Past Times Part Four: Australia

Australia

Wednesday, November 12, 2008 2:28 PM

Hello All,
I am now in Australia! Just wanted
to let everyone know that I got
here safe. More to come later.

---Hillary

Here I am in Australia

Friday, Januray 9, 2009 5:50pm

First off, I have compiled this email through many different short writing sessions, with a few longer ones thrown in there too; therefore there isn't exactly a flow, rather, there are many thoughts put together in a somewhat random sort of way. Enjoy... or not, whatever you please :-)

Sporty

We went to a soccer game in Sydney. It was a lot of fun. Sydney FC vs Queensland Roar. My first real live sports game, ever. Well, I went to a high school girls soccer game a year and a half ago and that was the first time I ever watched a full sports game. So technically his was my second game, though it was my first professional game. I think I shall go again sometime, especially if I could set near/within the diehard fans. We were singing lots of songs and dancing, and they all threw their beers up in the air when our team scored. There was so much energy going around! Good fun.

For a moment though, I was the highest person in Australia. Mt. Kosciusko is the highest point in Australia at 2228m above sea level. Getting to the top was a really easy "hike," if you can even call it that, it was more of a walk. We drove most of the way. Then the 9km trail (roughly 6 miles) wasn't much of a grade and you could pretty much drive a car all the way up the path, if they allowed it. The walk back was a bit more difficult that the walk up. That however, was only due to my previous injury. The last two miles were a killer on my hip. I hurt it in yoga (yeah, I know, lame) about eleven months ago and while it is much better now I still have problems now and then. A 12 mile hike didn't agree well with my hip. At least my foot wasn't hurting though! That is a more recent problem. For some reason my left hurt really hurts if I do any length of walking in my Chaos. Which is really a bummer because that means I have to wear my running shoes all the time, or go bare foot. At least I have my running shoes though, I ALMOST didn't bring them.

I tried surfing for the first time. Well, sort of. I played with a surf board at least. I paddled around a bit but didn't try to stand up as I could hardly even catch a wave laying down. It was alright but I think I should take an actual lesson next time.

Driving in Australia

First off, my brother John and I are driving around the country in a van whose name is Blue. Blue is a 1990 Mitsubishi with 265,000km and equipped with nearly everything: camp stoves, cups, plates, bowls, utensils, water jug, extra fuel container, easily converted bed/seat, storage underneath the bed, mini-fridge, dice hanging from the rear view mirror, etc. Some previous owner has taken the time and care to line the inside with material. The color scheme is, interesting. Red and black curtains and trim on various parts of the doors and such, red carpet while all the inside walls and ceiling are adorned with a cream, brown and gold material. One thing it doesn't have is AC, but that hasn't been a problem so far, as long as we keep the windows down. While visiting Jervis Bay (about three hours south of Sydney) we met two British boys, Mick and Niall, that needed a ride along to Adelaide. And then we were four.

Okay, now the story. Australia has a strict quarantine between states for fruits and vegetables due to fruit flys and various other pests, but the signs simply state fruit flys. We had just purchased a bunch of fruit and some vegetables in New South Wales when we came up to a sign stating "eat your fruit now" and "fine apply" and other things, written on a number of signs. John and I started gorging ourselves on a bunch of apricots, and a couple oranges. We decided to hide the two kilo bag of apples, four bananas and last orange. But we never came to any sort of check point. I felt gross, stuffed with fruit and for nothing! At least it was a funny story. But wait there's more! We camped out for the night, eating tuna sandwiches for dinner and cold cereal for breakfast. The sandwiches included some celery, cucumber, tomato and lettuce and the cereal included banana. If we had only known what was to come we would have changed those menus. Se la vie.

As we come to border to Southern Australia we come across more such signs. This time we don't pay as much attention due to the last time it not being a big deal. Then we come to another sign warning us that a check station is coming up. Again we start eating apricots! We roll up to the check point. "Do you have any fruit or vegetables?" the woman asks. "Yes a lot" John answers. "Ah" the woman answers with a sad face. "Even garlic?" asks John. "What does the sign say? All fruit and vegetables" she answers. So we decide it is lunch time. She doesn't really want us to stop and eat our food there, but she lets us leave if we drive back up the road a bit. In our possession we have: half a cucumber, one tomato, one orange, two bananas, two large mushrooms, one yellow onion, one red onion, two bulbs of garlic, two kilos of apples, two kilos red potatoes, two kilos yellow potatoes, one bag of dried apricots, half a bag of raisins, a quarter of a bag of dates, a nearly full head of lettuce, a quarter of a head of red cabbage, a nearly full bunch of celery, a nearly full one kilo bag of carrots. (fyi: one kilo=2.2 pounds) We weren't sure about the dried fruit, I thought they would probably take it because they took my dried banana at the airport. We sat there eating: half a cucumber, one orange, two bananas, three cloves of garlic, five apples, a quarter of a bag of dates, about half the bunch of celery, all but two of the carrots. The British boys ate the bananas and one stalk of celery, they didn't care much for fruit and veggies. Or should I write vegies? That is how they spell it here. Oh and by the way, I didn't eat the raw garlic, John did. He is crazy.

