Eternity will never be enough for me

One Tree Hill

View from Summit of Rangatoto
Secluded beach
End of lava caves!


Yesterday the Coast to Coast trip was a bust. Met up with Rhondo and Nico around 1pm and we made our way to the start of the walk with the map i had printed off at the library. We started off alright, but then the map had all these unmarked streets, it was very confusing. We got offtrack at the second turn. How embarrassing. An old lady set us back on track and we made it to the first stop...Albert Park. It was pretty cool. But then we got completely lost again. We decided to scrap the walk, it was 16km anyway and frankly I am way too unfit for that these days. We walked back to the strating point to find a bus to take us to One Tree Hill, which was the one attraction that drew me to do the walk in the first place. Obviously, because I love the show One Tree Hill (will be referred to as OTH from now on), and miss watching it with Katie! And I miss you too, Katie! And everyone else. Bases covered.
So, after walking back to the bus station we found out the bus stop we had to go to was back where we had just walked from. Awesome. And you can't get bus transfer tickets so we had to walk to the bus stop. Lame. At this point we had been wandering around for 2 hours. We got on the bus and our driver was literally the biggest douche bag ever. I asked him if it was the bus that goes to OTH and he was like 'Well I go past it". So I asked him if he stopped in front of it and he repeated "I go past it". Okay then... we got on and hoped for the best. Nico got up after 30 minutes and asked if the stop was coming up and he replied 'We'll get there whenever we get there'. Right then. So she asked if he could let us know when we got there and he replied with a jolly 'if I can remember, then maybe'. About 10 minutes later we passed a giant sign that read OTH, so Rhonda quickly hit the stop button and we passed the stop about 2 minutes later. The driver definitely could have stopped in time. Instead we went to the next stop. And I've noticed that here in New Zealand bus stops are quite far apart. But, since we weren't doing the Coast to Coast walk it was ok to walk an extra 15 minutes. We also noticed a PacnSave, which is the cheapest grocery store ever. Its like Costco but you don't need a membership and not really in bulk, so I guess its nothing like Costco, but its cheap. Loved it.
OTH was a nice little walk up the volcano, did I mention OTH is a volcano. Its also covered in grass and sheep (obviously) and has a monument on top. Interesting place for a monument. Its a statue of a guy who put in his will that he wanted a statue of himself there to show his deep respect for the Maori people. So then why is it of himself? I didn't get it. Awesome views of Auckland and wicked park to play in at the bottom! It had a flying fox and various other dangerous looking contraptions. Well fun.
Went back to the YHA with Rhondo and Nico afterward and it was sad to have to say goodbye again, but it was great to see some friendly faces!
Last night supper was fish and chips. It wasn't very exciting, but it was free. I ate with a group of Swedish boys who assured me that New Zealand is amazing, they are just finishing up their trip and it was nice to get some suggestions of where to go and what I have to see. I pretty much watched TV and chilled out in the evening. Again I couldn't sleep because the trucks were so loud and the bar downstairs was insanely loud as well. Got a new room-mate at 2am. Lovely.
This morning I got up early-ish to get the ferry to Rangatoto island. Its the youngest and largest volcano in the Auckland area. It also is known for having heaps of flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world (that is straight out of the brochure, you are so welcome). I walked to the summit via Wilson's track, which I didn't realize was a pretty tough track (steep and covered in lava rock which slips out from under your feet all the time). I shared the track with about 1000 spider webs too. It was really dark from all the rainforesty bits, but it was cool. The summit was amazing, you could even see the crater at the top, but trees were growing in it. I also walked the lava caves, which made me feel a bit claustrophobic, but they were really interesting. Axe murderers delight, i'm sure. Young girl walking alone in a dark cave, but I survived. Yay! I walked to the Mackenzie lighthouse and visited a gorgeous beach that was empty except for me. Most people take the little train-bus around but I decided to walk it. So everywhere I went I was much after everyone else. The maps said it would take me about 4 hours to do the walks I wanted to do and I finished them in 2 and a half. I did a historic beach walk, a Kidney Fern walk and a few others that I forget the names of. It was a long day and I had to wait 2 hours for the next ferry, but I'm really glad I did the walks, it was so good to finally get some exercise!
Tomorrow I am off to Wellington to see/live with Josh and Katie! I can't wait to have a place to live for a while. I also need to sort out my tax number and open a bank account, which apparently takes 10 days. That's fine, its not like I am poor and desperately need a job...
LOVE!

