Our Australian Adventure - The Beginning

        

Thurs. Sept. 8

Importation of illicit bloodworm  infectious- despite good intentions, Canadians implicated…goods impounded…

Landing in Sydney, we thought that we wouldn’t have any problems with customs, having just flown over from New Zealand. Not so fast- the bag of apples we had brought with uswerecause for us to be detained by the bio inspectors. We had to have our entire food bag inspected as well as our hiking boots. The inspector was pleased with everything except for the apples. They had to be incinerated as they contained potential bloodworm which doesn’t exist in Australia. To even suggest I munch on one was sacrilege.

We found that both our bags made it but had to wait 30 minutes for our shuttle which whisked us to hostels all over town at an alarming pace.  We had checked our place out on Trip Advisor the night before and were disappointed to find that it was rated low with reports of dirt and cockroaches.  Remembering our experience in Hawaii, we decided to only commit to one night until we saw what the situation was.  Luckily our room was big, with a fridge, TV and sink and but no sign of buggies.  We had to reset our body clocks, so in order to stay awake late we walked through the Sydney area of King’s Cross, where every other building is a backpackers.  We cased out about 5 potential alternatives should our place turn ugly.  We also had a good look at the neighbourhood, which reminded me of parts of Ste. Catherine St. in Montreal.  Seedy sex shops next to fast food joints next to clubs with line ups and lots of neon and kids from the suburbs dressed up for a big night out. 

SOCIALISING AND SHIRAZ AT SYDNEY OPERA! (In which Macbeth gets stabbed, staggers, falls to his knees but continues to sing for another 20 minutes, before finally keeling over.)

Friday.We had breakfastwhere we met Jamie, an Aussie who had served with the Americans in Iraq and was now back home after his marriage to an American woman didn’t work out.  We decided to walk by the sea wall to the Opera House.  This route took us through the extensive botanical gardens where Meg was soon covered in greedy cockatiels and ibises.  After she stopped giving out crackers, they moved on to the next tourist and allowed us free passage through the  

Just like in that Hitchcock movie....

elaborate gardens to the coast, where we had a stunning view of the Opera House with the bridge behind it.  We had lunch in the nearby park with a view out to sea and then went to buy tickets. They had seats available for that night’s opera- a gala opener, but the cheaper seats were extremely obstructed and not worth the price, so we went with the cheapest possible at $40 each for standing room.

The singular reference to the Sydney Opera House is misleading as it’s actually three buildings; the opera house, the concert hall and the restaurant.  The concert hall was supposed to actually house the opera but they put the opera into the smaller venue meant for theatre because they felt that there wasn’t a market for opera in Sydney. 

We continued along the water through the Circular Quay where the ferries and boutique hotels resided.  There were a fair number of street performers, including two didgeridoo players gooving along with techno beats.  It was sunny and crowded with tourists spilling onto and off of the many boats. 

To prove we were there!



At the famous opera house, even in our best duds, we were way underdressed and so we appreciated the few real slobs who showed up in stuff that made us look relatively good.  Gift shop had an Opera House Barbie with her dress  a modern opera house silhouette, and tons of miniature opera houses that were salt and pepper shakers.  We weren’t allowed in until 5 minutes before the show and only stood there for a few moments before the usher told us that there was an entire empty row that we could sit in.  The guy next to us said that he always got a seat when he bought standing tickets.  The seats were high up but still had a good view and the sound seemed okay to our heathen ears.  Neither of us had seen Verdi’s Macbeth before and it had some great pieces sung very well, along with having a real story to tell.  They had them wearing Italian army outfits of the time which looked Prussian.  It was a fairly good opera; I didn’t fully doze off at all and Meg only fell asleep twice.  The views from the lounge at intermission were stunning and the Governor of New South Wales was present for this performance, opening night, but we couldn’t see her.  The best part was when Macduff killed Macbeth and you thought he was dead but got up to sing another aria before finally kicking the bucket.  Good show.

Searching for Russell Crowe and other illuminating experiences….

Sunday – After Meg got back (from Unitarian Church) we were feeling sluggish and so went for a run through the botanical gardens and towards the opera house before turning around and meeting back by the finger wharf inWoolloomooloo.  Lots of people were about, and this looked to be the prime place for a jog.  The doorman at the Blue Hotel at the entryway to the wharftold us that the hotel was for only about the first 1/3 of the wharf and the rest were private condos.  Some of the original wool conveyor machinery was incorporated into part of the décor, but this place was swish with $50 valet parking.  The residence at the end was Russell Crowe’s house.   Russell wasn’t in that day, however I did use the public washroom which his girlfriend may have used –so felt like we kind of shared a moment there…

Monday – A three hour tour…

We had signed up for the free Sydney tour and were picked up by our guide at the hostel.  Being “picked up “was not what we thought- instead of a van we had a human train- Sam our guide, bounding up to us in her red shirt with a slowly growing trail of backpackers following her.  We  

An Aussie good luck charm.

picked people up for 45 minutes and then the tour proper started.  We started at the Old Customs Building which had a model of Sydney under the floor on Plexiglas.  Sam recounted entertaining anecdotes about the history of the place, from Captain Cook’s arrival, to prison colony tales, to more modern events.  Many stories covered the brutal details of life in the penal colonywhich make for good listening.  We walked by The Rocks where the oldest buildings are and then walked through the modern downtown core.  At a fountain Sam was explaining the statues and identified a naked man with a sheep and a goat as being the god of New Zealand. We walked by museums and then down into the botanical gardens, where we went through an area where the trees were full of flying foxes,(bats).  We ended by the opera house.  