A few funny things were said while we were stuffing our faces with food that we really didn't want to throw away. Mick: You should just eat it all, them vomit on her and say, here's your bloody vegetables. Also from Mick: when she asks if we have anything else I am going to say, 'Oh no, nothing, just my own personal fruit fly farm."

We drive back up to the check point and hand to her: one tomato, two large mushrooms, one yellow onion, one red onion, a large bag of apples, two kilos red potatoes, two kilos yellow potatoes, a nearly full head of lettuce, a quarter of a head of red cabbage, a few stalks of celery, and two carrots. She glances at the bag and says "I don't think I need all this" Our jaws drop. She walks away, and comes back with the lettuce and carrots as well as tells us the celery was okay too. She THEN hands us a pamphlet on what is okay and what it not. The dried fruit way okay, along with carrots, celery and leafy veggies. Ugh.


Today was my first time driving on the left side of the road. Not nearly as difficult as I expected it would be. A few things get me, like when a car is coming towards me. Even though I am on the left side and they are on the right, therefore in our proper places on the road, there has been a handful of times when my heart jumps just for an instant because I see a car coming towards me on the right side of the road. Then I realize we are where we should be and they are not going to hit me. John keeps driving into the right side of the road because he stops paying attention and goes into autopilot. So far he has only run one car off the road. We have much more driving to do, we'll see how it goes :-) Later note: John has stopped driving into the other side of the road.

We were told to avoid driving over snakes. In the event that they do not die there is the possibility of them making their way up to the engine, where they will lay in wait for you to open up your hood. You will be merely trying to check the oil but instead you will get bitten by a snake.

Australia is all about road safety. Along the road there are MANY signs promoting road safety. The signs tell you to "rest, revive, survive" and "stop creeping over the speed limit" and many other things.

There are some REALLY ugly colored cars here. I have no idea what people were thinking when they painted the cars those colors and even less idea what people were thinking when they purchases these cars. They also have a common car here that I find the shape to be an eye-sore. I believe they are called yutes; the front half has the appearance of an economy car while the back half has the appearance of a pick-up truck. Ugh!

Food

I just had a wonderful meal. I have stayed at this French guy's house (Jean-Pierre) twice now, for a total of 9 days. He is a really interesting guy. We left his house yesterday, however John was still waiting for his bank card to come in the mail to his house. The card came today so stopped by around 6 to pick it up. He has two French guys, a Korean guy and a German girl staying at this house now. (are you familiar with couchsurfing.com?) John got to talking and we ended up staying for dinner. My first Australian bar-b-que and we even had kangaroo. It was delicious. I don't eat meat very much and I am really not sad about that because every time I eat it, I think, "okay, I'm not missing much." But we had lamb shanks, kangaroo steaks, and beef sausage. They were all delicious. Then grilled corn on the cob and a salad that consisted of mixed greens, tomato and lime juice. I had never had a salad with lime juice, I highly recommend it. When we were finished with that the potatoes were done baking so we ate those and diced up cantaloupe, though not at the same time ;-) Not only was the meal great because the food was delicious but because of the people too, speaking different languages, laughing and talking.

Food is way more expensive here than it is in California. The meat tastes better here though, probably because the cows aren't corn fed.

Cooking

My brother Daniel has been posting many photos of delicious food he has been making back home in California. Yeah, we're a family of cooks. I finally got jealous enough that I sought out the means to make cookies. They turned out quite tasty. Here are the recipes I created.

Ginger Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/2/ c sugar
1c butter
2 eggs
3c all purpose four
1/2t baking soda
1/2t baking powder
1/4t salt
1c small chocolate chips
1T finely grated fresh ginger

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, mix well. Combine flours, soda, powder and salt. Add ginger and chocolate chips to the butter mix. Add the flour mix; stir until just combined. Bake at 350F for about 11 minutes. I really like the ginger flavor so adding more wouldn't taste even better.