Thats what you get for waking up in Vegas

Unfortunately my post yesterday was mega-rushed because I only had 15 minutes of interweb left. So I left out some good moments.
For example, in the airport I was checking my bags when I noticed a sign that read aerosol cans not permitted on planes. Risk of 500,000$ fine. i remembered I had bug spray in my bag and freaked out and proceeded to run onto the belt that was taking my bag away and told the guy that I though I had bug spray in an aerosol can. He looked at me as if i were a crazy person and said as long as it had a top on it, it was fine. Sheepishly, I got off the luggage belt and went to check in.
The girl I am currently sharing a room with is the weirdest person ever. I forget if I said I got upgraded to a female dorm because the budget dorm was full. Anyway so i paid only 19$ and got a 27$ room. sweet as. I went down to renew yesterday and the guy tried to charge me 27$ and i was like no way, so he went down to 20$. i was pretty excited about that. anyway, this girl is the only other person in the room and her bag is locked up like she's left it on the curb, when there are 3 locked doors to get into our dorm. I'm talking chains everywhere, like 4 locks. Wild. She's also the cheapest person I've ever met. she got up at 630 to take an early ferry because it was 15$ instead of 25$. and that's just the beginning, in Byron Bay she arrived by bus at midnight and decided it was no use to get a hostel, she would just sleep on the beach! an 18 yr old girl! alone! a guy took pity on her and let her sleep on his couch in a house full of 8 boys. sounds like a terrible idea to me... she volunteered on a whitsundays boat so she could go for free, but had to clean for like 5 hours a day. yuck. she also has been living off of a box of cereal for the past week. she always takes everything off of the free food shelves in hostels. she is just insane. she always knows where to get free internet (no free mcdonald's internet here...lame!) anyway, she has made me feel like the least thrifty person ever.
Last night I got a free upgrade dinner and it was so good. I met this french guy who told me new zealand is awful and that i should leave straight away. cool, thanks buddy. the girls in my apartment (there are 5 dorms) are really lovely.
I'm meeting up with Robyn and Nicole today to do the coast to coast walk, involving climbing the One Tree Hill volcano! awesome.
Love!

Waiting on the world to change

ooooooooooh wow. I am finally in new Zealand! My last few days in St Kilda were good. went to the queen vic markets and bought some nifty giftys for my familia. Yes I left it until the last day! That night I met up with Gill from village cafe (and we played bball together at nepean), we just went to apartment 29 and it was good, pretty chill and 3$ beers, you can't go wrong!
The next day I got a chance to finish my kite boarding lesson. My instructor was this french guy named Vincent. He was so mean! At first he was really encouraging and was saying he'd never seen a girl pick up kiteboarding so fast and that i was really good and stuff. then i kept crashing the kite when i was body-dragging and he just got really frustrated iwth me and was saying i dont understand what you are doing wrong, you were so good before. but the thing with body dragging is that you can't see what you are doing at all because you are being dragged through the water face first. Anyway he pissed me off and so luckily i was able to switch instructors. I was with Timo and he was lovely. Just really nice and patient. Unfortunately the wind died down after my second lesson so i couldnt finish my certification. That was sad. But I can do it at some point in New Zealand. And to be honest i like wakeboarding a lot better, and kite boarding is a massively expensive sport!
Our last night, Rocko and I decided to get some passion pop and go out in st kilda. We finally met some Aussie's who took us to a party for some girl's 21st birthday, random, but fun! then we went to a bottle shop/bar and met some more aussie's. One guy bought me a drink and about 10 minutes later i felt the whole room was spinning and i felt just awful, I had never felt anything like it before. and we really hadn't had a lot to drink, it was only 11pm! So I freaked out and ran back to my hostel which was around the corner. I lay down and woke up at 930am. I was so ill, I was sick like every few minutes. I had to pack my bags and go to the airport. it was just awful. Rocko came with me on the tram and I was just bawling and being sick into a bag the whole time. It was ridiculous. I then went to the airport, checked in, was sick some more and fell asleep at the gate until I needed to check in. I swear I must have been drugged, I will never let anyone buy me a drink again!
I arrived in New Zealand last night late, and now I am staying at a pretty cool hostel.
Love!

