Road Trip Australia!

When I flew into Sydney the first time I noticed many purple trees and round fields.   The round fields, I discovered rather quickly, were for cricket.  The purple trees, on the other hand, are just blooming.  It’s wonderful to travel in the spring time.

 

I was tried as hell, but when I got off the plane I found the rental agency and got ready to brave the city traffic.  Driving through the city was surprising easy.  I drove straight from Sydney to the blue mountains.  The plan was originally to stop in a few small towns on the way, and maybe do some hiking.  I grossly underestimated how tired I would be.  Another 48 hours without sleep and you bet I could drive;  stopping and doing things, on the other hand…. Not so much.

The car was a tiny Mazda, four doors and a little bitty trunk.  It couldn’t make it up the mountain too well.  I ended up trailing behind trucks, flooring it and still going 30.  Yeah, I should have thought that one through a bit more.  I liked her though.  I don’t mind itty bitty, as long as it gets me where I need to go.

I got to Katoomba and just walked around while I waited for Sasha.  I found a cute coffee shop and met up with Sasha and just talked and talked and talked.  I hadn’t seen him in years.  I followed him and we headed over to his house.  That night we had shitty Pinot Nior with some great kangaroo stir fry.  Shasha does everything he can to avoid chemicals.  He shops locally, doesn’t eat anything that is processed.  I loved it.  I have been trying to live that way for years!

Sasha trying on silly hats

One of the highlights of getting to his house was dumb, but amazing.  I could wash my arm!  Tattoo maintenance at it’s best.  I was hoping it would heal ok now that I was in the land of clean water.  

cute little town in the Blue Mountains

We continued to talk all night and planned the hiking in the morning.  I also invited Sasha to come with me on the road trip.  He said yes!  He had to tie up some loose ends, but we figured it out.

The hike was absolutely amazing.  This is one of the reasons I planned on going to the Blue Mountains.  It made me feel so small.  There were waterfalls, cockatoos that tried to steal my lunch, jungle, drops off the side of cliffs…. It was awesome, in the original sense of the word.  We had lunch and just wandered around in the woods.

just goofing off

Sasha trying to climb a very big rock

lunch stealers

the three sisters

Just saying HEY!!!

 The road trip I planned for the next day.  I had a bit of a schedule to keep.  I wanted to see my friend in Brisbane, and then I had to return the car to Sydney.  Luckily I could drop Sasha off in Sydney as well.  He wanted to go visit his daughter. 

our hitch hikers

He brought so much stuff.  I was amused.  I have been living out of a duffle bag for years, so to have the entire trunk full of his stuff was weird.  He brought a tent, tones of blankets, a skateboard, two bags, random containers…  We also brought food: leftovers, bread, olives, cheese, fruit and tahini.  Yum!

On the way out We picked up some hitch hikers.  I thought they would fit ok; they were a bit cramped.  We rearranged, but in the end they still looked like ill packed sausages.  They were a nice couple traveling from Germany.  I wanted to pay back all the people that had picked me up in New Zealand, but unfortunately… these were the only hitch hikers we saw for the entire trip.  Apparently it’s not as common in Australia as it was in New Zealand.

With the hitch hikers in toe, we took our first stop.  A natural spring, so we could load up on free water!  

We tried to find Free Camping and sleep in the car or camp.  I underestimated how cold it would still be at night, so I wasn’t into the tent thing.  We ended up sleeping in car most of the time.  

Our first camping stop

The View when we woke up

lunch stop

The first place we found while it was dark, and I’m pretty sure it was not legally Free Camping, but it was wonderful.  I woke up at 6AM to a beautiful view.  We walked the coast, Sasha went for a swim while I showered and got ready for the day. 

 Next we were off to Brisbane, but of coarse we had to take lunch pit stop first.  A nice windy beach.  I don’t mind a little sand in my food if I get to listen to crash of the ocean and just explore a little.

 We drove all the way to Brisbane, only to find out when I got there that my friend really lived in Goldcoast.  Unlucky for us, it was rush hour on a Friday afternoon, right before the schoolies got out for a testing break.  Fun times.  Brair had forgotten too, and she wasn’t too sure what we would do, so we could avoid all of the teenagers.  We got there no problem and found Brair’s house.

The Goldcoast was a whirlwind for me.  Brair and I partied and partied hard.  I asked Sasha if he wanted to join us but he was content to just skate around.  Chillin on the beach and whatnot.

We started with drinks with dinner and her English friends.  Then we started the clubbing circuit.  We danced with a mouse, some professional pole dancers and then in the end some guys.  It was a pretty sweet night.  I recommend the Goldcoast for anyone feeling like a good time.

comfortable car sleep?

