| yay |
[27 Aug 2007|04:23pm] |
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life is good!
Got Job,
stopped raining
Start on monday
excellent weekend in a pretty dress
woo
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| interviewing |
[21 Aug 2007|10:06am] |
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So I totally feel like I aced my interview yesterday… fingers crossed, I may be the next Marketing Co-ordinator at Sarina Russo schools. Without a degree in marketing! Woo
I’m excited, but not too excited because I know that I don’t really have the background supporting the position, but wouldn’t it be fun if I got it?! I think so… a real job! One that I found and didn’t have to go to a temp agency to find. Plus it’s breaking into a new industry and out of the customer service field. Would give me a good opportunity to learn a lot more about the industry and see if it would be something I’d want to pursue a masters in.
If I don’t get the position the rest of the week and this weekend I’ll be job hunting again. Engineers Australia has offered to let me stay here with them permanently as a recap./pa but I would like to try and do something more.
Anyway, other than that not much is going on… gala on Saturday which should be a good time and then no plans for awhile. Luke and I are going to try and get back to bbq again sometime but things keep coming up.
Made this amazing broccoli cauliflower thing the other day… rather yummy indeed… so craving some atm.
Okay, time to get back to work I guess… hope all out there are having a good day!
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| very quick update |
[07 Aug 2007|12:35pm] |
Hi all
So I know I'm terrible about updating this thing nowadays... however thought I would fill you all in on why I've been so busy and other exciting things that have been happening
First off, I have a job with Engineering Australia... basically I'm a receptionist/pa which is fine. It's only for 5 weeks and is good money so I'm happy enough. Everyone I work with is really lovely.
In other news here are the new additions to our household: A fancy schmancy bbq, washer, iron, ironing board, throw pillows, nice sheets, bath sheets, and a matching set of dishes!! how fun eh?? everything is looking lovely. Still job hunting for something I think i'll enjoy a bit more than just recept. work, but we'll see how we go. Not much time in the week when you're working full time.
Hope everyhting is going well for everyone, will try to catch up again soon!
megan
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| an entry or two |
[24 Jun 2007|08:49pm] |
Live journal entry: June 16, 2007 --- what i add now since the day i wrote this is: WE'RE LEAVING IN 3 DAYS!!!! CAN'T WAIT CAN'T WAIT CAN'T WAIT!
Wow, how time flies when you’re having fun. I can’t remember the last entry I actually did. So here’s a bit of a catch up on what’s been going on down under. (there is a fair chance I think that I use that cheesy line in just about every live journal post I’ve done from Australia.
Anyway, in good news, I’ve not only finished my real estate course but have FINALLY received my certificate of attainment. Why is this exciting you ask? Well because it is the next step in a series of several more steps completed so that I can actually have a ‘real job’ here pretty soon. So here’s the current future plan and how it’s come about.
Future Plan # 6546:
Last week, or perhaps it was the week before that, I did a bit of research on the visa situation for next year. In short, how can I stay in Australia and how much more money would the department of immigration like me to give them. I had been planning on doing a “Sponsered Worker Visa” which means that some lucky company can sign me up to work for them and pay for my visa because well, they can’t find an Australian or American better than me to do the job they’re offering. However true this may be the profession I was shooting for to start working in for the next 6 months (finishing my working holiday visa and making sure above suggested employer is aware of my skills and qualities exceeding that of above mentioned Aussie), was real estate. Upon researching the visa I discovered that there are quite a few ramifications to the sponsored worker visa process and it wasn’t as easy as previously thought. Not only do I have to be rather fantastic and win over my employer (piece of crumb cake), but I also have to convince them to pay me a generous salary (not usually found in commission based positions), have monthly chats with them to let them know ‘how I’m feeling and adjusting’ as well as a number of other rather time consuming tasks. Thus it was seeming more and more unlikely that I would be able to achieve a position with the promise of all that. Back to the drawing board I went. (I”ll cut this all out for you so you don’t have to go round and round the table with me again)
Jump ahead to the 7th of June. Here we are in our lovely little apartment, having hurried to take down our not approved blinds (only to find out that she’d forgotten to get back to us and had approved them) waiting on our property manager to come do her inspection. I really like the woman who we’ve rented our place through, she’s really lovely. The particular school that I went to for my real estate course was referred by her. Anyway, she turns up and asked how my course was going and what I was planning to do. I explained the visa issues and asked what she thought. She had some interesting considerations to take into account. The sales end of the industry is where I really was most interested in moving into, which is all commission based. However, property management, as she informed us, is on salary positions. So there I was, in luck!!! $650 bucks in course fees have not gone in vain! And property management is still on the table. Thus this week I have been popping into a bunch of places to get a feel for the staff and how the office works. So far I like one on Oxford St., LJ Hooker.
Anyway, so that’s the plan.. exciting…. I’d do this for a year I think (this remaining 6 months and 6 more months of the next visa) and then start school again in the fall doing something in either marketing or entrepreneurship or I donno…. It would in part depend on how much I enjoyed doing the real estate/property management thing. The other good news is that in 4 months into my new visa (which would start in Feb.) I am eligible for permanent resident status in Australia. Which means my school fees are way cheap and also that I can do whatever career I wish without having to ask that an employer pay me a certain salary. I’m really happy to have a bit of focus or at least a goal to work towards, even if everything would change.
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| it's in the stars |
[21 May 2007|03:20pm] |
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My horoscope says today: Try to be content with where you are in life right now -- it's a pretty plum spot!
For whatever reason I found this to be amusing. Not sure why, I think it might have been the "pretty plum spot" part. What a funny thing to say.... describing a place or moment in your life be it figurative or literal, as a plum. Most people I know don't even think of plums as anything other than fruit... and really even then plums don't seem to pop up very often in the favorite fruit column for people. Plums.. the forgotten fruit. Fortunately, I do like plums, very much in fact. I prefer them in tarts but nonetheless I do enjoy them. In which case perhaps that statement can apply to me. A plum spot would be quite a like-able spot indeed, and here I am...
There are many many things that I love about this place. First and foremost the people. I love being near the river and the culture that surrounds it. I like the laid back attitude and the can do will do focus everyone seems to have. Never challenge an Australian to do something you don't think they can do. For they will go out and do it, and they will strive to do, (and usually succeed), 10 times better than you'd suggested. This is admirable.
Anyway, so what's been happening with me down here? Well busy busy actually. Finished my realestate course this past monday then have been back at work for sunline. there are a few more steps which need to happen for my registration to come through.. first of these is to get employed, although this is difficult as if i do it prior to august i will have to switch places again before feb- thank you visa... blah... so i think i'm going to wait until august then come back and go at it with a vengence. I'm excited though, think this will be good. Really happy to have something constructive to work towards and perhaps a few longer term goals put into place. I'm still planning on going back to school next year but i'm not sure which end i'll do. At the moment I'm thinking I'll wait a bit and start off by getting my full agent license (just means you can own an agency, as opposed to just being a selling agent). Then i'd go into school in the fall to do a masters in something like entrep. business or business and marketing... not sure which yet. I"ll have to see if I really like this real estate thing.
Otherwise, not much to report... haven't done much recently. Went for a picnic on Mothers day with everyone... also took a hike up around a falls in the glass house mountains. It was really nice to get out of the city for a day. Luke and I are both really looking forward to our holiday in the states. woo!!!
Well, best sign off now. Hope all is well with everyone!
~Meg
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| That time again |
[24 Apr 2007|07:33am] |
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Well good morning. or good afternoon or good evening, depending on when you're reading this.
It's a beautiful sunny day here in Brisbane, and I'm sitting at the Coffee Club, having a very large skinny cap. (it is 7am after all) and considering breakfast. Since Luke and I don't have internet at home I'm also catching up on reading a bit of news. Including a few articles about all that's happened at V. Tech. As Friday marked the 8th anniversary of Columbine and it was only 3 days before that the shooting in Virgina occured I guess it hithome with everyone a bit more. At least it seems that way. This year I recieved more well wishes, cards and little emails mentioning that I was in their thoughts as our anniversary passed and the details of this latest tragedy unfolded than I have recieved in the last few years. All in all this year wasn't too different than others for me though. I was sad to hear of what they went through, as everyone was. And perhaps it did bring up a few things I haven't thought about or remembered in a long time, but it was all manageable. Maybe part of that has to do with how far away I am right now. I read the initial article about it and saught out no more information. Then today, reading a story about how the students are coping the tone struck me. Suddenly all the articles written about April 20th, popped into my head. The mornful, shocked dictionof the news reporter trying to stay unbiased and pull something emotional into the piece at the same time. I always did think it was funny how those articles never really said anything... they just seemed to be trying to paint a picture of all the community was going through. It's the same with the one I read today about V. Tech. And the funny thing.... articles written like that give me more hope for the state of our world than any chant of unity etc... People simply do not know how to handle tragedy like this. They don't know what to say, but they feel they should express something. Very few if any however, seem to be able to actually capture what happens in the hearts of those affected. It's simply too incomprehensible; and therefore unthinkable by most to be able to relate to the killers point of view. It's a good thing. Anyway... my thoughts, like all others out there, go to those suffering.