Ima buy you a drank (for Rachy-roo)

The Great Ocean Road was amazing. We rented a Hyundai Getz, possible the world's smallest car. Our last night before we left we hung out with these 2 guys in CoffeePalace, they had just come back from GOR and gave us some tips on what to do. We went to Cone Heads for chips and gravy, sooo good. Unfortunately there was a mouse in our room and it was running around all night with something that was rolling around (a malteser i think) and it kept running into walls. it was fairly disconcerting and i was paranoid that it was going to eat through my bag or chew the wires of my electronics. So needless to say i didnt sleep well. Got pancakes for free for brekky again though, which made me really happy. the car rental place was a 10 min walk from our hostel, which we found quickly. Can't believe we wlaked for 3 hrs the day before trying to find it...
Anyway we got lost as we were leaving the city, obviously, but managed to get on track quick enough. The coast was gorgeous! We drove to 12 apostles straight away. soo amazing! The weather was a bit crap, but no fog. We also saw the Gibson steps, Loch Arch, London Bridge and heaps of amazing look-outs. You could honestly stop every 5 minutes and see something amazing. We lived off of PB and J on bread the whole time. I'm almost sick of it. but not quite. we stopped at port campbell to get coffees and shop a bit. I had the best chai latte of my life. It was made with the tea bag, not syrup. loved it. we also got scones with cream and jam. fresh out of the oven. It was nice to feel like a real person again and not just a backpacker. We drove all the way to Karrambool the first day (about 6 hr drive with all the twisting and turning of the coastal road). There was no where good to park in Karrambool, so we drove back to the Bay of Islands and just parked at a random lookout that was surrounded by trees. We were both a bit scared because its obviously illegal to just park and sleep in the car, and there could be crazy murderers in the trees...so neither of us slept very well. but we woke up to an amazing view! we head out around 9am and stopped for pictures at a fair few lookouts. Got some amazing shots. My favorite by far was the grotto. We actually saw it the night before and it was about 7pm, so the sun was starting to go down and no one was about. It had stairs down to the water and you could get really close to the rocks and the waves were just crashing around everywhere, it was amazing to see how powerful the ocean is and yet be so close to it.
We stopped again in port cambell, this time at a cute little bakery to use the toilets and get coffees, I got my flat white that I have come to accustomed to (why don't we have it in Canada, its basically a latte with no foam...glorious).
Then we drove on to Apollo bay, we stopped at a random beach where there were about 1000 surfers to ogle for a bit. We realized the car had an aux cord in the glove compartment so we listened to Rocko's iPod, which was nice because the radio was really unreliable in the more hilly areas. We stopped for lunch in Apollo bay and bought some chocolate bars too. Just for variety...haha
At 3pm we were so tired we stopped at a beach in Lorne and slept for 2 hours. It was awesome. We were just so exhausted from all the driving and lack of sleep. we drove all the way to Lara, which is about 50km from Melbourne. We had no idea where to park, no where seemed appropriate. We drove about an hour out of the way to try and find a random spot and then settled at a train station in Lara that advertised 350 parking spots from the highway. woot. we had some PB and J and then fell asleep in a shaded corner and hoped we wouldnt get in trouble. i woke up about 1000 times in the night, even though our seats reclined all the way back it just wasn't very comfy and i had no sleeping bag and it goes down to about 12 degrees at night which is just freezing. left around 7am (no drama!) and caught the rush hour traffic into melbourne. we returned the car on time and went to our fave bakery in st kilda, called 'the bakery' and got a chocolate croissant and latte. awesome. we went to peter pan's to sort our lives out and find a hostel. There was one called Jackson's around the corner and there was space. Its so dodgy! But i liek it. the old man who owned it was such a legend. he chucked pillows up the stairs to us since we couldnt find any in our rooms. it was glorious to shower finally. the showers were all singles which was nice. but, our room stinks really badly of sweat and crap. there was a couple sharing a double bed and the guy was full-on naked. i will never get used to mixed dorms! can be so awkard.
went down to the beach with a pizza bun for lunch. had a swim and then went to do some kiteboarding. i learned to set up the kite, then flew teh kite for about 2 seconds before it crashed to the ground and i fell with the force and twisted my ankle. i am so annoyed with myself. it really hurts. The wind died after that, so i will ice my foot tonight and hopefully finish my lesson tomorrow. im hoping it will be an awesome wind tomorrow.
last 2 nights in Aus, so sad!
Love!

