May 2006

Greetings from Hervey Bay, from where I leave tomorrow for a 3day/2 night self drive of Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. There's a group of 11 of us, who drive around and camp on the beaches of the island. Luckily, there's no Canadians in my group.
Well, right now I'm sporting a great tan. It's not quite my best (my time in Chile) but it's getting there. I soaked some good rays in Byron bay. The surf wasn't very good when I was there, so I pretty much rested on the beach all day. I met some cool people there. There's 2 guys from England and Wales, who are cool, who I've done some travelling with. We've hung out since Byron in Surfer's Paradise, Brisbane, and Noosa. I've also met some new nationalities, Israeli, Italians and Belgian. The Israelis are nice but they keep to themsleves, while the Belgians were all hair gel, cologne, and burberry. The Italians, were also cool. Not nearly as loud as I thought they might be. Basically, as long as you're not Canadian, I'm fine with you. I had no problems w/ Canadians before, but now I cant stand them. If I see another one roll their eyes when I say I'm from the States, I'm gonna start defacing the flags they have sewn to their bags.
Anyway, other than sit on the beach, I went to a water park in Surfer's paradise that was pretty good, did some walks in the National Park in Noosa, and rode some quality waves, also in Noosa. Ryan, my instructor, was very impressed at how quickly I got up on my board and started carving waves. I also went to a Rugby league game in Brisbane. I only stayed one night there. It's not that good. There's no beach and nothing to do during the daytime.
I did meet an Irish lad and his girlfriend at the hostel last night. I made the mistake of asking him why Ireland didn't qualify for the World Cup. He blamed it on being in the same group as France(although the English guy said he failed to mention that Ireland tied the Swiss and Israelis at home), and then went on an obsenity laced tangent about why a coutry like Australia has no place in the cup. Then he threw in that the US has a first round ticket home. So, I think I'll leave that question out for the next Irish I meet.
Well, I need to go pack for my trip. But before I close off, who has some spare change around? I just checked my bank account and I cringed harder than Dad does when he gets the bill at Le Relais. Apparantly, I've been using the phrase "Ah...I'll do it, I'm only here once" a little too frequently.

Cheers,
James

Greetings from Oz. Right now I'm in Byron Bay, soaking up some quality rays.
Well, I got into Sydney with no hitch. Leaving Christchurch was reminscent of travelling pre 9/11. It took all of 5 secs to walk through the security check point which may or may not have been a good thing. While in the airport, I decided to buy Henry a bottle of Jim Beam for letting me stay at his pad. Unfortunately, the bag I was carrying it in fell off the counter as I was getting my big pack searched in customs. The bag fell to the ground and the bottle landed on its cap, breaking it, and spilling whisky through my bag and on to the floor. But, the bottle was still fine, only the cap was broken, so they taped it up for me and I handed Henry a nice bottle about 1/5 full. So started my Oz experience, in true HHA fashion!
Well, Henry played the excellent host. He started it off by cooking a delicious rack of lamb and mash, breaking my streak of pasta or noodles for supper at about 20 days. The next day, he had to do some stuff because he was applying for a job, so I set off to see some of Sydney on my own. I took a bus downtown to the harbor and saw the famed opera house and bridge. The opera house is actually a creamish color, not the pearl white I expected, and a wee bit smaller, but still nice. You can actually climb the harbour bridge, the sign of a true tourist, but I just snapped some pics from afar. After a night out, Henry cooked up a mean egg and bacon brekky, on the barbie-true aussie style. He finished up his work for the interview, and we went and played this pitch and putt in Bondi. The course offered nice views and I of course took home low round. Then, that night Henry and I ventured to a footy match between the Waratahs of Syd vs. the Hurricanes of Wellington. The winner determined who would get home field advantage in the playoffs, and after a tough game, the Hurricanes won 19-14. Afterwards, we met up w/ some mates of Henry for a cheeky beer. Next day, I caught the ferry over to Manly beach. A nice long beach, that's popular among the locals. On Monday, I caught the train to Katoomba, 2 hrs west of Sydney to see the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible the first day and you couldn't see a "bloody fing" as Bod, the British guy I met up with said. It did improve the second day, and on the third day we had perfect, cloudless skies. The mountains were nice, not as nice as NZ, but it wasn't terrain I associated with OZ. So, 2 days later, I got the train back to Syd, went to the zoo, bought a bus pass on the Greyhound which takes me from Syd to Cairns, with as many stops as I like, and now I find myself in Byron Bay, which definitely has the most backpackers in it of any town I've been to. Another day or so here, and then on to Surfer's Paradise.