On a higher note, things are going pretty well here, I just finished doing another homeshow this weekend for Sunline. Today I'm signing up for my real estate course and doing a few odds and ends before heading out to the office for the afternoon. Last night Julie and I went out to see the Queensland premier of the new Spiderman 3. She won tickets at work. Movie was not surprisingly pretty crap if you ask me. Man can that kid cry a lot. The theatre it was shown in is an old IMAX theatre which didn't go well down here and thus they turned it from IMAX into a regular screen for regular movies. All well and good in some ways, fun to watch on a giiiigaannttiicc screen, however all the action sequences in this movie were done either with handheld cameras (means very very shaky camera work) or were CG and thus blurred and fast sceens of spidey swooping between buildings etc... not good on such a big screen, makes one very dizzy... add some candy to that equation and you have one rather ill audience member. It was fun though, who doesn't enjoy free movies?!!
In other really fun news, Luke and I are getting rather sure of our plans to come to the states for a few weeks end of June and July. A plan that amounted when I was helping make plans for gabs to go stay with my parents for a few weeks and thus in discussing home and all that goes with it jealousy set in and so we decided we needed a holiday too. haha. Gabs and Anita arrive in LA today and will be there 4 days or so before Anita heads back to Australia and Gabs and my parents head towards Colorado for a bit. I think they'll all have a grand time. there are lots of plans for everyone to be doing and new fun things to see.
Speaking of visits there is always an open room and invitation here for anyone who'd like to come stay. Phoenix is coming in Oct. maybe.. hopefully.. fingers crossed.. and she's my new hero!!! yay Phoe!
Well, what do you think... perhaps I've rambled on long enough now no? Time to wrap it up. Hope everything is going well for everyone. Have a good rest of your day or day tomorrow!!!
~M
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| and all that jazz |
[02 Apr 2007|04:56pm] |
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So here I am sitting on the deck at Luke's parents place. Having had a rather blah day at work and thus I'm now resting looking at the river with my glass of vino next to me... mellowing.
It's a beautiful afternoon, I love weather like this... not too hot with the suns till shining and nothign really to do this evening but be around.
Luke's sisters are going to be travelling overseas for the next few weeks and so we're here making dinner for everyone. Well, Luke's making dinner, I'm just sitting here keeping him company.. sort of. Gabs and Anita will be travelling to Norway for 2 weeks and then they will pop off to Paris and New York before hitting LA where Anita will head home from, leaving Gabs with my parents for a few weeks in Cali and then in Colorado. It'll be a great trip and I'm jealous. In retaliation I am talking to Luke seriously about a trip back stateside in July. We'd only be around for about 2-3 weeks maybe and in that time hopefully finding a few days to head down to the South. Nothing is written in stone yet... actually it's not even written on paper.. Very early stages of development. Would be really nice to be heading back home though. I really do miss it.
Speaking of, I am enjoying being in Australia. I struggle with work some days but I know that wont last past may thanks to my Visa. And really I do like the work for the most part. I get frustrated with some of the tedium but in general i do like getting to see more of Brisbane and getting to meet most all the people I meet. I've also decided that by the end of May I'll have a solid plan as to what's happening for me in the next year. Some clarification and more firm ideas about my future I think will be good. This is all of course only in regards to my education and career. I feel a bit at a loss down here as to what to do for work. Not sure if I'll be here and for how long, as well as being unfimiliar with the systems and industry practices for various fields and not a lot of research/contacts available to ask. Still, i'm sure i'll get there somehow. :) Not to worry.
Not much else really going on at the moment I have to say. I should really probably get up and help Luke with our BBQ for the girls farewell dinner. So here I go. Hope everyone is doing well and eating their veggies!!!
Miss you all
Megan
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| checking in |
[27 Mar 2007|08:49pm] |
Well, it's been ages I know. Busy busy life I lead down here as it turns out. I have also discovered that being out of school is great for free time in the evenings and on the weekends but working full time is twice as exhausting and Im too tired to do much with my free time in the evenings and on the weekends.
I'm sitting at UQ waiting to pick up luke from his class. Tues. nights are our late night. He has class until 7:30 and I come sit and do work around 7 or so then we go home for dinner.
In general there isn't all that much to report really. We've moved into our apartment and are now pretty much fully settled. Our plants are growing amazingly well and we've been testing out cocktails a night or so a week. It's a lovely place to come home to. Very quiet feels peaceful. :)
Other than that I've been working a lot. Out on the road, as our other sales person's mother is very ill and she had to go be with her in Sydney for a few weeks. I have since taken over and am now driving around the city everyday.
Did you know Brisbane is the biggest city in the world as far as land mass goes? I was surprised too, however after these past 2 weeks... I can vouch for that. I am enjoying it however, it's fun to meet people and I inevitably get chatting with them for a time after measuring up for things. Interesting all the people you meet and from what walks of life.
I've been painting a lot more lately too, which I'm loving. Need to get some more canvases and perhaps some larger ones. Not painting anything in particular, just whatever comes to mind. Really rather relaxing and it's something which is all my own and gives me my space and re-energize time.
well, i'd better sign off, Luke's class just ended and we'll be on the road again shortly.
Hope all is well with everyone, thank you for your emails, I'm sorry it seems to take me so long to get back to them.
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| Finally |
[22 Feb 2007|06:23pm] |
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So I have truely been planning to update this sooner than it turns out I am, but it seems I'm a bit busy here.
Things have been going fairly well, nice to be back with the Edney's and doing Australian things in Australia again. There were definitely things I missed. The great fish/food/coffee/drinks, and of course the people too.
I'm working at Sunline again for a bit, which is really lovely of Luke's parents. I'm still looking for another job to get out and meet some people etc... expand my friend group and what not. Unfortunately I don't seem to be having much luck with any of that though. Despite putting lots of applications out! I'm frustrated with the whole apply online system. I don't think it gives anyone a true picture of the applicant unless you've lived in the same place all your life and held the same job for many years. Those of us who must have some gypsy blood in us (eg. me) suffer for this though as we seem flighty and noncommital.
Outside that, lots of unsuccessful house hunting has also been happening. There are tons and tons of people looking to rent here and not enough places to go around by any means. I've applied for a few been passed up for one and am under application for another, keep your fingers crossed.
Really nothing more to report, just doing the day in day out stuff. Nothing too exciting, but its good to be finding routine again.
Hope to write more soon, and something perhaps with a story or two!!
Love,
Megan
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| Bon Voyage |
[03 Feb 2007|04:09pm] |
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Well hello lovely lovely people,
I'm at DIA sitting and waiting to catch my plane to san fran and then onto Sydney. I'm so excited to be heading back to Australia. Really is rather bitter sweet however, as I've enjoyed being home for a more extended period of time. I did lots of fun things, have some nice memories... Lots of family bonding which was a good thing, and I managed to see all of my friends from LA to FL and most of the ones in Colorado. What's not to love. In general it was a pretty perfect time.
Luke's picking me up in Sydney and we're spending a week heading back to Brisbane and responsibility. Will be great to see him, I'm really looking forward to a bit of catching up just the two of us. My plans as far as what I'll be doing when I get to Brissy, are still a bit up in the air. I will be working for Luke's family for at least part time and then hopefully getting another job elsewhere that I can make some more friends at... meet some people. Outside of that I'll be looking into getting my realestate license while I'm there. It's a 12 week program which sounds rather intensive but I am excited about the prospect. The market in Brisbane is really booming and it would be a great time to buy a few properties within the next 5 years or so. Good investment. Now all I have to do is win the lotto. :) Anyway... I guess that's pretty much all.. didn't have much to say. Just killing time I guess.
Hope everyone else is doing well and classes are going well for those going back to school and the real world is treating all you post grads well too.
Take care all! See you on the flip side.
love,
M
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| General what's up |
[01 Oct 2006|11:07pm] |
Hi everyone.
I know it's been ages since I updated this blog, but thought i'd fill all you in on whats going on. Not too much is happening here, busy with school and midterms start this week and go for 3 weeks.