The next day was chill with beach, shopping and sushi.  We didn’t end up go to a nearby hippy town, I was worried about getting the car back in time on Sunday.   Oh schedules….  

Driving all day and then early in the morning.  We slept in car again, and found free parking.  The drive into to Sydney Sunday morning was pretty mellow.  I dropped off Sasha to see daughter and said goodbye.  I think he was the best person to bring on a road trip.  I can’t even start to describe the things we talked about.  I love good company and he was the best.  

After returning the car I walked to the hostel and then took a walk around Sydney.  I had spent less than an hour there before.  So I got myself a tourist map and headed for the botanical gardens and the opera house.

 

When I returned to the hostel I met some Kiwis and we went to the beach and just walked around.  We chilled out, drank some beer, played a weed card game and then a drinking game.  My last night in Australia I went out; it was a Monday.  We found a place to play pool and then went to a strip club.  This is what happens when you get a hostel in the red-light district.  

 

The flight home was a long uneventful affair.  I had a packed flight from OZ to UAE, and then an empty flight to NYC.  I needed the sleep and enjoyed the leg room for once.  I went from near 100 degree weather to 34 degree weather.   It was a shock, but I was happy to get home and see the family.  

little packet i got on the plane. :)

Gili Islands: tattooing disaster

So my exit out of New Zealand was as graceful as you can make a 4:30AM trip.  Mike took me to the airport.  Bless his soul. 

My agenda  was to fly from Auckland to Sydney to Bali.  

Bali Hostel

As usual I got to the Bali airport and I hated  it.  Denpensar (Bali) is full of hawkers.  I’ve been there three times, you would think I would get used to it.  But no, they annoy the shit out of me.  

I got to my hostel and met some cool people.  Unfortunately I was exhausted, so I didn’t get to know them all real well.   

Now my goal for this trip to Indonesia was to go to the Gili Islands and maybe make it over to Lombeok.

The Blue Water Express is the only speed boat you can schedule online to get to the Gillis.  They were good, and when all the speed boats charge the same amount I’ll take the one that books online and has great reviews.  They gave us free coffee and tea while we were waiting and sea sickness pills before we boarded.  The ride took about 2 ½ hours.  It was smooth sailing.  I had heard a rumor that the weather is always nice on the Gilis.  I was keeping my fingers crossed.

Let’s talk about Gili Trawangan.  This was my first destination.  This is the largest of the three Gili Islands with an estimated permanent population of about 800.  All of the gilis are less touristy than Bali but Gili T is the party Island.  On this island, there are no cops.  Well there are cops, but they only come to fill the ATM and that’s it.  The locals have kind of an agreement with the mainland police.  They can do what they want, as long as the crime rate stays low.  And this works.  The crime rate on the islands is practically non-existent.  This is because if the locals catch you stealing or anything like that you are exiled from the Gilis for life.  The locals sure as heck can’t afford that.  They have family and their livelihood there.  So the only ones that would risk it are the tourists; who are likely to end up in an Indonesian jail.   And that would not be any fun.

I got picked up right away at the harbor.  In Asia I tend not to book my hostels in advanced.  You can usually wander around and find something way cheaper and nicer than you would online.  A nice man took me to the homestay he was working at.  Dua Nina, the homestay, was not as nice as I am used to.  It had no toilet paper, no towel, and I had to use the badea to shower with.  At least I had a fan, and the internet worked every once in a while.  I met some cool people there, and that’s part of the fun.  I love meeting other travelers.

I considered this trip to Indonesia as a holiday, rather than traveling around.  So in true holiday style I did a lot of nothing.  I walked, ate, read a lot, and biked around the island.  Biking around the island only took me two hours and this was because I had to walk to bike through the sand sometimes.  It was peaceful, and not as busy as Bali.  This is what I wanted. 

I managed to sneak in a snorkeling trip as well.  Most people go to this island to get their diving certificate, but I find snorkeling is just as fulfilling.  On the snorkeling trip I met some of the other people staying  at hostel and photographer from Protugual.  We decided to have some drinks after words and then took a crazy horse ride.  It was pretty scary, I felt like we were on a near death experience the entire time.  But we did get to stop and take some pictures.  

naked swinging

I got it in my head while I was on Gili T to get my tattoo done.  I was going to get it in Korea, but because my plans had changed (i.e. I couldn’t get my flight voucher changed to Korea!) I decided Indonesia would be cheaper than The States.  Little did I know what an ordeal I had just signed myself up for.