Glad to hear Derby went well, retreads and all. I think I was cruising along the Otago Peninsula as Barbaro pulled away down the stretch.
I got the bus from Q'town to Dunedin, which was another lovely drive. Got into Dunedin in the evening and had an easy night in the hostel. Dunedin was founded by the Scots, who were looking to get away and set up their own religious society. It contains the only castle in NZ, and they charge a pretty penny ($20 NZD) just to get on the grounds and take a gander (didn't go). Dunedin is a fair city. Has nice town center and is easy to get around, but it's spread out and I found it to be pretty quiet. There's a big university there, but there weren't too many backpackers around. But, there are things to do. While there, I did get the opportunity to swing the sticks and fire an 87 (par 71) at the Chisholm Golf Glub, a links course that has hosted events on the Australasian PGA Tour. It was a nice course with good greens that could have been made a lot tougher if they grew the rough out. I hired a nice set of irons, Tommy Armour 845 Silver Backs, that had a good bit of knock in them. Best shot of the round was my approach to #6. Fired a 9 iron from 135 metres and staked it 8 ft, and finished it off by hitting the birdie. And trust me, you've never seen a scuffed up Top Flight XL 3000 stop like that ball did.
The next day I hired a car so I could get around the peninsula and see the albatross colony and just take in the views. It was a bit tough at first getting used to everything being on the opposite side, but I managed. 2 Japanese girls working at the hostel wanted to come along as well, so the 3 of us set off on a nice, sunny day around the Otago peninsula. We saw the albatross, with a wingspan of 3 metres but no penguins and went to the castle but refused to pay $60 between the 3 of us. As the saying goes: There is nothing free in New Zealand.
Although, we did go to, and walked up the steepest street in the world (gratis). Walking part not my idea.
Then I got a bus up to Christchurch, another big city on the east coast. Definitely the flatest and most uninteresting of all my drives. Christchurch is ok. Just another city really. Has some museums, but I was told by some brits that they're "shite" and "kips", so I saved my money and had a walk around the botanical gardens instead. With my time dwindling away, I decided to hire a car again and head off to Mt Cook and Arthur's Pass. The drive to Mt Cook was nice, but unfortunately cloudy. When I got there, low hanging clouds/fog prevented the mountains from being seen. But, the next day, it cleared up and offered great views of the area. Arthur's Pass was also nice. It's about 2 hrs west of CHCH and is the main way of crossing from east to west coast thru the Alps.
Next up up: hangin' w/ Henry in Syd.
Staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

Cheers,
James

Talk Derby to me! Mom, have you sent the article to the Pulitzer committee yet? As a side note I hope everyone enjoys Derby 2001, oh whoops, that was just a flashback to the last time we had just Hunter and Petrick back for Derby. The countdown til Hunter makes everyone wait while he make his grand entrance is T minus 5 days! Wish I were there!

Enough call outs. Well, from Nelson I made my way down the "wet coast". The first stop was Punakaiki, a small hamlet pretty much half way between Nelson and Franz Josef. The town itself is smaller than Kilmihil, and pretty much consists of 2 hosTELS, a pub, and a tourism office. The main attraction in Punakaiki is the Pancake rocks, so named because due to the erosion and weathering of the rocks has drawn lines in the rock, which makes them look like a stack of flapjacks. If I'm not mistaken here's how they formed: the rocks themselves are limestone and were at one time undergorund. But due to tectonic activity the limestone rose out of the ground (similar to mountain formation). Now, there was also mudrock mixed in with the limestone, and that erodes more easily than the limestone, so the lines you see in the rock are the places where the mudrock was. I believe that process is called stylohedging (mike, feel free to post your own geologic blog on what I've said, but I will say that after all the stuff I learned there and at the glaciers, I can say I minored in geology). Anyway, the west coast is truly stunning. It gets about 5 metres of rain each year, and when it rains it really pours. So, you have this thick, dense tropical vegetation covering the mountainside, which is only about 50-100 metres in from the coast. I've never seen anything where you have a nice, long beach, then only 50 metres inland from that you have the towering alps with dense, tropical vegetation. I went on a walk through the forrest, and it wasn't any different than the one we walked through in costa rica, except there aren't really any snakes or as much wild life, although I was lucky enough to see 2 kiwis. Unfortunately, it rained heavily and constantly while I was there.
From Punakaiki, I made my way to Franz Josef Glacier. There are only 3 glaciers in the world that run into tropical forrest Franz Josef, Fox, and Perrito Moreno in Argentina (been there). I did a full day hike on the glacier that included about 5 hrs on the ice. Luckily, it was a nice, sunny day, so we didn't get wet and cold on the ice. We climbed through some crev-asses, as they say, and saw some waterfalls and unusual ice formations on the glacier. On the flip side, there was an extremely annoying pack of American girls on the expedition with me that fit the streotype of annoying, loud Americans to a T. They were so loud and practically competing with each other to see who could be more annoying. So, that puts Americans in second to last place on the hierarchy of nations, just above Switzerland. There wasn't much else to do in Franz, so I headed to Queenstown.
The drive down was very nice, with terrain similar to Montana.
Queenstown is ok. Not really thrilled with it. Location wise, it is set in this great area with mountains and hills on sides. The Remarkables, just north of town are v. similar to the Tetons and a good ski place. While there are a bunch of things to do, none of them really excite me that much. I did a day trip to Milford Sound, which was great, but I think I'll take off tomorrow to see Dunedin and then Christchurch/Arthur's Pass area. Only 9 short days left.

Happy Derby,
James