Graduation is looking good for november just a few more steps to complete and I should have my little letter of approval. Looking forward to that. Funny I keep hearing all my friends talking about how much they want to go back to school. :)
I also managed to get my application for my working holiday visa done and in the process of well processing. So that's good news too.
Other than that, not much going on here, working, school, just sort of keeping at it.
Hope all is well there for everyone!
Love,
Megan
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| new pens and pencils.. |
[06 Sep 2006|03:44pm] |
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So it's that time again.. yep... I need a coffee too... it's back to school time!
My classes look good so far really. All of my professors are really pretty nice so far. Canadian Cinema professor is from Bulgaria and is a good lecturer.. very interesting without being redundant.. I also appreciate having a teacher who has to discuss the dominance of Hollywood within a country in a non-biased light. Really, so lovely that he isn't just constantly bagging the US for the state of Canada's industry.
My class on Hollywood is predictably good, as it's with the same professor who taught it the last time I took it. this year's topic is however, grim at the best. Representations of Violence in Hollywood. The films we are watching include but are not limited to such films as: The Texas Chain-saw Massacre, Natural Born Killers, Halloween, and today we watched probably the best one we will watch this term, Psycho, the original. Still though, if anyone can make this turn into a class still with a lot to learn it would be this prof.
My chinese cinema class is taught by a 73 year old man from the south of China who is really quite well respected in the film world. Was a recipient of the Rockafeller foundation grant etc... he's funny too.
Astronomy i have a few friends in and am looking forward to as well, that prof is from Scotland thus rounding out a very international band of professors.
all in all it should be a good term...
In other good news, as long as my exchange classes go through I"m on the right track for graduation. The advisor just has to call me back with the thumbs up for it and I will have to get classes signed off etc...
That's about all for right now, just getting used to being back in vancouver and missing australia.. more missing Luke.. but yeah.. :)
hope all is well!
~m
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| coming to a close |
[14 Aug 2006|05:40pm] |
Well, it would seem that my time here in Australia is coming to a close. Such a bitter sweet realization. I am looking forward to seeing family and friends back in the states and in Canada, but how much I will miss the people and especially one person here in Australia is quite stunning as well. The good news is that I will be back here in sunny Queensland as of Febuary 5th 2007... only 5 months away from now. Happy to have a day to count down to, although I'm sure in Feb. there will be a whole other bunch of things to miss back home.
I will be busy when I get back... here's a glimpse of what my life looks like for the next month or so.
Aug 20: Brisbane -Sydney-LA
Aug 22: LA-Colorado
Aug29-Sept1: Colorado-Vancouver
sometime in there I will be visiting friends in LA, catching family and friends in Colorado, moving back into my house in Vancouver and getting an appointment with an advisor to see if I will be able to graduate this term (everyone cross your fingers). I also have to find a good paying job that isn't at Saffrons and organize what sort of visa I will need to go back to Australia.
I've so enjoyed all my time down here, I've done quite a bit and seen more than even I thought I would of the country. Some great memories made of trips and visits but most of all, of just simply being around. :) Can't wait to come back.
On a different note, we had a really great past weekend.... busy but fun. Luke's cousin Monika had her 21st birthday, which are huge celebrations here... similar to our graduation, they are considered a bit of a right of passage etc... Her theme was movie characters, thus if you came/were invited you had to dress up as a movie character. Luke went as 007 and I went as a bond girl. Having had trouble finding a dress which would work for cleopatra and not break my bank account I settled for a really stunning black dress and fantastic shoes. I looked great, Luke looked great too.. we bought him little cap guns and made shoulder holsters from a western kit at a toyshop. He wore a tux shirt and vest with a long jacket and bow tie. A very debonaire Bond, I think he should audition. Jennie went as Cruela Devile... (sp?) which was fantastic. She got fake lashes and a fur fabric which she sewed onto a black silky shirt she had. She got a funky little feathered/ net had and a long cigarette holder. Graeme went as Al Capone and The girls were Elle Woods (Gabs.. from the movie Legally Blonde) and Anita as Juliette from the one with leonardo decapprio. We had a lot of fun it was an interesting night... and i love my dress... and shoes.. :) I'll post pictures soon.
anyway, time to go... will see you all soon
hope all is well,
~m
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| Adelaide |
[09 Aug 2006|06:35pm] |
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So, Here I am at the adelaide airport on my way back to Brisbane. I've had a nice short holiday here, just 3 days including flying days but it was enough to rechage batteries and have a bit of an unwind. I must confess that I wasn't much of a tourist this holiday. I did do one wine tour though the Barossa Valley on the day that I arrived. This was fun, I bought a bottle of wine and a bottle of mead which is wine made from honey, it's lovely and chocolate/cinnimon flavored. yum. Anyway, that was the first day. The tour was good, although it was a bit different than I had expected in that the company joining me on the tour were of the crowds that dont typically drink wine... more I would expect them to be able to burp the ABC's after their keg stand or case of 'stubbies' . But they were nice enough. I got back around 5:30 had a wander down the mall and over to the government district, trying to find a little something to eat. The first place I walked past almost had me as it smelled divine from the street. I decided I should look around a bit more which, as it turns out wasn't a very well inspired idea as I found myself in the red-light district. Alarming/surprising to say the least, I high-tailed it back to Parlamento (the first resturant.) I had crab and dill ravioli, and a glass of wine. Tasted nice, wasn't as good as it smelled unfortunately, and I'm now concerned that perhaps my mothers allergy to dill has been passed down to me. I went to bed not feeling well and woke up a bit puffy. I decided to take it pretty easy and go for a wander and then scheduled myself out to the spa for the afternoon. The shop yeilded very little but the spa was fantastic. I had the best massage I've ever had, was not once ticklish! And quite a stunning facial as well. It was lovely and long and relaxing and i walked out on a cloud to try some different place for dinner. Scooping at least 2 inches of foam from my very lovely cappicino I sat and read my book for awhile before heading back to watch a bit of tele and sketch.
Today I got up, went and got another cappicino and wandered through the gorgeous campus of the U. of South Australia. The campus is beautiful, and full of ancient buldings next to recently renovated modern structures like the state library and the museum of SA.
Post this I headed back to the city side and walked further before heading back and walking into a little salon for a hair cut and color. :) My hair looks lovely, I added a "chestnut red" color to it which doen't look red less I'm in the sun. It makes my hair about the color of a milky dark chocolate. the rest of the day I spent eating homeade gelato from a place called chocolate and reading my book before going back to my hotel to pick up my things and come to the airport. now here I am.
and that's it. In short it was a very lovely relaxing 3 days and I was happy for the rest! Only thing I wish would have been here with me is some company ;)
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| La dee da |
[28 Jul 2006|01:40pm] |
Well, Here I am... at work.... and sick.... Seems it must be that time of year, everyone is sick. Michelle, the woman who normally works called in at 7 this morning to say she couldn't come in due to illness and so Anita, with a cold, came in and covered the morning. I showed up at 1230 and took over and I'll be here till 5. Heather who also works here is also sick as is my friend Julie. Seems to be a girl thing.
I think it's because I haven't slept all that well since we returned from New Zealand. Got too used to sleeping in our camper van perhaps! I've been ruined from being able to sleep in normal soft beds. Oh well, it's just a cold and I"ll be over it in a few days I'm sure.
In other more exciting news I booked myself a trip to Adelaide yesterday. Just 3 little days because the tickets were really cheap. I also booked a wine country tour there and will be staying at a 5 star resort called the Pacific International Suites. I decided to forgo the 'old world charm' that I fell for on my trip to Tasmania in order to have a nice bathtub with high cotton count sheets and a pillow menu with 5 choices of pillows. I'm looking forward to it. Should be a nice end cap to my trip down here. When I get back I have only 3 cities left to visit and I will have covered every major city in Australia including Tasmania. I'll be gone August 7-9
Luke also gave me all our new zealand pictures and I am hoping to have at least a few of those up on Photo bucket within the weekend if I start feeling better.
Hope everything is going well for everyone. Seems to be the birthday time of year for lots of people lately so if you've recently had a birthday, or are having a birthday "happy birthday!!"... and to the rest of you, a very happy UN birthday.