The shop

When they guys at the hostel found out I wanted a tattoo, they lead me to a shop.  This shop was pretty nice.  Clean inside and out.  It looked fairly new and I discovered that the guy that owned it was from Lomboek, not the Gillis.   

That was good because he had a lot of experience and his tattoos looked wonderful.  I looked through the example books and admired the apprentices tattoos while I waited.  I showed them my design and they said they would do it for $600.  There was no way I was going to pay $600 in a third world country, that part of the reason I had convinced myself to get it done.  It’s supposed to be cheaper.  I told them $300 and wouldn’t budge.  They took it and we scheduled the appointment for later that day. 

 

My design

It started out alright.  They sanitized everything, shaved my arm and got the stencil. They started the black work.  That only took 2 hours. The work was solid too.  This guy defiantly knew what he was doing.  When we started on the color I was impressed as well.  Working on the water background, I could tell that he had much experience making waves.  It looked sweet.

the process

We got into some trouble when he started the other color work.  For some reason he thought this was paint by number and he didn’t have all the colors… So when I asked him to do some of the books brown, or a darker green he looked at me like I was a bit off.  He didn’t like to mix his inks to get custom colors.  Come on!!! 

Then the power went out.  Yup.  You read right. No power.  That meant we had to put the tattoo on hold until it came back on.  This is quite a common occurrence on the gilis.  The head honchos like to regulate the partying so they usually shut the power off for a few hours every night.  It could be one hour or 5, we were luckyish and got a two hour tattoo delay.

Finished!

By this time I was pacing around trying to ignore the pain.  I was tired and cranky.  One of the apprentices wanted me to take aspirin.  I politely refused telling him I didn’t want to bleed more than was necessary.  When the power did finally come back on and we got back to tattooing it was excruciating.  It was 11PM by this time.  Me and the tattoo artist were both tired.  He wanted to cut a few things out.  I did not.  I wanted this finished so I would need to do as little touch up as possible.  In the end, because I was bleeding so much and the ink wasn’t holding, I let him cut out a few details. 

We wrapped my arm up, I paid and went to bed.  I was in so much pain it wasn’t funny.  I had a very hard time sleeping.  

The next day I got up, washed and headed to the boat.  I was off to the next island, Gili Air.  A much more relaxed place.

When I got there a nice man picked me up to bring me to his home stay.  It was much nicer than my last place.  It was band new, and cheap.  They did breakfast and even laundry there.  No wifi, and he told me that was because he only just built the place in July.  It’s next on his list of things to do.  The man and his family were quite nice.  I enjoyed my stay immensely.

the owner and his son

Per usual I did a lot of nothing.  I slept a lot, walked, read, swam and walked some more.  I was having a terrible time with my tattoo.  It had swollen up and still hurt terrible.  So I went to the local clinic.  They said I had an infection, from washing my arm with the local water.  Duh… I kicked myself pretty hard.  Of course I can’t wash an open wound with water I can’t drink.  It was an easy fix though.  I just had to take a week of antibiotics.  My tattoo looked terrible, but at least it was on the healing path now.

After a week of no drinking, lots of fruit juice and sun I returned to Bali to catch my plan to Australia.  

The Last of New Zealand

I wanted to recap my last few months in New Zealand.  I have a tendency to get caught up in work and not tell y'all what I have been up to.

 The Vineyard

If you remember the last Waiheke post, we had just finished pruning.  Next was the dirty work: tearing out one of our blocks.  The plants in this block had leafroll and were 16 years old, so the bosses decided it was time for them to go.  So Mario and Corey removed all the vines and left just the heads.  They did this while I was on my North Island adventure.  I’m sure the boys enjoyed it.  When I came back we had naked plants and a giant pile of vines all bundled up and stacked.

              

Our job now was to dig up the root system a little bit, attach a chain to the plants and tear them out with a tractor.  It was hard work, but good work.  Corey or Nicky was always doing the tractor work.  Mike, Donnah and I got to dig up the plants and attach the chains.  We had over 20,000 vines to pull out and it took over a month.  It didn’t help we had to work around the rain, but when we finished it was satisfying.  The empty wires and tore up ground was so different from the rest of the blocks.  I guess Goldie is going to let it lay fallow for year before they replant.  It’s supposed to be good for the soil.  Also who wants to rip out a block and replant it in the same year?  We don’t got time for that.

We were waiting for the vines to start growing.  So in-between the leaves growing we got to weed, by hand, and bud rub.  Bud rubbing might be the worst job ever.  Raking was boring, pulling out the old vines was strenuous, but this job was boring and spent all bent over.  In the beginning we devised a system so that we could do squats and lunges while working.  It only worked for about half the row before I just bent over and hurt my back all over again.

