email, and we certainly plan on returning in the not-too-distant future, if only to visit.  We're also looking forward to them visiting us in the States where we can hopefully share our lives with them.

Over the next few weeks, I hope to help fill the gaps we've left in the blog, particularly in regards to our moving preparations, our recent travels to Uluru, Perth, and Northern Queensland, and our farewells.

We officially fly out tomorrow back to Atlanta (coincidentally marking exactly two years in Australia), so today is officially our last day (for now) of our Australian adventure.  We can't thank our family back in the States and friends (both here in Australia and overseas) enough for all of their love and support.  We've made lifelong friends, accumulated unforgettable stories and adventures, and gained invaluable and unforgettable life experiences here in Australia.  We're looking forward to the next chapter of our lives continuing our adventure back in the US.  Although we won't be in Australia, we'll forever be Seppo Yanks.

An Island in the Sun

Alas, we find ourselves neglecting our beloved blog once again.  To our readers, please accept our earnest apologies, we promise it's for good cause.  While not publicised yet on this blog, we've had some considerable life and traveling developments over the past two months, which has been keeping us quite busy.  Stay tuned, as a windfall of posts shall follow.

To break the lapse in posts, here's a quick one of a timelapse I've put together from our long weekend in Fiji in May:



 And a couple of photos for good measure:

5 Minutes or Less: It's a family affar (part deux)

A more substantial post to follow, but just wanted to share that Lydia and I had the pleasure of showing my sister and her boyfriend around greater Melbourne and Tasmania when they were in town a couple of weeks ago:

Thanks guys for coming to visit and for all of the fun!

Seppo Journey to Middle Earth

As is becoming standard for this blog, this post is about three weeks late.  But we seppos embrace the mantra, “Better late than never.”

Lydia and I adventured over to New Zealand’s South Island three weeks ago for a two week adventure exploring the scenery and culture.  We were fortunate enough to be joined by our fellow American friends Kat, who flew in all the way from Salt Lake City (via Sydney), and Jim who flew in from Melbourne.  We were excited to be joined by Kat and Jim so we could all celebrate Thanksgiving together.

We spent a bit of time organising a tentative itinerary before arriving in Christchurch, although we intentionally avoided booking too many things in advance to keep our options open.  Here's a rough map of our route and the sites we saw (this was what we used to plan).  Note that we only spent time on the South Island, so the North Island destinations will have to be on another trip.


View New Zealand in a larger map
We met up with Kat at the airport late on the 17^th, where Morgan, an old friend from my days back at Roswell High School (and later UGA) and her husband Evan picked us up to spend the night at their place.  Evan and Morgan just recently moved to Christchurch from Atlanta to pursue their dream of living in New Zealand.  We caught up on each others’ lives, with a few nostalgic stories thrown in for good measure (one in particular regarding 9^th grade geometry), before heading to bed

The next day (day one) we met up with Jim, picked up our Jucy camper van which was to home for the next two weeks, and headed straight to the Adrenaline Forest with Morgan and Evan leading the way.  We figured the best first adventure was to zip line and swing through the New Zealand forest, after sitting on a flight for four hours and before jumping the van to sit some more.

After finishing the highest ropes course, we hopped in the van and drove up to Hamner springs to soak in the natural hotsprings, before driving up to Kaikoura to spend the night.  After a bit of some off-roading and a couple of detours, we found our way to the free “Meatworks” campground along the beach.  We all slept soundly that first night out of exhaustion, and awoke on day two to stunning views of the beach.

We ate breakfast and then went for a hike around Kaikoura, along the cliffs and beaches.  Along the way, we found wild seals relaxing on the beach, and I found that I’m apparently allergic to grass in Kaikoura.

We piled back into the van and made our way north to the Marlborough region for some wine tours.  We ended up rolling in just in time to stop by two wineries, where we enjoyed a few tastings of New Zealand wine.  Lydia and I really liked the whites and bought a few bottles for our trip.  We ended up camping at Cable Bay just outside of Nelson.  We found a really nice camp ground just yards from the bay, with stunning views of the surrounding cliffs and water:

The next day (day three) we took off towards Nelson, where we picked up a map of local breweries and brewpubs.  We scooted around town (with a designated driver!) to four breweries enjoying the New Zealand brews- I was excited and geeking out as a lot of hop varieties are grown in the region due to the ideal growing conditions.

We finished the afternoon (and tour) by picking up a growler of a local stout and four liters of apple juice, then headed down to the beach to enjoy the sunny weather.  We then drove up to meet up with one of Jim's friends that he met sailing two years prior, who lived on the edge of an apple and cherry orchard.  We had fun meeting some authentic Kiwis and watching the sun set over Abel Tasman national park.

On day four of our trip, we got an early start for the long drive down to the West Coast, where we stopped at Punakaiki (pancake rocks) which, while still beautiful, we found a little anti-climactic.  We hopped back in the van, and scooted on down to Greymouth, where we parked the van in a holiday park, and walked to the Montieth's brewery, where we had dinner followed by a brewery tour and tastings.  There we met Kym and Dale, both seasonal Alaskan dog sled mushers who were on vacation in New Zealand.  Kym coincidentally was moving to Utah when she returned to the States, so Kat and she exchanged contact details.