~m
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| Christchurch |
[12 Jul 2006|11:48am] |
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Hi,
yes, I know this must be the longest entry in history. In short it is Luke and I's trip to New Zealand. Though some parts may be boring I ask you to remember that this is also a way for me to remember bits and pieces as well as to share our bits and pieces with all you out there. So, bear with us in reading through it and pictures will be up soon. Hope all is going well for everyone out there. Happy birthday to Cat and Sarah too btw. :)
~m
So, we stepped off the plane and into the somewhat chillier air of New Zealand. Upon arrival we were informed by the airplane staff that Christchurch was having a heat wave. It was a toasty 10 whole degrees outside. We successfully got though customs and immigration and I was allowed to keep my tin of American mocha, hurray for that. We gathered our bags and headed outside to await the Britz company shuttle to take us over and pick up our van.
The van is huge. Instead of getting the Merc as we had supposed we would we ended up getting a VW one, (we think they may not be buying from merc. any longer and have switched to VW.) which is longer, or at least feels longer. It's 3 yards high or 2.7 meters for those of you outside of the US. The woman at Britz spent a half hour or so showing us and another couple who'd rented a similar model, how everything worked. It's a 5 speed manual transmission which has a very short travel( Luke likens the throttle as being an on or off switch unless you're in 5th gear and then it seems to find a sweet spot), has to be triple clutched in order to be put into reverse and as Luke would say it is woefully inadequate (he then related it's performance to the likes of G. W. or Kim Beasley.) It has a 1500rpm usable rev-range and anything else results n well... nothing. The waste unit seems like it will be easy enough to handle although we are still planning on using it as little as possible. By waste disposal we are naturally talking about the toilet. The toilet is the element which distinguishes us between the more common holiday park troupe. Of course such a thing is splitting hairs in relativity stakes, but when amongst them all you do tend to compare and rate van to motor home. A motor home is distinguished from the camper van by the simple fact that it is completely self contained. Thus not requiring us to become too familiar with the more permenent tornado magnet types. For all the amazing benifits (hard to find...more later) of having a toilet immedately behind the drivers seat so that should the urge to relieve yourself comes you may quickly pop behind and go, this is all overseen by an unsurmountable issue.... this being that you will have to get "down and dirty with your whoopies" (per luke). The toilet does however contain a rather strickingly happy cheerful color of water. Sky blue as the brocure would no doubt call it... in fact i'm sure that we have several brochures in the car currently that could describe the chemically treated water as such given that we picked up all we could on the subject while waiting to be shown how to put on tire chains. While doing ones deeds is a simple matter of breaking open a trap door to a "containment unit" which is no doubt the entertaining part, it does involve the removal of the containment unit from the side of the home and thus we are lead to take a very careful walk to the waste station in the camper park and releasing, again carefully, the lid, taking a deep breath (probably prior to lid opening) said sky blue refuse out of the 'containment unit' and no doubt having a chin wag aka chat with a fellow camper about the latest and greatest sights in the area or perhaps how bad airplane food really is now. The waste dump or 'waste-d' as it is commonly known, is much akin in the magnet society as the water cooler is to the work place.... Actually in all honesty its not bad at all, turns out the nightmarish situation described above doesn't really happen. Happy campers simply and very cleanly can empty tanks fill up water and drive off, everyone respecting that this less than appetizing routine is a necessity for everyone.
Now, the toilet area is not only a happy haven of relief it also shares the pleasure of being a shelf for your soaps should you decide to shower. They did mention and recommend that since the shower/toilet is such a small area and isn't cornered off with any sort of screen that we remove the toilet paper pre shower time. A very handy tip as I am the one who would probably forget to do that and come out of the shower with a very soggy bit of mush in hand. The shower is smaller than the passenger seat area of a mini cooper. The hot water, should we choose to use this shower system takes at minimum 25 minutes to warm up. The other bits of interior are quite nice though and bigger than expected (minus the fridge which is about half the size of a normal bar fridge and doesn't fit a head of lettuce very well even.). The bed/dining table is quite large and comfy which is a big plus. We have a small closet, stove, mirror and sink area as well. Really all quite live-able.
After going over all the bits and pieces of our van we headed to the grocery store to mingle with the locals and pick up a few essentials. Luke got some cash out of the ATM while I packed away groceries in tiny cabinets and are even smaller fridge. Then we were back on our way to the holiday park for the night. We checked in, begging for a spot we wouldnt' have to try and back our whale of a machine into and were good naturedly laughed at by the woman behind the counter. We got spot number 41, but ended up parking in number 40, which we didn't realize till the next morning. Luke very successfully backed onto our concrete pad, only for us to realize that the pad was meant to be a patio next to the actual spot rather than where you pull over. Sooo he had to do it all over again. We explored the facilities of our 5 star park and then went for a walk into the town area. We picked up a few things we'd missed our first grocery trip and walked back home to make dinner. Half hour later we'd successfully fired up our gas stove, cooked chicken, some noodles and some veggies. Post dinner and like true camper vanners we pulled out a deck of cards and I taught Luke how to play speed. A few rounds of that (where i came out victorious although not by too much) we decided that we'd had enough excitement for the day and it was time to set up the bed. Unscrewing the table top and leg we placed our boards between our benches, scooted the cushions in and pulled out our lovely soft blue sheets. I crawled on and pulled the sheets to the corner, threw our blanket over the top and we hopped in for a very cold night after watching an episode of the Lucy show of course.... (Note this is NOT the 'I love Lucy' show, it is simply her variety show like episodes, which aren't nearly as good.) We slept fairly poorly that night and woke up groggy and wishing we'd had longer and vowing to get a space heater as our heater has been conditioned to be more accustomed to the temperatures down here.
Happy to be headed on our way we headed towards Oamaru for the next night we decided to take a quick slip through the heart of Christchurch first. What a beautiful sweet little city. The buildings english victorian gothic style and huge. Very british feeling. We parked by the botanical gardens which is stunning with it's huge trees and very opulent fountain at the entrance. We walked from there past the Art center and a few government buildings down to cathedral square and to the Christchurch Cathedral, which is quoted as being 'the heart of Christchurch,' It's a gorgeous church and a very cool little surrounding square area. They had market tents set up and the visitors information center on the edge where we popped in to buy a few stamps. We also tried to find a pre-pay phone there before realizing that we were running out of time on our meter. So we raced back over the bridge to our van and headed out.
On the way though we went through two towns both of which were considerably talked up by the new zealand tourism website. The first town, Ashburton was about an hour outside of Christchurch and is a very very small little place. Mainly industrial with a few shops and stores we stopped and wandered the city for a little bit. We did find a lovely little cafe to stop in for lunch. Having followed signs quoting "Superior Supreme Pie Winner" we found the cafe and had a 'Superior Supreme Pie' each. Luke's was venison and mine was of course veg and chicken. Both were very nice. A good deal for lunch for sure! We also picked up our pre pay phone here as well.
Next town that we hit was Timaru which was another small but cute town which we had a quick wander through before getting back on the road. We decided that although beautiful, the countryside that we drove through this day to Oamaru was a bit redundant. Sheep, cow, town, sheep, cow, town, sheep, cow, town... you get the picture. Not much to see really, you get over the sheep the cows and the towns (consisting of about 1 store and 2 houses) after the first 100k. We pulled into Oamaru around 4:30ish and had a look around the town. It's a beautiful little town, very old. It was founded during a gold rush and they must have been quite excited about the limestone findings there too as most of the buildings there are formed out of it. We were told after buying a parking permit that it probably wasn't really necessary. Me being the genius I am, put too much money into the meter and bought us not only an hour that afternoon but time all the way up to an extra hour the next morning. We did realize while walking around that evening and the following morning that the woman who had told us not to buy the parking permit had been right. We and about 3 other cars were the only ones who did. I decided that it must be a way for them to gauge their tourism in the city. those who are tourists are those who will be suckers and pay for parking on the city streets. Thus the number of parking thingos is relatively equiv. to the numbers of cars and the number of tourists. Oamaru is also unique in that it is the one place with a blue penguin colony. for 30 bucks a couple you can go see the little penguins come into their nests from a hard day out swimming. Included in that you also get to hear an informative talk/lecture on what mankind is doing to wipe out the penguin population. Now, wanting to see penguins in the wild I figured this would be a good idea so we had planned on getting to Oamaru and booking these tickets. Reaching the I site center in the town though we discovered that there is a less costly option of seeing the yellow-eyed penguins instead. Now on new zealand . com's tourism website (where i originally read about these penguins) it said that 100-200 penguins come ashore each evening. Fantastic!!! Lots and Lots of penguins. HOWEVER, another handy tidbit that the i-site center filled us in on is that in winter only about 15 penguins come to shore at night. That of course isn't even a guarantee. So for 1 dollar per penguin (if your lucky) you can pay to see the little blue ones, or for free, you can take your chances skip the guilt lecture and go see the yellow- eyed penguins come to shore. .... We voted for option two. Our sojourn to the yellow-eyed colony was an exciting one! back though old town to a steep hill and back down to park along a fairly narrow road then to hike over to a wooden box look out post about 10 meters above shoreline. Cold, and blowy and muddy wee say a total of 6 penguins. They are totally worth it. And it's a much better option to see free penguins and bring a pair of binoculars (which we had). . They're totally cute. waddly little uncoordinated animals which belly surf onto the shore and then stand up on their tiny little webbed feet and head into the bushes. 4 of the penguins that we saw were swimming into the shore the other 2 were in the bushes. Not just any bushes though, the ones at the top near the view point! Who knew that penguins could climb cliffs. It was cool to see that. We walked back to our van and Luke expertly pulled out of the narrow little area to take us back into town and to our camp for the evening. We stayed at another top ten campground that night. They seemed to be pretty nice the night before. This one, unfortunately wasn't quite the recently renovated place that the former top ten had been. Still though, it was next to a public gardens and seemed like it would do the trick. The exaggerating nice little man who checked us into our camper spot informed us that should we choose to dump our water or get new water, now (the avo) is the time as the pipes would be frozen solid in the morning.... This seems like a good opportunity to take a moment to comment on the weather:
Megan: It's really freaking cold.... and I wont be surviving when I move back home. I should have packed more clothes. All of the ones in my closet layered on me might start to make it possible for me to be outside for longer than 10 seconds..... and they call this a heat wave... no seriously... shuttle guy on the way from the airport actually said it was a heat wave.
