For Whom the Bell Tolls...

The backpackers lodge I am staying at is right next to the Christ Church Cathedral, and I believe that my bed is closer to the bell tower than any other bed in the area. Attempts to sleep in this morning were futile.

I spent my day walking around Cathedral Square (with the Christ Church Cathedral squarely not in the middle), which is only about 1/2 of a city block. So I saw everything, and I saw it often. I watched several chess games being played on a roughly 30ft X 30ft chess board, with the pieces standing close to 3 feet tall. It changes the game completely when you see the players walking among the pieces, especially when they make their most confident moves. This usually entailed them kicking the piece instead of picking it up. Riveting.

And it is cold. Not too cold though, only around 60 deg F. I guess that I became a little acclimated to the heat of the Australian Outback. But there are no flies; I'll take that trade any day.

I confirmed my bike tour today and found out that the 10 day trip will consist of 2 guides and 2 riders (including myself). I was banking on a large group so that I could stay out of last place (even though it is not a race, pride does play a factor in these things). Hopefully I'll do Eddy Merckx, Miguel Indurain and Lance Armstrong proud and wear the yellow jersey home. I'll settle for the polka dot jersey, though.

Bike Tour

For all of you playing along at home, here is a link to the day by day breakdown of my bike trip from Christchurch to Queenstown. Day 1 is Sunday, the 30th October.

I can only hope that the bike shorts that I have will make it a comfortable ride. And that it is all down hill.

Out of the Land of Oz

I have bid good bye to Australia and am currently in Christchurch, NZ. The second time around in Sydney was quite enjoyable.

I played super-tourist on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday was spent at the Aquarium and the Sydney Tower. The Aquarium definitely lived up to the hype as Australia's #1 attraction. The seal enclosure, ocean tank and Great Barrier Reef exhibits were the best I had ever seen. They were all immense (I'm guessing here, but on the order of 100 feet by 80 feet and each were 15 to 20 feet deep). Walking through the tunnels that led under the water and watching sharks, rays and other fish swimming all around was an unreal experience. Mix in the frenzy of camera happy tourists taking pictures through the curved glass with the flash on and you could easily have a Jaws moment (even though all of the sharks were of the tamer varieties). The reef exhibit was also top notch and was faithful to what I saw on the reef myself. I then made my way over to the Sydney Tower to take in the advertised 360 degree views of the city. There was a great view, but not worth the time or the money. Especially after having seen thousands of postcards with the same views during my time in Sydney.

Wednesday turned into the "Let me walk around and go into all of the souvenir shops that I can possibly find." Not overly productive, but there were more than enough T-shirts with funny sayings to keep the day moving (my favorite simply said "Jesus is Coming. Look Busy"). I met up with a friend of a friend (who turned out to be the friend of other friends as well), Alison, for dinner. After consuming the largest mug of beer that I have ever accidentally ordered, I had the feeling that my trip for the next day may be in jeopardy since I would have to wake up at 6am.

Thursday morning came and I made it out of bed in time. The day was spent in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. First stop was an area frequented by kangaroos. Now, going in to my trip to Australia I thought that it was going to be great to see kangaroos in the wild. And it was, for the first 1000+ that I saw. Then it became so normal to see them and it took it down a notch for me. Second stop was a 3 hour hike to Wentworth Falls, which provided some very nice views of canyons and the waterfall. It also momentarily took my mind off the fact that I was exhausted, which was a good thing. Last stop was a walk down the Furber Stairs (around 1000 of them) to get a good sight of the Three Sisters rock formation. Instead of climbing up the stairs, we took the railway back up. This, however, was not a normal railway but a converted coal truck railway that is reported to be the steepest railway in the world. The cars are just benches with a flimsy fence over your head (basically on top of your head) and a chain to keep you from falling out the side of the cart, allowing for breathtaking views. It is only around 300m long but it was a little terrifying none the less. The first thing that caught my attention was that the tracks resembled a ski jump, with only a flimsy fence to block the end. Then it got interesting watching the counter weight to the train operate on a thin wire and imagining the wire breaking as we neared the top, dropping us down the track to be propelled Eddy the Eagle style into the valley below. I'm sure that they had redundant safety measures, but they were well hidden.

And now I am in New Zealand. Let the good times roll.