Date Nut Cookies
1 1/2/ c sugar
1c butter
2 eggs
1c whole wheat flour
3c all purpose four
1/2t baking soda
1/2t baking powder
1/4t salt
1/2T cinnamon
1t almond extract
1/2c chopped walnuts
2c chopped dates
2/3c rice milk

Mix chopped dates and rice milk. While preparing the rest, periodically stir the dates and rice milk. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, mix well. Combine flours, soda, powder, salt and cinnamon. Add extract, walnuts and dates to the butter mix. Add the flour mix in two parts; stir until just combined. Bake at 350F for about 13 minutes. Taste great the next day too!

Words

Yes, Australia and the USA both speak English but there are many little differences, aside the accents. Here are some of the different titles we use. Australian word first, then USA's.

goon - box wine
jam - jelly or jam
jelly - jell-o
keycard - debit card. A keycard is a bank card that does not have a Visa or MasterCard symbol on it. These symbols on bank cards are a fairly new thing to Australia.
chooks - chickens. I like this one especially.
root - to have sex with someone. That song with the lyrics "root, root, root for the home team" is definitely not sung here.
thongs - flip flops. This one can create a fun conversation for Australians visiting the states.
trolley - shopping cart
overtaking - passing. This is in reference to when you are driving.
maths - math.

The spelling of words is different as well.
vegies - veggies
color - colour. There are many words with the addition of the letter "u" in Australian English vs. USA's English.
cherrie - cherry
enrol - enroll. I have seen a number of words use one consonant where USA uses two.
parking lot - car park
a parking spot - a park

Couchsurfing

I have been using couchsurfing.com the whole time here. The majority of the people I have met through this site continue the trend of being great individuals. One host I want to mention in particular is Jean-Pierre (JP). In meeting people I often see characteristics in them that I either want to improve in myself or try to avoid. JP is one of those people that has characteristics that I want to improve in myself. He is an extremely kind, giving and trusting guy. In one of our conversations he said that someone has to raise the bar of trust and others will follow that lead. If he trusts fully for ten years with no one taking advantage and then someone robs him, then it was worth it AND he should be good for another ten years of trusting. He has opens doors at his apartment, often letting a number of people into his home at one time. JP told us that he has even let people stay there without ever meeting them by leaving the key at a local fruit stand across the street while he was on holiday somewhere else. Amazing. I strive to follow his lead of trust.

Another couchsurfing experience happened in an unexpected manner. We drove to a woman's house for conversation and ended up staying for two nights! She (Robbie) lives on a great little spot of land that is lushishly green and is also the home to her animals that include horses and chickens. She even took me on a horseback ride one day!

Tourists

John and I saw finally saw kangaroos! I had been here for about a month, John for a bit more than a week. John was driving when I spotted them. We weren't exactly sure which direction we wanted to be going so he kept driving to ask a group of girls for directions. After they told us where to go we went back to look at the kangaroos before we went where they told us. When we drove by them again we told them that was the first time seeing kangaroos. They were surprised. I understand that though, it would be the same if someone in California told me they just saw a deer for the first time. Both animals are abundant in their respective environments and both behave in much the same way as well.

Random Things

The toilets in Australia have much less water than in USA. Robbie jokingly said that when she visited USA she was afraid her hand would get in the water when she went to wipe. The toilets also have a half flush and a full flush button. This makes sense being that Australia is all about water conservation.

Within a town, the price for fuel is within a couple cents difference. Unlike in USA where you will see a difference of fifteen cents directly across the street.

In Sydney, the traditional thing to do on Christmas afternoon is go to the beach and perhaps have a bar-b-que. Also in Sydney the girls' attire to go out not something that would be found attractive AT ALL in California.

Some stores use the same method for shopping carts (trolleys) that I saw in Italy, I was excited to see this. When you want to use a shopping cart you must insert a coin to release a chain that attaches the cart to a row of carts. When you are done with the cart you attach the chain to another cart again and you get your coin back. This really cuts back on people leaving their carts all over the parking lot.

I saw a pair of buskers that were really cool. The girl was playing a violin while the guy was playing a didgeridoo and a guitar, simultaneously!

A story of puppies. John and I had the fortune of playing with some adorable ten week old poodle and spaniel mix puppies. It was the first time for them in a leash and we got to take them to the beach for their first time. It was really fun letting them explore how the water comes up on the sand then goes back with each wave. They were exhausted and went to sleep when we took them home.