Luke: "I can cut diamonds with my.... it's cold."
ANYWAY: the camp.... After settling our camper van in we took a tour of our campsite. This tour included the bathrooms to investigate showering possibilities as well as meeting in the television room where we turned on the tele but instead of capturing our attention 2 mice scurrying around the edge of the kitchen caught the spotlight.... we left shortly thereafter back to the safety and cleanliness of our camper van. Another night spent as popsicles in the morning we vowed to find a place that sold space heaters.
We had a very exciting morning the next day and it wasn't just cool things we saw which made it interesting. The focal point and notable thing that happened is all thanks to my gorgeous traveling companion. In short, he locked the camper van keys in the car. This means our hotel room, belongings, mode of transportation and meals for the next nine days were suddenly inaccessible, life as we knew it on this holiday was for a moment, suspended. The only funnier thing to happen came next. Luke, sheepishly smiling, hands me the cell phone and goes, "can you call?" *grin*..... So yes... I called, and then after being on hold for ages, a guy picked up and asked us our location. "Oamaru," I said. "Ularu?"... "No, Oamaru."... "Ularu?"... "No, Oamaru not Ularu....I'm not in Australia I'm in New Zealand"..."Can you spell that for me?".... As it turns out, Britz has a general maintenance and problem number and the office is located in the Northern Territory of Australia and it over sees all of the New Zealand, Australian and South African Camper van rentals. After giving our details, he promised to ring us back after organizing a locksmith to meet us out there. We walked across the street to a little cafe with extraordinary cappuccinos and read magazines. The nice guy from the northern territory phoned back and said our locksmith was along the way. Sure enough a few minutes later he showed up and worked with Luke to open our surprisingly secure camper van. Success was achieved! Post regaining our life as we knew it back we headed off to the cheese factory for what was thought to be a tour of the factory and some tasting. Turns out the tours probably just run in the summer but we did get to taste a few and we purchased two of those, one brie and one called end stream or something like that.
Heading out of town down towards Dunedin, we stopped along the way at the famous Moreki beach boulders. Weird little things they are boulders that are perfect spheres and seem to emerge from the banks along the beach. They look like solid rock and are only slightly bigger than giant beach balls. The other interesting thing about them is that they seem to break open at some point, like eggs, and have sort of brownish rock centers. Kind of cool. After that, on the recommendation of the people at our camp site, we stopped at Shag Point. This was the location of some of the coal mining that is prevalent around the area. It is also a spot for sea lions and their pups to sun during the day. Sure enough, 3 little seals were lounging about. The rocks in this area are beautiful. They are very very colorful. Stripes and ribbons of colors; red, green, orange, yellow and black. The water down here being partially glacial has a lovely turquoise tinge to it as well, which simply enhances the colors of the rocks.
After these two stops we headed to a little spot called Fortrose and had lunch. It's a very very very very very small town with a beautiful waterway that runs through it. Not sure if it was a lake or some sort of cove but there were black swans swimming away in huge numbers all around it. We had our lunch looking out over this beautiful spot then got back on the senic drive highway towards dunedin.
Arriving in Dunedin we stopped at the grocery store to get a few things and then had a wander around the city. The main town center is a square of sorts and surrounding the edges of is a beautiful church, a government building, a movie theatre and several shops and cafes, all of course were painfully cute and the buildings very majestic and traditional. Wandering through the i-site center we were informed that several of the activities we had looked forward to doing were really about 20 minutes away from where we were. Now this may not sound like much but remember that we have been driving... all... day.
We headed to our holiday park after the city and decided to have a rather mellow afternoon/evening before getting ready for our play that evening. This idea was found to be even better after doing a massively steep hill that we were incredibly lucky wasn't covered in ice. The van could hardly move on it. No power.... anyway we made it up the hill and headed into our spot for the evening. I should mention though that this town is built literally on the sides of mountains with the center being in a valley and it is noted for having the steepest street in the world.... which we didn't bother trying to go up or down in the camper van. Anyway, This was a nicer holiday park and it had internet which was a good thing as I will explain later. We had a bit of our Oamaru-ian cheese and a bit of wine we'd picked up at the little shop down the road. Then got ready for the play that was to be in the Fortune theatre that evening. It's such a cute little theatre, looks a bit like an old castle, and the play itself was really sweet. Really just a local production in honor of the "Chocolate festival."
The play was called, "Gateau," The french word for cake for those of you who don't speak french. Essentially it was about an older woman who runs a health club. There is a gentleman who comes because he is secretly in love with her, a young girl who comes because she's lonely and her hubby is having an affair (something she wont admit though) and then the lonely girls sister, who is a younger girl and a bit goth to say the least. Its sort of all about how they get on and get over their issues, particularly when they are given an opportunity to be on television and then the offer turns out to be false and they mistakenly sign away their rights to the club property. over-acted but funny it was entertaining for the evening and in general, very enjoyable. After we decided to take a wander through the city in the evening. We ended up down at the train station which is an incredibly beautiful building. Putting out new tripod to use we took some really cool night photos of us and the building before wandering further to find a church and doing the same. back to catch a cab home to the holiday park and to bed.
We got up the next morning, luke not locking the keys in the car.. good job... and headed off towards Invacargill. There is a road which can be taken that is particularly scenic and generally follows the line of the coast. Turns out that this road, while scenic, is also very windy... and twisting.. and full of.. waittt ffoorr it... MORE SHEEP... who's excited?! So yes.. the road is lovely, really it is... incredibly beautiful, particularly in the bits which you run by the water and you can see the southern alps running in the background. Still though, by the end of the day we were quite happy to hit Invicargill and drive through to our Holiday park. We stopped at the Pak and Save in the city to stock up for the last few days of our trip which in itself was a rather interesting experience. To put it gently the people of the town weren't really winning any favoritism with us. Our holiday park was a 20 minute drive from the city in another township called Lornville. So far it has been our favorite park because of how nice the owners are. Lovely people really. They set us up with a nice spot, and we had a wander around the grounds. Our evening was spent here as it is far from the city and well, we ended up having to deal with another, slightly more important drama. My visa for Australia expires as of the 24th of July. Now, having phoned the immigration department last month when we booked the tickets I was informed that when we left the country to come here I could apply for an ETA visa which would cover me for the remainder of my trip here and would save me about 200 bucks. The 200 bucks would have been for an extension to my current visa and has to be lodged when you are on Australian soil and preferably 2 weeks prior to my visa expiring. Otherwise the other option is potentially to register for a tourist visa from outside the country. However, for the tourist visa there is a $70 fee and it's basically meant to be from your home country as it could possibly require an interview. Now. In our little holiday camp, since there was internet, I decided to try and do my visa there. Trying everything I could though it wouldn't allow me to register for one. Can't do the ETA because i have another visa (evil immigration woman lied) and I can't do the extension because i"m outside Australia. The tourist visa would be the wrong one and I'm outside the US/Canada. So we called Luke's mother and had her ring immigration again to find out if I would have trouble getting back in the country. They told her I would and that because the application is late I have to lodge it myself. Since that would be impossible she had to email the application to me, have me fill out all 11 pages of it, write a letter authorizing her to lodge on my behalf and then overnight it back to Australia so that she could get it processed and phone me at the airport on weds, with the number of my extension visa. *sighs*.... such a hassle. Since we needed to print the application we had to go bug the owners of the camp site and use their internet/printer. This did give us an opportunity to have a chat and get to know the people who were putting us up for the night. absolutely lovely people. They were kind and generous and didn't mind at all that we had to do all this. In fact they did their best to help, offering phone numbers, locations for post offices etc... they were really great. We got the application and sent it off the next morning and currently we're changing our plane tickets to go back a day later as to give it more time to process.