Not a fruit tree, a flying fox tree!



The Male Model Magnet (Manly Beach)

After the tour we went to the circular quay and caught theManly Ferry. We got seats on the bow and enjoyed the trip out through the harbour. With all of the water and green space, it really is a photogenic city.  We stopped at an Aboriginal shop where the salesperson told us to look for the artist and designer information on all materials.  She admitted that many items were outsourced to China, but the designs were aboriginal and as long as the artists is listed then they’re at least getting royalties.

Further on, we hit the long, sandy beach where there were several surfers and kayakers and a few cold-looking high school kids playing rugby in the waves.We were told by Sam that Manly Beach was named after the local men who were manly and handsome- but Meg was disappointed. Oh well, on the way back we spoke to a couple of women who recognized us from the ferry and a friendly older American couple who had retired to Manly Beach.

The ferry ride backhad lovely views as well; we were getting pretty spoiled by this point.  Meg had her picture taken with a manly man, Russell Crowe, on the ferry, but we didn’t get his autograph as he looked like he wanted to maintain his privacy…. On the way we picked up some  

In pursuit of Mr. Crowe.

wine at our favourite store, Mister Liquor (which had $5 wine specials).  One of Sam (free tour’s) tips to avoid the cost of going up the Sydney Tower and was to go to the Orbit Lounge(arevolving bar which takes an hour and 45 minutes to do a full rotation).  We got up there and were initially furious that we were given the worst view- a post between windows! But stupid us- we revolved away from it.  We were tempted by exotic sounding rainwater from Tasmanian Mountain --purest on earth but ….instead chose the decadent LimeGimlet,a Glen something, and gourmet nuts(including warm almonds toasted in butter and coated with Murray River Pink Salt).  The night sky was romantic and we enjoyed picking out familiar landmarks and deciding which buildings had the best neon. 

Back at the hostel we climbed up to the rooftop patio -there was a nice British couple who were working in Sydney.  Once your initial Visa is up you have to spend 3 months working on a local farm to renew it.  They said that on some farms they only got paid $14 a day and they left as soon as they could.  They had found decent jobs in the city and seemed quite content with their lot.  Went downstairs and chatted with the manager, Danny, who sounds just like Jemaine from the Conchords,he however has not met Russell Crowe and is not able to introduce me(alas). 

Obligatory ferry shot.



Tuesday, Sept. 13 –Sadly shunned on shuttle! Innocent of scent!

On our way to the airport, in the crowded shuttle, we had to apologize to our neighbours for the smell from our bags, as we had hard boiled some eggs for our lunch and they smelled the way eggs do. There were no problems getting onto the plane and we were glad we brought our lunch (but we were the only ones).

At Cairns, once again our luggage was not lost and we easily found our shuttle into Cairns (pronounced like Cannes).  After the office opened we checked in and found that we got free dinner tickets every night at a downtown watering hole. We walked to town; our hostel was a fair piece out.  Cairns is a hopping area of shops and bars with lots to look at while you stroll.  It was also the first place in the country where we saw actual Aborigines being part of the local makeup.   At the pub the woman up front was there to tell everyone that the free meals were crap and to use their tickets for upgrades.  We both upgraded and got huge plates full of ribs and tandoori chicken for not much money. 

Weds.  Sept. 14 – We decided to have a mellow day before hitting the barrier reef.  We decided on a tour that went to the outer reef (best fish) but also had a variety of dry activities, should we get cold, such as a semi-submersible submarine and glass-bottomed boat trips. The town’s swimming lagoon, was closed on Wednesdays until noon for cleaning but no great disappointment as it was just a glorified swimming pool filled with sea water.  We took turns swimming (necessary when travelling with anything valuable) and it was surprisingly pleasant.  There was a large area deep enough to swim in, including a shelf you could sit on and look out over the town boardwalk at the sea.

Reef Beliefs-Sea Cucumber Karma (Crappy)

That night we went to educate ourselves at Reef Teach, a two-hour course on the reef.  The first hour was about invertebrate life (coral, worms and such) and the second half featured our vertebrate friends.  We gave us outline papers and Meg took copious notes.  It was worth doing, as it explained how the reef was built and how its inhabitants interact.  We definitely used the knowledge gained there on all of our snorkeling trips on the reef.  One of Graham (our marine biologist’s) favourite sad stories was about the sea cucumber, which spends its life eating and excreting sand.  If it gets threatened it shoots out its lungs as its only defense.  Its lungs are positioned by its anus, where often a fish lives for protection.  If the fish can’t find food elsewhere, it begins to eat the sea cucumber from the inside out.  Not a critter to be in your next life.