Back in Sydney

I have thankfully escaped the heat and flies of Alice Springs. My last night in Alice Springs I went for a one hour camel ride in the outback. Don't ask me why I decided to go for a camel ride, but apparently I was the only one who had that idea; that left me, the camel farmer and a train of 7 camels to go for the ride. Perhaps it was the flies, perhaps the heat or perhaps the fact that camels spit kept people away. But not me. It was hot, there were more flies than ever (the route of the ride happened to go through a cow pasture, to my surprise, which is where most of the flies are) and I believe that the camel behind me spit on my back. I didn't feel my back in order to confirm it, which I thought would have made it worse (kind of like when someone smells something bad, makes a face and then asks you to smell it; it's just not a good idea), but I am sure that my arm got a little wet. But it was fun.

Now that I am back in the civilized world, I plan to make the most of it. Tomorrow I should be going to the famed Sydney Aquarium, climbing the Sydney Tower and going for a stroll in historic Hyde Park. Wednesday is up in the air (Sydney Harbor Bridge walk, perhaps) and Thursday will hopefully be a visit to the Blue Mountains and a little cave exploration.

First Post

I finally got around to setting up a blog. No pictures for now, but at some point they will appear. I am currently in Alice Springs, the geographical center of Australia. It is located in the middle of a semi-arid desert, so it is hot and dry and there are a lot of flies. Not so much in town itself, but when you venture out a little further they are all over you. If you only have 50 flies on your back at one time you are lucky. And the little buggers enjoy flying into you eyes, ears, nose and mouth. It is not a good feeling to catch one with your lips as it tries to fly out of your mouth.

A quick recap of where I have been:

Sydney: Very nice town, almost too clean (it's clean like Dallas, where I swear they vacuum the streets every night). Botanical gardens were beautiful, you forget you are even in the city (except for the tall buildings that line it). The Opera House was nice, but a little boring to take a tour of; we basically just walked into a few of its theaters and sat down and stared at an empty stage. The best part of Sydney is I go back there for a few days next week.

Cairns: Again, a beautiful area. Cairns is nestled between the rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. The climate and scenery reminded me of the trip to Kauai. The only problem with Cairns was the spring break feel that the place had. Anyway, the reef was beautiful: vibrant and colorful coral, thousands of fish and crystal clear waters. I ventured into the rainforest to Kuranda, a small little village in the hills. It is a touristy place from 10 am to 4 pm, but after that it is just a sleepy little town. There were many hiking paths that lead through the rain forest to waterfalls, streams and rivers. I took an 8km long gondola ride, apparently the longest in the world, to Kuranda and the scenic railroad home.

I traveled by bus from Cairns to Darwin, stopping at several small towns. I saw a statue of a 28 foot crocodile (named Krys) that was caught in 1957. The bus also stopped off at Lawn Hill National Park. We traveled down a one way dirt road for several hundred kilometers to get there but it was worth it. I canoed down a gorge with fresh water crocs (not man eaters), pythons and giant catfish. Only saw 1 croc, but that was OK. On the drive it became apparent that kangaroos are everywhere. The bus only lost 1 brake pad and one shock on the trip, which the driver said was better than normal.

Darwin: As the largest town in the Northern Territory, it isn't that big; it is about the same size as Toms River. It is set on an enormous harbor and the sunsets are great. It was hot (100's) and humid, making it uncomfortable to walk outdoors from 11am until 4pm. Thankfully I only had two days there.

Kakadu National Park: The park is the size of Denmark. I visited two waterfalls: Jim Jim Falls, which wasn't flowing since it is the dry season, and Twin Falls, which was a trickle. Both required a long hike over rugged terrain to get to, and both were worth it. Jim Jim Falls has a huge basin of water that the falls normally feed. Since it has rocky walls and difficult terrain there is no threat of crocs so we were able to swim. Twin Falls, however, was not well protected and there was the possibility of crocs. Apparently after the wet season, when the plains flood all over the top end, crocs have access to almost everywhere there is water. The lakes and rivers are monitored for the big salt water crocs (the man eaters) before they are opened for swimming. I also went to a site with Aboriginal rock art.

Uluru and Kata Tjuta: Otherwise known as Ayers Rock and The Olgas. These are the big rocks that are in the middle of the outback desert. They are very distinctive in that the landscape is very flat around them. Then all of a sudden you have these two areas of rock that extend 350m above the ground. It is pretty dramatic at sunrise and sunset. Lots of Aboriginal sacred sites as well. Lots of flies.

Next stop is Sydney for a few days and then off to New Zealand.