On day five, which was Thanksgiving Day, we headed down to Fox Glacier so we could be up early for our glacier hike the following day.  We went on a short hike around Lake Matheson, then parked the van and enjoyed some pre-dinner drinks with our campervan neighbors, all from France.  After listening to music and having a good time, the four of us went into town for a Thanksgiving feast at an American-style restaurant.  While the food wasn't anything to write home about, we had a great time sharing stories and honoring Thanksgiving traditions together.

On day six, we woke up early and met up at the Fox Glacier lodge where we got fitted with crampons (Lyds and I brought our hiking boots), then bussed up to the glacier.  We chose to do the half-day hike because we wanted to maximize our time on the glacier and see the most we could.  The experience was absolutely incredible!  The glacier was beautiful and we really enjoyed learning about the geographic nature.  Contrary to conventional wisdom regarding global warming and melting glacier, glaciers have been growing and receding for millions of years, and no more or less so over the past couple of thousands of years.  The glacier itself is constantly changing and moving; the guides have to make new paths nearly every day.  As a result, no two hikes are exactly the same, and new caves, crevices, and channels are forming and devolving every day.

The next day (day seven) we made the long drive down to Queenstown where we were to spend the next day seeing the city and partaking in the adventure sports that it's known for.  Jim opted to do the Nevis Bungy jump (Kat joined him for moral support, but opted not to do the plummet- I don't blame her) and Lydia and I booked in a hang-gliding tour.  The tour picked us up from the holiday park, where we jumped in the van with other hang gliders and paragliders, where we were promptly met by a young Chinese woman, who in broken English told us with a wide smile that she had, "broken leg doing this sport, okay?" Lydia and I exchanged a silent glance, spare for the sound of an anxious gulp.  Was this woman telling us she had just broken her leg hang gliding?  If so, why is she in the van and not in an ambulance?  She seemed pretty happy, so maybe she had broken her leg in the past parasailing?  But then why would she be doing it again?  After a few minutes of concerted introspection, the van stopped and one of the instructors popped his head in, asking which person had broken their leg, and confirming that she was okay to paraglide, while inadvertently quelling Lydia's and my fears by confirming that the woman hadn't actually broken her leg doing the sport.  We geared up excitedly, not sure what quite to expect, and received instruction from our tandem pilots.  As I've sky dived before, I was expecting something similar, but wasn't really sure if it'd be fast, loud, or windy.  As it turns out, it was none of those, and may perhaps have been the most peaceful and relaxing thing I've ever had the opportunity to do.  It's literally like you're flying, but not quickly or turbulently like in an airplane.  It's almost dead-silent, and we only were moving at about 25 miles per hour, and the scenery just lazily drifts by.  Probably the most exciting (and my favorite part) was the landing.  My pilot took me on a bit of a ride where we got to do some stalls and hard banks, but we landed like a feather.

Here's a GoPro video of Lydia's flight:



And Mine (apparently my pilot had his GoPro set to a lower resolution):


After returning to the camp site a couple of hours before Jim and Kat, Lydia and I moved the van, then grabbed lunch at the famous Ferg Burger in downtown Queenstown.  We poked around the city, I swung by an internet cafe for some quick emails, then we ended up meeting up with Kat and Jim on the way back to the van.  We found a new (less expensive) camp ground still walking distance from town.  Coincidentally enough, our campground neighbors were the same French friends we had met at Fox glacier.  After exchanging contact details to meet up later in the evening (they went into town for dinner), we started the evening playing some drinking games in the van (it's probably been six years since I'd last played circle of death), then headed out for an evening on the town.  We ended up meeting up with the two guys from the four-person french crew, after which point the rounds of jager, chartreuse, and mixed drink shots turned an evening out in Queenstown into an evening out in Athens, GA (my college town).  Long story short, it was a fun, albeit late night, and we found ourselves not rising particularly early the next morning.

On day eight, we got moving around noon and made the long drive down to Milford Sound.  Perhaps offering the most impressive views of the entire trip (which is saying a lot, because all views in the South Island are impressive).  We rolled in around 5pm after navigating the mountain passes, and a mudslide clean-up area, in a persistent drizzle.  We headed to the near-abandoned cruise port where we befriended on of the cruise booking staff who kindly set us up for a cruise the next day, gave us the lay of the land, and informed us that whether we liked it or not, we'd be spending the night in Milford Sound, since they shut down the one road in and out out of fear of mudslides.  Apparently the mud slide from a few weeks earlier had stranded our cruise attendant friend in Milford sound for nearly two weeks.  She reassured us that mud slides are only a risk when it rains a lot, at which point we collectively looked outside at the more-than-just-a-drizzle rain, and all shifted uncomfortably.  We headed into the "town" where there was one bar/lodge, and we enjoyed a hot dinner, a few beers, and a couple games of pool and foosball (both of which, Jim cleaned up).  We tucked in for the night, safe from the rain and persistent biting flies in the parking lot outside as the rain continued to fall, and each silently reflecting upon our newly found knowledge on the causes of mud slides.