I have been here two months now and this email is very late in the coming. I just haven't been in much of a writing mood while here. That being said, I don't know how many more of these emails I will be writing. Feel free to email me whenever. Take care!


---Hillary

Goodbye Australia

Saturday, April 11, 2009 8:39 PM

This email is late in the coming as I am no longer in Australia. However, I had already started writing it a while back so now I figure, “better late than never.” Right?

Every time I have asked someone about something that has to do with a map they write on the map while telling me information. For example, I asked a park ranger which of two paths he would recommend. He takes out a pen, grabs a pamphlet with a map in it and proceeds to tell me about all the paths in the area while drawing all over the map. I am not sure if this is part of some type of training they get here in Australia or what but it bugs me. For one, often times I don't want to keep the map and they aren't going to put a map that has been drawn all over back with the others, so it is a waste. For another, if I do want to keep the map, I want to keep it clean, without markings all over it.

Hiking in Central Australia. See emails already written.

FOOD

Sarah is a great cook. She has been like our own personal chef. She really knows how to mix her herbs and spices to make food taste delicious. Before traveling with her I did not eat raw red onion but due to the way she makes salads taste SO good I have adopted this new food into my diet.

One day we were driving later than usual and Sarah decided to start dinner before we stopped for the night. This proved to be much more difficult than she anticipated, especially when we turned onto an unsealed road. From this experience she came up with the idea for a new cooking show: van cooking. Not only do you have limited resources to work with but you also have to deal with an unstable working environment as the vehicle drives over dips and bumps.

BEAUTIFUL PLACES

We went on a trip to Fraser Island, said to be the biggest sand island. Instead of renting a 4WD vehicle or taking a tour we went to cheaper route and decided to ride the barge over then walk where we wanted to go on the island. Our first destination was Lake McKenzie, the most popular lake on the island. This lake is made from rain water and therefore is extremely clear. The sand is white, the first few meters of water are a crystal clear light blue then the center of the lake is a darker blue. The color contrast is amazing! After playing in this paradise we decided to hike to a more secluded lake to sleep. This is the time where I had my first encounter with leeches. These tiny blood suckers don't hurt but the thought of them sucking my blood creeps me out, plus they leave an open wound that is resistant to the idea of coagulating. The leeches however were the least of our annoyances; much worse were the mosquitoes. We stupidly decided to not bring a tent or any type of mosquito protection, and we sorely regretted this decision. What we had for a “camp” was a tarp laid on the sand near the shore of the lake then we slept in our sleeping bags on top on it. It had been our experience that the mosquitoes subside after dusk, but on Fraser Island they never sleep. I spent my night trying to hide my head under the thin layer of material that is my sarong. The mosquitoes still bit through it, but it at least it cut back the veracity of the attack. My sleeping bag is too warm for the climate on Fraser Island. I couldn't stay asleep while under because I was too hot. Let's just say it wasn't a very restful night. Was it worth it? Yes, but if I went again I would bring a tent!

Byron Bay is one of my favorite places (that I visited) in Australia. It reminds me of Santa Cruz, except it is full of tourists. During the day the place is bustling with beautiful people clad in beach attire. The ocean is fantastic for swimming: water that is clear and a perfect temperature, a beautiful sandy beach. One day I even had the fortune of being at the beach when it started to rain. The beach was full of sun bathers that quickly made a mass Exodus, but I headed for the water. I adore swimming in the rain; it is so invigorating!

AUSTRALIA POST

I like to send postcards to people while I am traveling. While I am glad that I have sent the ones that I have sent so far, I am also resentful that I gave the Australian Post so much money (each post card takes a $1.35 stamp) because I am not happy with their system. I left a few things of mine, mostly clothing, in Adelaide while I continued to travel around Australia. When it came time to have my things sent to me in Sydney I didn't think it would take more than nine days to travel a distance that can be driven in one day. To make this long story short, because I am really just done thinking about it, I did not receive my package before I left Australia. Instead I am relying on a very nice Australian girl who offered to pick up my package for me and will be forwarding it on to Auckland, where I will pick it up from another nice person (who I haven't met yet) who said they would hold it for me while I travel through New Zealand. It is so nice when the goodness of some people outweigh the unpleasantness of others.

I am now in New Zealand, driving around this amazingly beautiful land where the photo opportunities abound but I am doing my best to see it through my eyes rather than a camera lens. More to come later...