Thurs.Dangerous  Dudes, Didgeridoos, Sacred Dances and The Dreamtime …    

We walked downtown to pick up the Sun Bus to an Aboriginal Village attraction, Tjapukai, just outside of town.  While waiting for the bus, this seedy guy asked us where we were going.  I later heard him conversing with his friend about how many items he was moving from his corner, how many places he had been kicked out of and how much money women can actually make by being prostitutes.  A quality guy.  

Far from setting the world on fire.



Cairns turned out to be quite a spread out place and it took 45 minutes to bus out to the Village.  There were a number of activities that rotated throughout the day so that no matter what time you showed up you could cycle through all of them.  We started at weapon- making with a large group off of a bus.   We saw an assortment of clubs, spears and boomerangs and heard about how  

Handling artifacts responsibly.

they were used.  We then saw a demonstration of bush food and medicine, including how to prepare poisonous food so it could be safely eaten.  We then practiced throwing spears with a woomera and trying to get a boomerang to come back.  My spear throwing was amongst the best in the group but my boomerang quickly found the ground rather than sailing back to my hand.  Next we saw the Creation Theatre, where Aboriginal legends from the dreamtime were told with a combination of live actors and digital projection effects.  Then the bus group left and the remaining 8 of us went to the sing along show, which included some great didgeridoo music and many dances which represented local animals.  They got people up on stage and I was unable to make the fire using the friction method but helped with the post-fire celebratory dancing.  There were only 6 of us left for the didgeridoo session, which was really fascinating except for the tiresome new- age music and nature photoaccompaniment.  The player used circular breathing (which meant he could have played  for about 2 hours).  The instruments are all different keys and are traditionally made from wood hollowed out by termites.  We had a bit more time before we caught our bus, so were able to watch most of a film detailing the slaughter of Aboriginals by the Australian settlers (very sad).

 

Don't give up your day job...

 



.....or yours!

Canadian Boy Barfs on Barrier Reef (4X)! Losing Lunch at Barrier Reef

Friday –We decided to book the excursion on this day because the winds were down to 15-20 knots from 20-25 of earlier in the week.  But it was still very wavy and our high-speed boat was doing a lot of moving.  Meg (who had taken motion sickness medicine) reviewed her notes from Reef Teach and pulled out a book she borrowed from our hostel with pictures of all sorts of reef life.  I kept feeling worse until about 15 minutes before we docked at the outer reef platform, I lost my breakfast.  I had been seasick twice before but never this bad, so I blame the previous night’s cheap wine more than the motion.  The crewwere used to this sort of reaction and I felt better for a little while and made it to the platform where we were to spend most of the day. 

The platform was large and sheltered and more stable than a boat but still rocked a bit.  Meg got me a piece of cake from the morning snack and I tried the semi-submersible trip (big mistake!).  This was a boat where you sat below water level and looked out the glass sides.  You could see lots of coral and fish but all of the colours were blued out.  Since there was no fresh air and I had no fixed point to focus on, I vomited again just as the boat was unloading.  As I recovered , a crew member advised me that  when feeling nauseous going into a submersible was the worst possible option and that getting into the water would be the best thing you could do, oops!She was right and the reef was amazing, with a huge variety of coral and lots of coloured fish of all sizes darting around.  I felt alright and had a good long swim around the coral patch that our trip was based around.  At one point our ship’s photographer called me over and I had my picture taken with Wally, a huge and colourful Maori wrasse who seemed to do whatever the photographer wanted him to.  I went in for a second swim with Meg, and this time Wally swam up to me and wanted his back rubbed.  It was definitely cool, but a little disconcerting when a fish larger than you are comes right at you.

Back on the floating dock, I rested for a bit but was very cold from having no food left in my stomach to fuel the furnace.  They were serving lunch, and the smell of lasagna set me off again.   At fish feeding time I went into the water again to check out the feeding frenzy.  Wally was right up on the platform and half out of the water and the water was thick with other fish trying to get some of the goodies being tossed around.  The underwater viewing was great, but I was getting very cold by this point and went back up onto the platform.

A rare non-sick moment shared with a fish.

 I wanted to go on the advanced snorkeling safari(where Meg saw a shark) and so changed out of the wetsuit and tried to warm up.  I was doing alright but when I put on my wetsuit to join the group I vomited again, so the trip was out of the question.  Off went Meg and I changed back into my warmest stuff and headed up to the sun deck.  It should have been called the sick bay as all the people who had gotten sick that day were up there trying to recover (about 8 people out of 30).  I warmed up and nodded off.  An employee woke me when they were loading the boat and I got on.  Meg and I both lay down and napped most of the boat ride back and I was able to eat some of the watermelon they had out for a snack.

After some dinner, we went to bed early and were sleeping well until about 1 am when our Finnish hostel mates decided to party by the swimming pool.  The music and talking wouldn’t have woken us up, but one thoroughly sloshed boy kept moving between our cabins and shouting as loud as he could.  He then made a point of trying to get the girls in the group to scream, which they didn’t need too much coaxing to do.  I got up and spoke to them nicely, and they were polite to my face but Mr. Drunko went back to his loud ways as soon as I shut my door.  Finland, let us hope that he is not representative of your youth in general!