We awoke on day nine early to catch our 9am cruise out on the sound.  We all boarded and shortly thereafter, lost Kat somewhere on board.  Figuring she had just gone to the bathroom, Lydia, Jim, and I took full advantage of the continental breakfast on the lower deck, growing concerned after about 15 minutes about Kat.  We poked around the ship looking for her, only to find her on the top deck taking in the sites, where she had been all along.  We fought the cold and the wet and took in the sight and immense beauty of the sound.  We saw wild seals, epic water falls, and mountains looming in the distance.

The cruise was well worth the price of admission, and just the right amount of time.  We hopped back in the van and went the direction from whence we came, a six hour drive back through Queenstown and all the way out to Lake Tekapo.  As an aside, some advice for any about to embark on a caravan trip around the south island- if you go to Lake Tekapo (and you should - it's incredible), do not stay at the Lake Tekapo holiday park.  At a hefty rate of $80/night, we suspected that perhaps the proprietor had fallen upon difficult financial times, particularly given the sub-par standard of the amenities.  Our suspicions were confirmed (almost comedically) when we went to go shower, only to find that in order to enjoy the luxury of 10 minutes of hot water, one must deposit a two-dollar coin in the coin-operated water heaters.  Rip-offs aside, the lake was beautiful, offering stunning views of the Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand.

On day ten, we finished the remaining drive back up to Christchurch, where we said our saddened goodbyes to Jim and Kat (Kat had to fly out early the next day).  We dropped them off at the Antarctic Museum so Kat could hold a penguin, then Lydia and I hurredly gathered provisions in town, then promptly drove two more hours to Arthur's Pass for some overnight camping.  Lydia found what looked like a suitable trail from the Lonely Planet New Zealand guide that Kat and generously left with us.  Arriving at the trail head just after seven, with no knowledge of the terrain or an absolute understanding of the distance required to hike, we departed and scrambled up the trail as quickly as we could, trying to beat the sunset.  The trail itself was not particularly inspiring- about an hour and a half of scree-laded series of switchbacks, but the top was incredible.  We found ourselves at a seasonally-abandoned ski resort, with a deserted public park lodge (complete with electric lighting).  Lydia brightly offered a The Shining reference, to which I was not particularly enthralled (read: it was creepy).  We found the flattest site we could to set up the tent (which we later found was apparently not flat enough), and promptly headed into the shelter to cook dinner and watch the light wane, protected from the strong mountain gusts.  Dinner consisted of a couple of cans of soup and a cold sausage, which hit the spot.  While eating, we could hear the Kea's circling and land on the roof, trying to work out how to get in so they too could join the feast.

We finished our dinner, retired to our tent, and settled in our sleeping bags.  We spent the majority of the night sliding to the foot of the tent thanks to the 10-degree incline on which we had set the tent.  Needless to say, it wasn't peaceful rest.  The next morning (day eleven), our poor night of rest was offset by the stunning sunrise and clearing fog through the valley.  We hiked back down the trail, whose descent turned out to be much more difficult than the ascent, saddled up in the van, and drove back into Christchurch.  We found what was probably the nicest holiday park on our trip, if not in all of New Zealand, where we enjoyed the warm weather and lunch.  We took a cab into the city (well actually about a kilometer outside of the city, due to some communication breakdown).  It afforded us the opportunity to see greater Christchurch, before we headed into the city to see the earth quake damaged areas and find dinner.  After about two hours of walking trying to find a suitable place to eat, we found a really cool container bar on the outskirts of town, where we relaxes and shared a pizza.  We ended up walking all the way back to the holiday park (unknowingly passing Morgan and Evan's street along the way).  We cozied up in the van, watched a movie, and went to bed.

On our last full day in New Zealand (day twelve), we took a drive over the Port Hills to Lyttelton, where we sought haven from the rain in a different modern container bar.  We spent our afternoon sipping on coffee and beer there, before heading back in to Christchurch to have dinner with Evan and Morgan.  We had a lot of fun sharing a pizza with them and swapping stories.  Evan and Morgan were nice enough to let us stay our last night in their home, before flying out the next day.

Lydia and I rose late, filled the van up with fuel (finding a gas station around the airport was perhaps the most challenging task of the entire adventure), hopped on our flight and returned back to Melbourne.

It was an epic trip with great friends, and we had an absolute blast!  We were sad that it came to an end, and time flew by, but we felt like we had made some lasting memories and made the most of our trip.  A big thank you to our good friends Kat, Jim, Morgan, and Evan for making it a truly amazing seppo adventure!

5 Minutes or Less: Kiwi Adventure

Post by Jim Ramirez.

We're back from our AMAZING trip to New Zealand's South Island with our friends Kat and Jim! And although we've thus far neglected our duties in posting photos/videos, Jim has not, and created the above trailer for our trip.
It was an awesome adventure, we had an amazing time zip lining through the Adrenalin Forest, soaking in natural hotsprings, sampling wine and beer, hiking, hang gliding, cruising, camping, and road-tripping.
I'm hoping to post videos and pictures shortly, but in the mean time, enjoy the video above!