The next day after the post office, we headed out again on a scenic road to head to Te Anau. We did take a short detour first down to Bluff which is the southern most inhabited city before Antarctica. It's an industrial port that also does some petroleum refining we think. Their claim to fame though stands in a sign post which gives the kilometers to several major cities around the world and to the south pole. Currently, while standing there I was closer to the South Pole than I was to home... Think I still am. The road to Te Anau is much more scenic and diverse than the road the day before. The Mountains slowly weave their way closer into view. This was a great day and a fantastic drive. We had a beautiful lunch of New Zealand Blue Cod at an award winning beach-house cafe in Riverton. Gorgeous little spot and really a diamond in the rough as far as location and the size of the town. Great cappuccinos and fantastic food. We got into Te Anau early enough to go for a walk around the town and then catch a movie which turned out to be missing any dialogue and to get dinner at a cute little restaurant, which made me sick shortly thereafter. Seems like we struck out that night but all in all it really was quite fun.
Now today.... We got up early to catch a coach to Milford sound. The road there takes about 2.5 hours and is spectacular. It had been closed for the previous few days due to an avalanche that fell onto the road making it impossible to travel. 3 days later they finally had it cleared. It opened this morning at 11... lucky enough for us. The coach stopped at several beautiful spots along the way and final ended taking us to a boat which would take us on an hour and 40 minute cruise around Milford sound. Spectacular scenery and possibly the most beautiful area I've ever been in. The mountains literally rise from the sea here and the tops are crested with fresh white snow. The lower elevations are covered in waterfalls and trees in an area which is the wettest mountain region on earth at sea level. If that wasn't enough we spontaneously decided to blow a bit of cash on one of the best purchases I've ever made and I'm sure Luke would feel the same. We caught a plane back to te anau from Milford. Just a small sight seeing prop. We flew off just a few meters over the water and took off gaining elevation and putting us up close and personal with some of these peaks. There are probably 5-6 ranges of mountains in the fiord-lands and you can see all of them peaking over the crests of these other peaks. Indescribably beautiful and I think we must have taken 1000 photos on the 45 minute journey back. Landing on a little grassy strip we were transported and dropped off back at our holiday park where we have had showers, looked up plane tickets home and been typing this blog since.
Tomorrow we head off to Queenstown and more beautiful spots. The West Coast of New Zealand is really the best place to be.
Now we've driven through to Queenstown, we followed the Waikia lake most of the way, it's beautiful, yet again more mountains falling into the lake and looking gorgeous. We stopped a few times got out and took photos.
Queenstown is pretty much identical to any ski town that you can think of, it has lots of shops and cafews and buses to ski areas. Upon arrival, we drove straight to the area where we would be taking our jet boat ride. The companyu we dicided to go with is called Shotover jet because they are the only ones licensed to go in the shot over river and through the canyon area. The reason they are the only ones is because if any other company would try to do it at the same time, both boats wouldn't fit and they would have no choice but to crash. this is how narrow the cwaterway is. It's a beautiful glacial river and the canyon on either side is mostly sandstone and thus it has been carved out with cool designs over time. We checked in a bit early and were offered spots on the jet that would be leaving at 12:30 rather than the 1pm booking time that we had originally settled on. Putting on warm clothes and wandering down to check-in station numero dos, we were giben black trench-coat sorts of jackets and life vests which went from our chins to well below our waistes. We had our photos taken and waited on the other people for our ride and then hopped in the tiny yellow boat. With a stoke of Luck, luke and I got the best seats, me in the middle next to the driver and Luke on the edge.. Very first row. The other unique thing about this company is that theya re the only ones who do 360 turns in the boats while going through all these canyons. You reach about 80kph on the straighter parts and avg probably about 50 on the canyon areas. It's a fantastic thrill ride and a beautiful area to cruise through.. that is if you can stand to look up fast enough to catch it wizzing by. After the ride we got out and dried off, purchased out tourist photos and headed into the little town to find the nights lodging. We checked in and went for a walk into town to find a bite of lunch, finally stopping at a little cafe for a scone and hot chocolate. the afternoon was spent resting and going through photos etc... We had a short nap and then headed back into town for a wander. We made some fish for dinner and watched some Lucy show episodes before bed.
The next day we got up early in order to get from Queenstown to Lake Tekapo. On the way we cruised by some really beautiful glacial lakes, similar to the lake areas around Banaff Nat. Park. They are really big on hydro plants here. We got quite excited about Lake Tekapo given that we'd heard only fantastic things about the lake and it's beauty and color. Seeing the lakes along the way it was hardly conceivable there could be a more blue/green lake. Upon arrival we exited the cold mobile and discovered the lake was less than the blue of the previous. The holiday park was a bit sus too. The view around the lake is stunning however, it's surrounded by some of the southern hemisphere's tallest mountains and it is quite peaceful. There is a small ancient church that backs onto the water as well as a monument to the Collie dog. yes... just like lassie. The tie between dog and monument has to due with the importance of these dogs and similar dogs for the area given the sheep hearding skills they possess. Really remarkable creatures, I have seen them in action and it is impressive although a bronze monument seems perhaps a bit much. Perhaps a fire hydrant might have been better suited. :) Luke was feeling pretty good and we were trying to come up with reasons not to stay at that holiday park so we stopped at the petrol station for some fruit tingles and gas before heading the minimal 40k to the next town. That town looked a bit dodgy too and we knew we had a long drive coming the next day so why not shorten it down by just another 40 little k that night. So we went on again, only to find that place didn't look so hot either. We headed into a town called Geraldine knowing there were several things in that town that we had been looking forward to doing either way. After extremely confusing directions to our parking spot we took a walk around the town and got fish and chips for dinner, along with a can of ketchup/tomato sauce. Very nice fish we returned home and watched a few episodes of the Lucy Show. Off to bed.
The next morning we discovered unfortunately the the Vintage car museum was only open on weekends, the movie theatre there is also only open on weekends... what does this town do during the week?! So we headed back into christchurch. This was an hour and a half trip that somehow managed to take five hours by the time we landed that evening. Amazing how that happens. We stopped in Ashburton again for a more thorough look through the town and we had some really weird nachos at a little place called Dancz or something like that. The town is cute. We also walked through their museum which was really well set up, giving us quite a bit of information about how the area was settled and what it may have looked like. After that we headed into christchurch and I promptly made us drive all the way across the entire city to get to the camper park that we DIDN'T want to go to. It was only until we were about a block away that we realized this and thus we had to turn around and drive back through (the dodgy end of) the city. We did finally get there and decided to have a mellow night and take in a movie. This however ended up involving a 40 minute walk in the cold/rain to the shopping center that on the map (which was clearly not to scale) looked to be about a block or 2 away. We saw Pirates of the Carribean 2, which I thought was okay, not as good as the first though. Johnny Depp was great as usual though :) Another walk in the rain home at last and to bed we went..
The next morning we got up early and made breakfast before heading out to catch the bus into the city. Note that it is more fridgid in Christchurch due to the winds that come down off the mountains. Standing waiting for the bus = sucks. We got to the city, did a bit of shopping and then went for lunch at a cute little cafe called Le Cafe which was reccommended by a local and turned out to be quite nice. We then went to the Museum which was HUGGGEEE and very interesting. Too interesting actually, as we both got headaches from reading too much fine print. We walked back to the bus with a short detour at starbucks. :) Successfully navigating public transport we arrived back at our camper pad, had a nap and were in for the avo and evening. We watched a lucy and then the godfather part 3. Finishing up the food in our house we had popcorn and tuna melts. which were much better than they sound I promise.
Now, this morning we packed up and gave the ol van a good clean out before having several cups of extra creamy hot coco (again using up what we had left) then it was to the dump station for our waste water and then to the gas station to fill up our LPG as well as diesel and onto Britz to drop off the van and get a ride to the airport incredibly early. We got weird sammichs for lunch and then went to the 'viewing deck' or at least it's interior counterpart, read the paper fora bit before getting in the huge check in line with gross tuna sandwich eating people behind us dropping crumbs. And then finally to our gate for us to check in. Customs on Aussie side were great. Luke had more issues getting through than i did... maybe he's lost his Aussie accent too much for the passport haha.