if you ain't got no money take your broke broke home

Last night was horrific. Had a lovely afternoon at Kings Park, got an iced lolly and relaxed on the grass. Actually slept in the grass in the park rather than at a random round-about. Nice.
Had a super fancy dinner of microwave stew that I forgot about. It may or may not have made me decide to become a veg-o again... Rank as.
The girls drove us to the airport (thank you!!) where there was free internet. Really good way to pass the time before check-in. There were little kids running around with iPhones chattering about free wireless. I can't imagine having an iPhone at that age, much less knowing how to use one.
I slept really well on the plane, but the woman beside me kept gagging because of the massive turbulence. I flew Tiger Airways, which is a budget airline that has a really bad reputation, kind-of like Ryan Air. They cancel flights and don' refund your money and stuff. But I had no issues. Apparently there is even a TV show about how bad it is. For take-off, I'm pretty sure it was the pilot's first flight and that the plane was approxmately one thousand years old. something was broken and rattling about. I felt so safe. Take-off was insanely shaky and the wheels didnt go up at the right time so the plane sort of kept bumping the ground. There was turbulence for most of the flight (I was told) and loads of people vommed, but I was great. Best sleep ever.
Got to Melbourne around 330am and we tried to sleep, but there was techno music blaring. really...why? it was so irritating. No one needs that at 330am. Also, heaps of business people were about and staring at Rocko and I. Come on, now, people sleep at the airport all the time... I bought an ice cream from Makker's and it was the biggest one ever, loved it.
We left for St Kilda around 7am and got there with no dramas. We found a cool hostel called Coffeepalace. We got there just in time for free crepe brekky and then watched tv for a while. I tooka walk on the beach and got to talking with some kite surfers. Ended up booking a certification course for this thursday and friday. I'm excited!
Just woke up from a little nap and am going to explore st kilda, there are penguins on the pier apparently, and some cool cafes. I definitely need coffee.
Just found out the Grand Prix races are this weekend so all the hostels are fully booked. Interesting... I might be homeless after Great Ocean Road. Grand Prix is on the day after I leave too, so I can't even go. Lame as. The kite surfers offered me a room in their house but I'm not too sure if thats a good idea. We'll see how desperate I get.
Love!

Chillin even if I'm in a goose down coat

Its my last day in Perth, leaving to go to Melbourne tonight. Should be good, except that our flight arrives in Melbourne at 330am, so another night will be spent sleeping in an airport. Fun.

Yesterday was another lovely day, perfect weather as per usual. Walked downtown from uni and then to Northbridge (aka Chinatown, or downtown China as some call it). We found Peter Pan's travel agency where we get 1/2 hr of free internet so we stayed there for awhile and Rocko was writing a crazy long email so I went for a walk by myself to find a grocery store. I found Coles, which was a weird one because it was under an apartment building. I just saw the Coles signage from like 3 blocks away because it was written on the top of the building. Luckily it wasn't just an advert! I definitely feared for my life on my walk because there were broken down buildings everywhere and homeless shelters and just sketch people everywhere. But it was ok, I just made myself look like a retarded person and did lunges as I walked so no on would bother me.

Rocko and I met up with Alice, Chelsea and Fran so that Alice could get her tragus pierced and Chelsea could get her belly button pierced. It went down uneventfully, except a huge group of aboriginal girls came in and tried to pretend one of them was the mother of the other so they could get piercings (you have to be over 16) and it got heated because it was obvious no one had any identification .