Itchy and "Screachy"

Two weeks ago, Lydia, Emily, and I headed down to Lorne on the Victorian coast to stay with some friends and their baby daughter for the weekend.  We were extended an invite by Jim, whom I met during my work orientation my third week in Australia.  Jim, originally from Chicago, moved down to Melbourne to be with his partner, Cathy, to have their little girl here in Australia (Cathy is originally from Australia).

A bit of background; Jim and his partner have been participating in a number of house sitting stints throughout greater Victoria, as he's taken his paternal leave and a leave of absence to spend time with his family.  It's been an awesome opportunity for them to get to experience different living situations for free, while also "paying it forward," by looking after the home owners' property and pets.  They've spent time in the mountains of Tasmania, on a cattle farm in northern Victoria, and most recently, coastal Victoria.  In terms of life experiences, Jim's got some pretty incredible stories from their times house sitting.  I was most intrigued by their time on the cattle farm, including learning how to patch fences, ride tractors, and herd cattle.

I hadn't seen Jim for nearly three months when he called me to invite us down to the coast.  I was pretty excited about hanging out, sharing some of our homebrew, and seeing the beautiful coast.  Lydia and I also figured it would be a good experience for Emily on her last weekend with us to get out of the city and see the coast.

We got a late start Saturday morning leaving Melbourne, as we had to get everyone mobilized and the car packed up.  We hit the road around 11 and rolled on down to the Great Ocean Road- a windy road that runs along the coast which starts about an hour west of Melbourne.  This wasn't our first time on the Great Ocean Road, as we had taken it to get down for our camping trip along the Great Ocean Walk back in March.

The ride down was relatively uneventful, although as per usual this time of year, we experienced nearly four seasons in one day.  When we left Melbourne it was a sunny and warm day, but by the time we arrived in Lorne, it was gray, cold, and pouring rain.  One thing about living down here is I have a greater appreciation for the different manifestations of rain; it's not like back home in Georgia where it either drizzles or pours marble-sized drops; here there is a much wider spectrum of possibilities, including such variants as the popular sideways mist, the dribble and pour, the it's-not-raining-yet-I'm-still-getting-wet and who could forget the not-uncommon sunny-day-blue-sky-where-the-hell-is-that-coming-from rain.  On more than one occasion on my way to work, I could've sworn that I've seen rain rise upwards, but maybe that was just the result of a couple of bleary-eyed mornings.

Regardless, the rain and cold didn't detract from the beauty of the coast.  We rolled in, or rather up, around 1pm.  One thing about the house that Jim and family were staying in was that it's perched on top of a coastal cliff, which one the one hand provided incredible views over the ocean, but on the other required considerable effort on behalf of our little Golf to ascend.  Coupled with slicked, unfinished road, I was impressed and surprised to find that our little Kraut (the car, not Lydia) had almost no issue at all making it up.

We were received warmly where we promptly turned our attention to both the adorable toddler and the two household pets, a cat whose name I can't recall, but for the purposes of this post, I will name "Screachy," and a dog named Flea (after the insect, not the mononymous bassist from the Red Hot Chili Peppers).  Upon arrival, I promptly ingested more than the recommended dose of anti-allergy medication to negate Screachy's effect on my sinuses.  We were informed that although friendly, apparently Screachy had a penchants for, without warning, jumping from furniture or the ground onto one's chest and shoulders, with no hesitation of using his claws for stability.  Screachy also had a bad habit of walking on the kitchen counters and dining table, which required constant attention to ensure that he, and more importantly his allergy-inducing fur, remained free from consumables.

Artist's Depiction of "Screachy"

We had a light lunch then headed down to the beach for some volleyball and pictures.  Sure enough, as soon as we got down to the sand, the skies opened up, with an impressive rendition of both sideways mist and substantial rain.  We weren't deterred however (and the little one was a trouper hanging out on a blanket on the beach), and had a good time bumping the volleyball back and forth, while chilling our feet in the frigid sand.  Not long after it began, the rain stopped, leaving us with a full double rainbow.  According to Jim, rainbows aren't uncommon along the coast, at least since they had been there, as they often saw at least one per day.  We paused briefly for some photo ops before returning to our volleyball game, though this time with the inclusion of soccer-style headers:

After sufficiently chilling our feet to the point of numbness, we returned back up to the house to relax by the wood stove heater and prepare a curry dinner.  I helped Jim "shuck" the chicken from the hip (do chickens have hips?) bone.  This proved more difficult than anticipated, although we were aided by the formidable sustenance of beer.  After finishing with the chicken, we left the bones aside in a bowl, which Screachy promptly retrieved and attempted to ingest, although unsuccessfully.


Dinner was amazing.  Cathy made homemade naan, which was delicious, and the chicken curry came out wonderfully, particularly after the addition of fresh vegetables.  After dinner, I headed out on to the porch to play around with some long exposure photography, with mixed results:

To end the night, Jim and I made the trek down (via a creative shortcut that may not have actually been a designated path) to the only pub in Lorne, whose owner also owned the house we stayed in.  Being a school holiday, times were busy at the pub- there was in total maybe six people there, all bemused by what must have been the top 100 worst songs of the early 90s.  Jim and I played one game of pool, called it a night, and hiked back up to the house to head to bed.