All in all we had a great trip and made a lot of memories. Not sure if we would camper van again in the future, although if we do it will be in the summer for sure and someplace that has lots of sunshine etc.. We would also rent a bigger one because table to bed conversion is not so fun as it sounds. We did enjoy ourselves however and it will be a highlight of my time down here.
I have tickets home too if I haven't mentioned that yet. Aug. 20 I fly out of Australia and back into.... Colorado? Can't remember at present. But I should be back in Vanc, at my house about Sept. 1st or so. Hope everyone is fantastic and I'm looking forward to seeing you all.
Love,
~m
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| new zealand!!!! |
[10 Jul 2006|07:10pm] |
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HIIIIII
We're going to new zealand!! Tomorrow! On a plane, to a camper van and then we're off!!! 9 whole days in a chilly but beautiful wonderland! .... who's excited?!?!? yes me... that would be me...
I'm also bringing my lap top so that luke and I can watch I love Lucy in the evenings while we're freezing in bed.... we're hoping the fan on the computer may help generate some extra heat! This also means that I'll be able to update my journal while we're away. Although getting it onto the website can only happen if we can find wireless internet... otherwise you lovely people will just have to sit tight till we get back. If you'd like to follow along though and check out where we are going try this website:
http://www.newzealand.com/travel/travel-planner/email-view.cfm/tnztp_uuid/4E0A8047-BCD8-304B-0C3A3F0204B588EE
hope that works. Annd I believe that Luke uploaded photos of our drive to, from and in Sydney the other week, see the photos via his blog at: http://lukedney.spaces.msn.com/PersonalSpace.aspx?_c02_owner=1&_c=
Hope all is going well for everyone and I forgot to mention in the last blog that I got stuck in an elevator with a vacuum cleaner last week. Only about a half hour or so.. not nearly as exciting as it looks in the movies.
Anyway, have a good day all and we'll catch ya when we're back from kiwi land!
~m
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[01 Jul 2006|08:19am] |
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Gooooddd moorrrnninnn neverlannndd!!!
and all those other places not so very far away.
I know, it's been ages and I do apologize. I am now back from Tasmania and in the mean time I have also managed to drive down to Sydney and lesiurely back with Luke. So... I'll fill you all in on my Tassie trip first.
I was only there for three days so there really isn't all that much to fill in on. I stayed at a beautiful (outside) hotel called Hadley's. It is in the CBD and is the oldest running hotel in Tasmania or at least in Hobart. They say it's around 150 years old although it had fortunately had a "recent referbishment" which was probably around 1970. I guess in the run of 150 years 35 years is still considered recent. It wasn't a bad place though and my room was upgraded to have a view of the rooftop. :) It was lovely. No really it was... minus the hotwater tap that wouldn't stay turned on and would slowly wind its way back off and leave me standing in a cold shower. Anyywaaayyy the first day I was there I went for a wander around the city. I bought tickets to a play for the following evening (Shakespere's comedy show or something like that) and did a bit of shopping. There are really great markets and a marketplace area just a few blocks from where I was. They're called Salamanca markets and this is where the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race finishes. I had lunch at a lovely little cafe with a fireplace. I had a chicken pesto aka chipesto sandwich. :) Sat and read book numero uno for the trip. After lunch I did a bit more exploring and tried to get my camera fixed. Yes another one has bit the dust. I called kodak and they said I could send it back in when I was in the states and it would be under warrenty for repair. That was the good news. After that I went back unpacked bags had a bit of a nap and a shower and went down to the hotel bar/lobby for a drink and what I thought was going to be live entertainment (they never showed up) So instead I stayed, had my tassie wine (Ninth Island pinot gris) and sketched a bit. After that I decided to head back down to the market area for some dinner which upon getting there it seemed much cuter during the day. I ended up just getting some cheese and crakers at the farmers market fruit shop and going back to my hotel to watch a movie. Very nice relaxed day.
The next day was similar. I shopped in the morning bought a few things then got lunch and finished book number 2 for the trip and thus went and bought book number three. Back to the markets and for a little hike at the end up to a spot called Battery Point which is the historic district. Mainly residential but they had a soda fountain and I stopped and bought a piece of candy from old fashioned jars. Heading back into the city to find pants to wear to the play I was going to that night and then back to get ready. Had a shower, put on my new pants only to realize that either my legs have shrunk or the pants are simply getting progressively longer as the years go on and thus 5 minutes before I have to leave I'm sitting on my bed with the hotel sewing kit hemming my pants. I think I did quite well actually. The string on one leg is red and gray on the other. Anyway, it worked and I headed off to find this theatre. I got there too early as luck would have it and thus decided to pop into the pub across the street to have a 'jar' yes a literal jar of some sort of tassie beer. Ew. I did get to chatting with a funny little old guy there who is a jewelry craftsman down at the markets. Nice guy but I was happy that it was only a few minutes before the theatre doors opened. The play was great, I was made fun of. A guy had sat down next to me in the audience when I'd come in and we'd chatted a bit and then once the play started and they were trying to get out of us how much shakespere we knew (having us raise our hands at each title if we'd read them.) This guy next to me and I were the only ones to raise our hands for one of the plays. The actors made him stand up etc.. then pulled him up on stage promising that I would be next and they played hitting this guy over the head. He fell back and then bounced back up, coming up to a mic and telling us that he was actually another one of the actors and he had had us all fooled especially the lady in the front there whom with he'd been chatting about the weather etc.. Me and a few others who had been picked on during the evening were asked to stand up after the play and recieve applause for our participation. It was a good time. After I headed back and went to bed for my early morning pickup for the bus tour.
The tour was great, probably my favorite part of the trip. It took most of the day and it was only me and one other girl in a medium sized van which took us from Hobart to Port Arthur which was a penitentary for quite awhile. It is also the site of an extremely tragic massacre where 35 people were gunned down. There is a lovely memorial dedicated to them and the prison area is beautiful. That sounds odd I know. It is though. We took a boat cruise over and around the Isle of the Dead and then back to the shore. The area is surrounded by waterways and is out on the very end of the Tas. Penninsula. If prisoners were to escape they had to swim through extremely dangerous channels with british gaurds arming the banks of the passages on either side. If they managed to survive that they also had to run across an area covered with pit bulls on tight chains placed about every yard/meter or so. This area was also set up with white shells on the ground and lights which as the prisoners would run across would reflect back up and make them more visable. These marked places were also set up with a type of code system which was a tall pole with arms that stretch to different positions and thus carry about 1000 odd meanings. Anyway... the drive down was lovely too. The highest cliffs in the Southern Hemisphere are in Tassie and they are beautiful if not a bit hard to get to in winter. I'll post pictures once they are developed and scanned. Also while on the tour went through the very cute town of Richmond and to the place where Tasmania was first discovered, and where the first settlement was. Really in general I was just happy to go for a drive and enjoy the scenery. The other girl on the trip was lovely. A lot of fun, her name was Emma and she had just returned to Australia after having completed 1 full year of travelling around the world. She had some really great stories about the times she'd had in Egypt, Brazil etc.. Apparently the trip had to be cut short because she had accepted a position at an investment firm in Perth. She and I had dinner together after the tour since we were both on our own and then we went our seperate ways. I went back to my hotel to pack up and get things organized for the trip back to Brisbane in the morning.
Since then, I have been working quite a bit, trying to save money for our trip to NZ as well as this short little trip to Sydney.
Luke and I started at 3:30am on Sunday morning for the 12 hour drive down. I slept for the first little bit and woke up just in time to see the big banana followed by the big clam and then finally by the big ayers rock. who says that Americans are the only ones subscribing to the 'Bigger is Better' concept?! It's a fantastically beautiful drive through very green areas with lots of lakes and huge rivers off the ocean. We didn't stop to see too much on the way down because we wanted to get into the city in time for dinner with Jennie and the girls. Gabs had been dancing there in a national competition that she placed 7th in. Other exciting things about the trip down included almost hitting a kangaroo, Luke deftly swerving and maintaining control of our car (we survivied as did roo). The other exciting thing was when we were trying to get to our hotel. Suddenly finding ourselves on the far right lane getting onto the Harbour bridge (we needed the far left lane) we quickly changed lanes and barely made it, only to discover moments later that the lane we chose actually went on the outside of the bridge, as in on what once was a sidewalk/pesdestrian walkway. Very odd sensation to be on the outside of the bridge yet still somehow inside and going over. A bit intense initally we both have to admit! Still though, we got to the city in one piece and had dinner at the hotel resturant which was very good!! We got up a bit early the next day and headed to Bondi Junction for a bit of shopping and breakfast. Lovely shopping center there, it's HUGE 6 levels and about 2 blocks long. I don't think we even saw half of it. Luke and I got the girls a bday gift and I bought new pants. We went back to the hotel via train, to change for dinner and for the colder night air after that. Then walked through the city back into the harbour area but we did have to stop once at a little shop. :) We walked out of the shop with my birthday pressie on my hand and went off for dinner. The ring is a black opal and is in white gold, I'll take a picture and post it, I love it it's gorgeous! Dinner with Jennie and Anita at a really good little fish shop and then back to the hotel for bedtime.