After that, we walked to Harbour Street Mall, which was an outlet mall. We got there at 3ish and didn't realize it closed at 5. I found a really nice jumpsuit at Just Jeans, but I literally have no room in my bag. It takes me like 8 hours to pack everything in my tiny bag. Such a mistake to get a small bag, I regret it every single time I move. However, it is a really cute bag... and its carry-on size. sigh. So I can't buy anymore. Plus I will need winter clothes for New Zealand, as I have only beachy clothes right now. Fantastic (pronounced fintistic). I also found really cute dresses, but resisted.

After shopping we went to Subiaco and ate at this awesome burger place called Jus Burger. It reminded me a lot of the Works, maybe a bit more upscale and they had roo burgers. We got onion rings to start and I had a burger with bacon, avocado, blue cheese and balsamic onions. My burger arrived with no avocado so I asked for some and they upgraded my burger to a meal with fries, chutney and coleslaw. It was so good, but I have been full ever since. Best. Dietitian. Ever.

We meant to get off the train after one stop to visit Alice and Fran's uni friends, but we were all so tired we missed it. Watched wedding crashers last night and we decided we would all wake up at 7 to go to the gym and do Body Pump. However, I woke up at 7 and no one else did. I waited for a bit and went back to bed. Slept in until 1030! Defintely a personal best. I had already put away my bed so I just slept on the floor, I must have been really tired! Fran got us muffins from the caf and we had iced coffees. So good! I will be very sad to leave tonight.

Now, Rocko and I are going to walk to King's Park and probably sleep at a random round-about 5 minutes from the park like we did last time...

Love!

Conflicted, inhale, now addicted, to this place

The night before last we just chilled out and watched New Moon. I love Jacob, he is amazing. Unfortunately, the books are way way better than the movies...but i still enjoy the movies. also watched some of stepbrothers...such a ridiculous movie.
Yesterday was such a good day!
Walked downtown to try and return my iPod and they actually took it back! Yay! But they didn't take the case since it was open already, so i now have a 15$ useless case, but oh well. im so happy they let me return the iPod.
Then, we got the train to freemantle (or Freo, as the locals call it). Its a lot like the Glebe. Really old-school buildings though, like european looking. As the train pulled up the town looked awful, just all horrible old buildings with broken windows and graffiti everywhere. But past that bit the town was so cute. We went to the fruit market and tourist market. i actually feared for my life a bit because there were sketch looking people everywhere. hand on the zipper of my purse at all times...hate carrying cash around, but i have to when i have no credit card. i got the best plum of my life at the market, and some other fruit i haven't tried yet.
Then, Rocko and I went to a cute little Lolly shop and got some honeycomb, natch. Tried it without chocolate coating this time. so much better! I love honeycomb with all my heart.
Went to a famous coffee place called Gina's. I had a really nice flat white coffee and Rocko had a mocha latte. We walked around some more and did some shopping. I got shoes, a sweater, heaps of jewelery for cheap at Diva and some other stuff. definitely spent almost all the iPod money...oops!
Lastly, we went to Little Creatures microbrewery. It was such a nice place. its a fully functional brewery and you can see the men working at the machines while you eat and drink. so cool. i got a pale ale and rocko got their cider and we split a huge bucket of frites with garlic aioli and tomato sauce. the fries were so good, they were crispy and still had potato skin on them. Fantastic. After that we walked around the pier and then got groceries from Cole's.
We took the train back to Perth and then walked back to Uni. The girls were keen to go out but we were so tired. A bunch of their friends came in for a room party, but the Resident Adviser (RA) kicked them out after an hour or so, which i was a bit grateful for... we watched Take the lead once they left. I love watching movies. I feel so normal when we are here, I love it. I don't feel like a scruffy backpacker! although this man at Gina's was like oh are you girls backpacking, which annoyed me, because we were dressed nicely and had purses...but then i realized i was wearing stained red trainers (from the west coast dirt), and also having a ridiculous tan makes you an obvious traveler, since aussies are all so pasty.
Leaving for Melbourne tomorrow, should be good. Can't wait to rent a car for Great Ocean road and camp on the beach. We ended up missing out on Margaret River since there were no cars anywhere...so annoying, but what can you do?
Love!