To keep Screachy at bay, Jim locked him in the laundry and bathroom facility of the house.  Screachy didn't appreciate his solidarity and proceeded to reprise the power ballads from the playlist we heard earlier at the pub, this time all in the key of what I can only assume to be C minor.  After track six or seven, Screachy retired to his chambers, only to pick up two hours later when I had to startle him awake to use the bathroom.


We awoke late the next morning to a wall of fog.  Jim headed down to surf as we mobilized- I was meant to join him as I had brought along my wet suit, but my aversion to cold water and inexperience kept me in the house, as the swell was easily over a meter.  I do intend to head back down to the coast at some point to try my hand, although I think I'll wait until January when it warms up a bit.


We said our goodbyes, hit the road, and headed back to Melbourne to let Emily pack, as she had to fly back to the States the next day.  We made sure to stop along the way where we picked up a couple of beers from a small-shop brewpub in Forrest, Victoria.


All in all, it was a great quiet weekend and we had a lot of fun catching up with Jim and Cathy and spending a short time down on the coast.

Snakes, Scorpians, and Tides, Oh My!

Thanks to the Victorian Labor Day weekend (different States celebrate Labor day on different days), we had a three day weekend to plan a hiking/camping trip.  I'd heard about the Great Ocean Road a good bit from friends, which is a two-lane highway that runs along the picturesque southern Victorian coast.  My cousin Ian took a tour bus along the scenic drive when he was in town back in October, and Lydia and I knew we to wanted to go (you can read Ian's post about it here).  With the new freedom of having the Golf, we figured the long weekend would be perfect to head down to the coast before it gets too cold.  While independently researching camping in Victoria, I stumbled across the Great Ocean Walk, which runs for about 40km parallel to the Great Ocean Rd, but actually along the coast (the road has some stretches that deviate from the coastline).  We figured it'd be worthwhile as our first multi-night trip in Australia.

Kangaroo tracks along the path, and Lydia's foot backwards

The trip was really unlike any other camping trip I've been on before.  I guess the closest I could equate it to was a long weekend up on the AT with Will back in 2010, except replace Appalachian forests with Australian scrub and brush and the threat of bear attack with stinging and biting creatures.  Unlike the AT, the Great Ocean Walk is a much more closely regulated hiking trail- Australia in general is much more of a nanny State than the US, which is both endearing and annoying.  To hike the trail, we had to submit "applications," which includes a $28 fee per night per camp site, with a requirement that you cannot stay at a given camp site more than one night and you had to hike East to West.  The application fee is nice in that it guarantees that there will be a camping site available, but annoying because... well because it was $28 for a camp site per night.  Since Lydia and I did the hike with just ourselves (so only one car), we circumvented the "one night only" rule by booking the same site two nights in a row, under different names.  There was some discussion around parking the car at the end then taking a taxi back to the trail head, but since we had never hiked (or been in the area) before, and I'm inherently suspicious of Taxis, particularly in non-urban areas, we opted to just hike in, stay two nights, and hike out.  We also somewhat overlooked the "East to West" rule, as the most convenient parking and prettiest part of the hike was West of the camp site... We figured if we got caught, we could always play the 'Stupid American' card.  Fortunately enough, we were never confronted with our transgressions.

View along the ride on the hike in

The 7.6 km hike in was incredible- the trail runs all along the natural ridges that adjoin the coast, so you're almost always 50 feet above the beach and within earshot and view of the considerable waves of the Victorian coast.  The landscape and flora changes abruptly throughout the hike- from dry brush, to coastal dune scrub, to Eucalypt forests.  The trail was pretty well-marked and labeled, and I had purchased a detailed map of the walk before we left Melbourne, so we made it to our camp site relatively painlessly.  One nice thing about Australia is there are no large natural predators- no bears to evade or coyotes to be wary of.  There's also no rabies on the continent, so if you were unluck enough to be bitten by a wallaby or Koala, you'd be in the clear.  Unfortunately the lack of teeth and claws have been replaced with well-evolved venom and stingers.  Bill Bryson muses in his book, In a Sunburned Country, about how unnecessarily potent the venom of Australian creatures are, and I have to admit that I too am amazed.  Why would a snake, who need only posses enough venom to take down a mouse or frog, in fact pack a venom potent enough to kill ten men in one bite?

Eastern Brown Snake

It just so happened that our hike included an otherwise unwanted encounter with an Eastern Brown Snake, the second most venomous snake in the world- second only to the Inland Taipan (also found in Australia, though fortunately not really in Victoria).  On our day hike we took a wrong turn and ended up in some overgrown tall grass.  When we had realized our mistake, we turned to walk out when about a yard away, directly along our exit, lay the brown snake, and it wouldn't budge.  At first I grabbed a few quick photos (after all, if it's not on Facebook, it didn't happen), then tried to jump around and stomp to get the snake to head for cover- no go.  I found out later after that part of the Brown's danger, aside from the potency of its venom, is their brazen attitude toward humans. After the passive attempts failed and impassioned insults didn't work, I resorted to strategically throwing sticks to get it to move.  It took a total of three sticks to encourage the snake to make his exit, two of which had to actually make contact before he'd slither away.