The next day we walked again through the city and down to the harbour and had a look at the ever popular darling harbour complete with bridge and opera house. we took a cruise around the harbour and over to the house where the PM stays when he's in Sydney. Also to Luna park, a theme park under the bridge which runs only 3 days a week because the rich people living in the houses behind it think that it's too noisey. Over to the far side for a really nice breakfast and then for a walk back through the city seeing everything we had missed the day before. We took Jennie and Anita to the airport after that and got lost trying to get back to the city. The traffic signs and drivers are really quite inefficient there! We did make it back though and had a lesuirely afternoon and evening heading to the little cafe called Strawberry for coffee and that was about it for the night. The next day we got up and drove successfully out of the city and to a place called Kempsey. Along the way we wove through all the tourist drives we could find and discovered several places we could see having a second house at. Beautiful small towns full of incredible scenary and cute cafes and fish shops. One place was called "The Entrance" which we thought was funny. It doesn't really enter into anything special either!
The day after that we went to a spot called Creasant Head and had a look around but then ended up being pretty much back on the highway for the rest of the day. We ended up going to see DJ and his family on the Gold Coast that evening and had a few drinks and were invited to dinner. Given that we couldn't drive home yet due to lots of truck accidents on the highways, we accepted. The resturant we went to is called Absenth and is at the bottom of the tallest residential tower in Queensland (Q1). It's huge 78 stories tall. The resturant has the best chefs in Australia apparently and they hold a 2 star Michelin rating and if you ask me they lived up to it and more. David Taylor Senior is a highly respected solicitor here in Australia and he spares no expense when he goes out. He ordered for the table the first entree which was called un deux tois and included three items all aproximately egg size. The first thing was called the golden egg. It was an egg shell filled with some sort of extraordinary foam on top was a chocolate chip and a flake of 24k gold. The second cup was a liqure glass filled with beet root and something juice. It was actually quite good as well. The third and final thing was some sort of frozen mustard and tomato something with a cinnimon stick in it. I know, all sound odd but they were incredible!!!! Next Mr. Taylor ordered a round of American Sterling caviar with all the fixings. Not being a caviar fan I tried it gingerly and loved it. Really the way to eat it is with a little bit of everything stirred around with the caviar and on a tiny pancake called a belini. For mains/american entree I had baramundi which was also to die for. For dessert I had a bite or two of Luke's creme brulee which was the best I have ever had. Yes better evan than Dante's in Santa Monica. We had incredible french wine the name of which escapes me and a cappacino which is served with very very small little sweets. One apple jelly sort of thing, one white chocolate covered in cardimum, one mirange on a stick covering a brandied cherry and finally one lemon custard dipped in poppy seeds. I think this has to be the most extravagant meal I've ever eaten. Also probably the most filling. I swore I wasn't eating for 3 days. Luke did the same. 2 days later I really am still pretty full. Haha! We headed home after that and thus ended our trip. We're back at work today and for the next week, looking forward to our trip leaving on the 11th to New Zealand!
I should be back in vancouver around the 20something of August if I have an apartment!
Hope all is well back home for everyone! I'm off to see a movie I think!
love,
~M
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[04 Jun 2006|12:14pm] |
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Good day my dear readers,
Just a quick note to catch everyone up on the going ons of my life lately. The term is almost over and I have been busy busy busy writing papers, turning them in etc... today on the list is to finish my last one for the University of Queensland and thus comes to an end my second to last term in undergrad. To celebrate I'm kicking the day off with crumpets with honey and a cup of coffee (numero dos for the day) while typing this lovely little blog to you all. Crumpets are a severely underrated food. they are sort of like more moist english muffins mixed with pancakes. Anyway.. fun things that have been happening:
Luke bought me a beautiful box of pink stargazer lilies which are making my house smell incredible. they came in an old fashioned box tied with green linen ribbon and a box of lindt chocolates inside and some rose essential oil for the sachet bag. We then went to the Gold Class movie theaters here and saw the Da Vinci Code. Which we both gave a 7 but mine was a 7 in that it exceeded my expectations and his was a 7 in that it was lower than his expectation. The movie theaters are great though. They have a bar/lounge out front of the theatre in the lobby where you get a glass of something lovely (i had a champagne cocktail) and then you order food at the counter to be served to you while you're in the movie. You even give them the times you'd like it to come. We ordered a cheese platter and then had sundaes an hour later and finished up with cappuccino's. The food was really good actually. Probably one of the best cheese trays I've had and likewise with the sundae.
We also went and saw X3 which I didn't think was as good as 1 and 2 (different directors really make a difference). Surprisingly good films for being comic book movies which I don't usually care for that much. Also gave me a glimpse at Vanc. which is where they filmed quite a bit of the movie.
Last night I went to a Scottish Tattoo with Jenny in Toowoomba which is about an hour and a half inland from Brisbane. Gabs was performing in it and she did a great job, her part was one of the best of the show. There were bag pipers and aboriginal dancers, a choir and two solo singers as well as an interesting display by some sort of airforce academy type group. Then of course there were irish dancers and highland dancers. The orchestra was great and I really enjoyed the show. Nice to go for a drive too, a good finish to the day of studying.
In other news I'm just finishing this paper and then turning it in on tues. Probably working quite a bit until I leave for Tasmania next monday. I'll be taking a tour there down to the peninsula and over to Port Arthur which is a hugely important historic site for them. I"m staying in Hobart the whole time which is supposed to be really a cool place. lots of botiques and cafes etc... stuff I love :). Should be fun.. if not a bit cold.
I'll come back after that and be around some before Luke and I drive down to meet Jenny and the girls in Sydney. We'll probably bum around some of the outlaying towns for a few days and meander our way back up. A week following our return we're off to New Zealand for a week in a our camper van. Another totally cool trip.
As far as plans concerning my return to the northern hemisphere, it will depend on if I get offered this position I applied for at UBC. It would be helping organize the GALA international orientation. I think I'd really enjoy it. I'd have to start on the 14th of August however and I need to find a place to live first and get settled. Since I"m driving back up and would like at least a few days in LA to catch up with friends means I may be coming back up the very late July or early august. Being back around the 1st might work, I'd rather stay here as long as I can. If I don't get the job I think I'll be returning more like mid to late August.
Well that's about it from me, best get back to work.. the crumpets are gone :)
Hope all is going well for everyone back home!
Take care,
~M
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| updated in my other journal |
[21 May 2006|09:19am] |
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HELLO HELLO FRIENDS AND FAMILY!
so, some excellent news, Luke and I now officially have tickets for NZ... and ... wait for it.... waaiitt for it.. guess how we'll be travelling?!! give up? In a Camper Van! Yes that's right.. we.. Me and Luke will be together driving a camper van around new zealand for 7 days.... don't worry there will be photos to prove it. :) I can't wait. We go July 13-18 or 11-18th or something like that.. can't really remember at the moment.. Anyway, it'll be grand!
In other news I've finally bought Luke his birthday present.... not a trip to vanautu because well, we've decided there might be other nice places to see and we're a bit short on cash and it's super expensive to go there. I bought him fish... well a fish tank.. we're going back for the fish. We set it up today, got a good deal. It has a filter heater and light all built in we just had to get water treatment stuff rocks and a few fish! we'll go tomorrow to pick out the fish, apparently the water has to get settled first, ph balanced etc... I resisted buying myself a beta fish... although there were some lovely ones at the fish shop.. a red one in particular I liked... But then again I'm leaving fairly soon and it would have to stay here and I'd be sad.
Hope all is going well for everyone... I"m looking at volunteering for GALA in Aug. so I might be back beginning of Aug. to Vanc. If I don't get the position though I'll probably stay longer here, we'll see how we go.
Take care y'all~
Love,
~m
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