In addition to our not-so-friendly Brown, we later had the pleasure of sharing our camp site with an abundant number of scorpians.  While sitting back and relaxing as the sun set, we could see little critters scamper around our camp site.  Upon closer investigation, we learned these critters were actually little scorpians, out on the hunt.  We're not exactly suer how venomous they were, but we were quite happy to not have the displeasure of finding out the hard way.

Aside from the venomous critters on the trip, we were fortunate enough to bump into less nefarious creatures over the weekend.  We came across about a half-dozen swamp wallabies, which were always as surprised to see us as we were them.  While not particularly smart animals, we found them much more endearing than a deer or rabbit, but perhaps that's simply because we're dough-eyed Americans.  The swamp wallabies are about 4 feet tall when standing upright, and they're pretty skittish.  We found that they appeared to like the camp sites due to the availability of water (each site has a large container of rain water- quite convenient, but needs to be treated/filtered).  On more than one occasion, I walked around a blind corner where I'd find myself staring face to face with one.  Typically, they'd stare back eye-to-eye for 20 seconds or so, do an about-face (Kangaroos can't hop backwards), and spring up in the brush at a safe distance, where they cautiously and inquisitively watch.  It's kind of funny really- they just hang up in the bushes and stare at you, as if taking notes.  I kind of half-expected them to try and mimic our language at some point, given how intently they appeared to study us.

Echidna along the path

We were also fortunate enough to bump into an Echidna on the hike in, which are marsupial versions of the porcupine.  They aren't particularly gifted with hearing, sight, or intelligence, so they're pretty easy to sneak up on.  Similar to one of the wallabies we encountered, their "defense" (other than their spines) is to simply walk to the closest cover, stick there head in and pretend that since they can't see you, you can't see them, as if playing peek-a-boo.

Wreck Beach

Our adventures didn't end with the wildlife. We faced the challenge of having to gauge the tides for our Sunday hike along wreck beach.  The hike from the camp site is a loop around away and back to the coast.  It's the alternate route for thru-hikers when the tide is up, as the beach is supposedly impassable - throughout the 40 km walk, there are a number of "Decision Points" for hikers to take alternate routes depending on weather conditions and tides.  Before Lydia and I had left home on Saturday, we did have the good sense to check the tides, however we lacked the aforementioned good sense when neither of decided to write down the times.  Coupled with no cell phone reception to call the Parks Vic office or a wireless data connection, we were left to our own memories to try and recall from memory.  Lydia remembered it as around 1on, whereas I was convinced it was closer to 2:30.  We went with the assumption that high-tide was at 2:30, so that way we'd time it so we wouldn't be on the beach until after that time, to ensure that we weren't under the gun with the tides rising.  When we finally made it to the Wreck Beach, we were disheartened to find what appeared to be a high tide, and no one present who knew the actual high tide times.  We discussed it at length, weighed our options, and decided that we'd try and make a stab at making the hike.  If were reached an impassible spot, we could simply turn around and hike out the way we went in, so long as we left the beach before 4:00, to ensure that we'd have enough light for the hike back to the camp site.  Our strategy worked, where we managed to keep all but our ankles dry.  We did have a "rock scramble' where we had to climb over some rocks on the beach, but given what we had read, this was an obstacle even when the tide was out.

Lydia looking happy

Hanging by the second wreck

Aside from the imminent danger of drowning or being swept out to sea, the hike was pretty cool.  The water is absolutely beautiful and crystal clear, and along the beach you can see the remnants of two late-nineteenth century wrecks.  It's actually pretty perplexing that the ships ran aground where they did- the anchors are literally on the beach, which would imply that the captains either weren't very good navigators, or had been sipping on a bit too much rum - I'm sure that Italian cruise ship captain who's received international attention lately could better defend what appeared to be some significant oversights.

Because of our rule "circumvention", we were able to set up the second night on the best camp site, site #8, which had its own private bench overlooking the coast and ridge.  We enjoyed a dinner of Tuna Alfredo, followed by some Thai ramen, overlooking the Indian/Pacific Ocean (it's not clear to me which exactly we were looking at, and Wikipedia is not a great help).  Not to break tradition, we rounded out the evening with a bit of Wild Turkey Honey Bourbon and some Port (also known as Tawny here) over candlelight (fires are closely regulated in Australia due to the risk of brush fires, so we opted for the safer and easier option of tea candles).

Tuna Alfredo

Campsite on the ridge

On Monday, we cleaned up camp, and had a pretty uneventful hike out back to the car.  From there, we hopped in the Golf and headed 5km West to the 12 Apostles- a popular tourist spot along the Great Ocean Road which overlooks about 10 free-standing rock formations separated from the coast line.  The view was pretty stunning, which made up for the fact that there aren't actually 12 "Apostles."  We hung around for twenty minutes or so to snap some photos and see how many Japanese tourist photos we could be in, before hopping the car and taking the less-scenic (though much faster) route back to the apartment.  

"12" Apostles

Some more Apostles

To cap off the adventure, our route passed by a controlled burn which was pretty cool to see.  We got close enough to see the flames in the air, literally with the air on fire.

Controlled Burn

I think for the next trip, we'll head down to Wilson's Prom, the southernmost point in mainland Australia, and maybe with friends next time (who are better prepared in the Australian bush).  Definitely a good trip, and I give Lydia credit as a new camper.  We successfully survived our second camping adventure in Australia and are looking forward to more to come!

Back in the Land Down Under

So despite the dating of this post, we have in fact been back in Melbourne for nearly a month now.  Lydia and I both had a great time back in the States seeing family and friends, and enjoying the holidays.  Most of my break was spent at home with family, seeing old friends, drinking my favorite American beers (Terrapin, Dogfish Head, Allagash), and poking around Roswell, Atlanta, and Athens.  To the friends that I didn't have an opportunity to see (you know who you are...), I'm sorry we weren't able to get together this time around, but I promise next time we'll make it happen!

Despite our initial struggle with scheduling, we (or rather, Lydia) managed to work it out so she could fly down to Atlanta for a few days so we could see each other over our break and spend New Year's Eve together.  How ironic it would have been that we live together in Melbourne 50 weeks out of the year, but don't get to see each other while in the States.

As quickly as the break came upon us, it was just as soon over- I flew back to Melbourne on New Year's Day (so I arrived on the 3rd) and Lydia had a few additional days back in Virginia with her family.  The trek back was not an easy one- aside from the emotional difficulty of leaving friends and family not knowing the next time I'll return, logistically it was challenging as I had my bike, my bass, and a suitcase to get from Atlanta to Melbourne, with only two hands.  Long story short, I learned a few important travel lessons:

1. TSA agents do not care that your luggage is fragile.  In fact, the mere appearance of "fragile" stickers encourage them to treat your valuable possessions even more carelessly and with an air of utter indifference than if the stickers were not visible
2. Watching the NFL playoffs from a plane seat without a beer in hand is much less fun than watching the game in the comfort of your own home
3. The Delta Lounge at LAX has self-serve alcohol, which would be a nice perk, had you not just sworn off all alcohol until the end of the month
4. As tempting as it is, you can't pet the Australian customs dogs
5. Delta Lounge passes apply to Virgin Airlines lounges, even without a proper Delta ticket
6. Cost of shipping a bike, bass guitar, and a full-size suitcase half-way across the world from Atlanta to Sydney: $150
7. Cost of shipping a bike, bass guitar, and a full-size suitcase from Sydney to Melbourne: $460

All told, the 32-hour journey back to Melbourne went well with no major hiccups.  I arrived home, dropped my luggage, and headed straight out to the park with the soccer ball to kick it around with my buddy Nick, to enjoy the nice summer weather and appreciate being liberated from the confines of airplane seats and airports.

Home for the Holidays

Sunset from my seat window somewhere over the South Pacific

Lydia and I are in our respective homes for the holidays!  Lydia flew back to Charlottesville this past Thursday (12/15) and I back to Roswell on Friday (12/16).  If you're in town, let us know so we can get together and catch up!

Happy Holidays!

Teach Me How to Duggie

So this post is about a month overdue, but as work has really ramped up, I'm finding myself with less and less time to contribute to the blog.  I may have to sacrifice length and detail in the interest of keeping the blog up to date.

As indicated in one of Lydia's earlier posts, we made our first interstate trek up to Port Douglas, Queensland for a long weekend on the beach and in the warm Queensland sun.  While there is no question that Victoria is just as Australian as Queensland (and in some ways, more), we felt like we needed to head North to experience a different Australia- one where Crocs and sharks abound, where rainforests meet temperate clear blue water, and where they drink XXXX over VB.

Our chosen location of Port Douglas was not random- Lydia and I had accumulated a few free resort nights at Starwood hotels while we were road warriors in the States, and we were determined to use them before they expire at the end of the year.  Unfortunately, Australia's Starwood Restort property selection is pretty small- on the magnitude of two.

We opted for the northern most resort located in Port Douglas, north of Cairns, to experience the Australian rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef:


View Larger Map
The trip began rather dismally- in the interest of maximizing our days of vacation, (and in saving a bit of cash on the flights) we opted for a 6am flight from Melbourne to Cairns. Never again. The 6am flight meant a 4am alarm to make it to the airport with enough time to check in and get to the gate. Coupled with the fact that I was basically at the worst point of a head cold, I was not a happy camper that morning (a point to which Lydia can well attest).  It's amazing the contrast of the notion of a 6am flight when booking a flight online, versus the day of... Despite the unholy early awakening, we made it to the airport and onto our flight with no issues, and arrived in Cairns around 9am (fun fact: although not any farther West than New South Wales or Victoria, Queensland does not participate in daylight savings time) where we picked up our rental and partook on our highly anticipated first adventure; driving in Australia:

Since arriving in Australia, I'd been highly anticipating driving on the left side of the road.  It just seemed like it was a requirement to officially lay claim to living in Australia.  The novelty of it was exciting, the unfamiliarity of it a challenge.  It was surprisingly natural being on the left side of the road and the right side of the car.  Within five minutes I'd pretty much gotten the hang of it, except for the swapped "windscreen" wipers and turn signal levers (I never quite got used to that), and we only had one "uh oh" moment in a roundabout.  The trip from Cairns up to Port Douglas is a quick hour drive along the scenic John Cook highway.  The highway runs along the Queensland coast, weaving among the coastal cliffs, with some thrilling hairpin turns every few kilometers.  I had committed myself to watch the road intently, although more than a couple of times I found myself trying to steal a glance out to the right over the crystal blue water.  We found a lookout point where we pulled over to take in the views and grab some pictures:

After another twenty minutes of coastline views, we found ourselves further inland, among the sugar cane fields, zipping through tropical and pastoral scenery.  More than once we encountered some derelict construction sites complete with automated stop-light lane provisioning.  Although I've never seen these lights in the States, they are quite popular in Australia, particularly in rural or remote areas.  Essentially they replace the guys that stand at construction sites with the "Slow" and "Stop" signs when one lane is closed due to construction.  The light turns green for one direction of traffic, and red for the other, with amber (yellow) for the interim time before the lights change to allow the other direction of traffic to flow.  The system works pretty well for the most part, except it is critical for long single-lane stretches that the amber light is set to the correct amount of time to allow the traffic to clear the single lane before allowing the other direction of traffic to go.  In the event that the amber light is not timed correctly, you can essentially have two directions of traffic heading straight toward each other on one lane; not something you want when roadtrains are hauling through at 120km/hour (75m/hour).  While studying abroad in Queensland four years ago, exactly that happened to our bus on our way to Carnarvon Gorge.  Our bus driver had no choice but to quickly divert the bus onto the graded shoulder to let the road train pass, followed by an immense dust cloud.  Fortunately enough, the road workers who set the timers on the lights along our route were devoted to safety and we didn't find ourselves playing chicken with a 3-trailer tractor-trailer.

After a bit of "sightseeing" around Port Douglas (Google Maps misplaced the marker for our hotel), we found the resort and checked in.  After checking in, we made our way to the room where we collapsed onto the bed for a quick nap before heading out and exploring the resort.
We were quite impressed with the Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas resort- all of the buildings were surrounded by artificial lagoons, where we could literally step off our balcony into the water.  We stopped near the outdoor bar and ate lunch by the pools planning the rest of our day:

We knew that the resort lay on the beach, but we couldn't figure out how to get down to the water, so we headed up to the main lobby to ask.  We found the gentleman that checked us in and kindly asked him how to access the beach.  He gave us detailed instructions and almost as an afterthought before heading out, I asked him, "oh yeah, is it safe to swim?"  Without hesitation, his eyes grew wide and he responded firmly and succinctly, "No."  An awkward pause ensued where we just stared at each other- I waiting for further explanation, and he staring alertedly back at me, perhaps to add effect.  After a minute of this, my curiosity got the best of me, and I had to ask, "Why not?"  His response, which seemed well rehearsed and as if on queue, was less alarming than I was anticipating.  "It's stinger season.  We strongly urge our guests to not enter the water, as a sting can cause severe injury..." death was not mentioned as a possible outcome, but it was almost implied.  Needless to say, our concierge's theatrics paid off, and we elected to admire the beach from a safe distance, after getting in up to our ankles to test the water (hey, we've gotta live on the edge a little):

The next day, we had to wake up early to catch our ride to the pier for our private dives with Mark from Blue Dive.  We had chartered the private dive as Lydia is not yet certified and we wanted to be able to go on multiple dives together with Lydia receiving some more personalized attention.  Mark was great, he showed up right on time in the dive van with his fellow instructor Kay.  Once on the catamaran, he walked through all of the Discover Diving principles with Lydia and got us all set with gear (including stinger suits) for our first dive.  The diving was incredible!  Having dived the GBR before, I thought I could anticipate what to expect, but the reef was even more incredible than I recalled:

We had three separate dives, seeing incredible sea life on each (although my first dive was pretty limited due to my new mask fogging).  We saw countless varieties of fish, coral, and other sea life.  The highlights include four different sharks (5 foot Wobbegong, two 4+ ft Grey Reef Sharks, and a blacktip), a 4ft long sea turtle, schools of barracuda, clown fish (Nemo), surgeon fish (Dori), parrot fish, sea anemones, and fire coral.

The dives were incredible and well worth the trip up!  That evening we again met up with Ian, my cousin, to grab dinner and drinks in town.  We stumbled upon a Cane Toad race in one of the bars, which was amusing, albeit not as exciting as we had hoped.  We did get a free bottle of less-than-spectacular champagne for Lydia's efforts as the score keeper (I volunteered her :-), and we enjoyed an awesome Thai dinner.

The next day we spent lazing around the resort while Ian dove the reef.  I had my first (and probably last) professional massage- I found the whole experience awkward, and I was afraid that if I relaxed too much, I might fill the room with scents other than burning incense.  Our last day, Sunday, we picked up Ian and took a trip up to Mossman Gorge to see the Queensland rainforests:

All told, our first Australian vacation was amazing!  We had a great time driving on the left side of the road, relaxing in the resort, diving the reef, avoiding stingers, and getting up close and personal with brush turkeys.  We dropped Ian off in downtown Cairns then caught our flight back to Melbourne to head back to work the next day.