When the plants started to grow we had to go through and tuck the longer vines under the wires by hand.  When they got even longer we would work in teams and have to lift the wires up and out (out of the clips) over the long tendrils and clip them back in.  This whole time you do this you try not to decapitate vines, or just rip them off the base.  This happens to me all the time.  One my very last day when we were tucking the long vines in the syrah the wire broke.  Donnah and I both fell on our asses.  I was just stunned.  I didn’t even know that could happen.  The perfect ending to my last day.

               

 Also when there was extra time in the vineyard I got to plant Alyssum under two of the rows.  This plant is supposed to be beneficial, much like roses.  It attracts wasps (why is this good), creates a ground cover under the plants to prevent harmful weeds from growing and….  I wont be there to see the mature plants.  I just got to plant the seedlings and hope that they don’t all get eaten by pukekos.

    

planting alyssum

beautiful spring

           

The New House

 Between all this work I got to move into the most splendid house.  Sarah returned to England and asked me to house/cat sit for her while I was gone.  I jumped on the opportunity.  She just lives in the nicest place.  It’s at the bottom end of the island were not many people live.  She even lives on a dirt road.  There aren’t even buses.  So you have to have your own transportation.  I’m so happy I got to watch this place for 3 months.  Let me give you a tour. 

My lunches

My outhouse

The compost

 The laundry water and the line.

 In and around the neighborhood.  Most of my neighbors are sheep.

This is Paw Paw, the cat I was watching.

I'd show you more pictures, but I was in too much of a rush before I left to get decent ones.  You'll just have to use your imagination of a little country house, next to an open field with a nice porch.  It was magical.

Wedding Season

Wedding season was also starting up again.  That means after 5 days of work in the Vineyard I would work a long day on Friday (a double shift essentially) then work a 12-16 hour shift on Saturday.  It was tiring but fun. 

I did my usual; helping move furniture and cleaning, but only a little bit.   Lesley, the boss and chef of the Goldie Room, stole me for the kitchen.  I think this was mainly because I love baking, but she was also a little short on help.  I liked the kitchen side of it.  No more forced smiles, or almost dropping glasses.  Plus I got to nibble all day.  Taste testing is essential to good food.  Lesley was a lovely boss to work for.  I’m sad and happy I will be missing the wedding season.  I love the people and work, but I’m pretty sure I would have burnt myself out working the two jobs.

The newest addition to the family

The biggest lemon ever!!!

Gorgeous and delicious wedding cake.

ART

I also started my art project right before I left for Queenstown.  We had all the discarded vines from the block that we ripped out.  I knew I wanted to do something with it and I kind a just let it grow organically.  I hardly ever plan my artwork anymore.  I weaved the vine together and slowly created a structure.  I made little windows, arches and doorways.  In the end it turned into a maze for children, because I’m short all the walls were about four feet high.

Goodbyes

The last week in New Zealand was full.  This is the way it always works; isn’t it?  goodbyes

But the goodbye yumminess started before the last week.  Nicky cooked more than a few things.

afgan cookies I had been begging for.

scotched eggs wrapped in bacon with slaw, salad and garlic bread.

I had a Halloween party at Charlotte's and it was fabulous.  I got to be Rosie the Riveter.  I've wanted to be her for years.  Ever since Miranda was Rosie a few years back.  i think we both rocked it.  Maybe a little too much rocking because I went to work with a hangover.

Me!

My sister a few years ago.

The rest of the week was spent trying to sell my scooter, which I finally did on my last day of work.

goodbye scoot scoot!

  Then the work crew had afternoon coffee one day, afternoon beers the next day.

And the last day of work Leslie and Henierich arranged a work party disguising a going away.   It was very touching.  Usually going away parties are not organized.  I loved seeing everyone for the last time, chatting and drinking Heinrich’s beer.  We had the classic fish and chips on newspaper.

The next day (I know that there are a lot of next days) Nicky arranged eggs beni with just the vineyard crew.  It was delicious and another good time.  I feel like we were all just extending the goodbye a bit longer.  I’m going to miss working with all my lovely people.  I’ve made such good friends, it was so hard to leave.

I said my last goodbyes and Jim and Jane (my landlords and neighbors) took me to ferry terminal.  Goodbye Waiheke.

the bags after 14 months of travel

bye

bye bye

Mike picked me up from the ferry terminal and I got to see his beautiful house.  We drink wine talked most of the night and then had to wake up bright and early to catch my flight.  

I really am blessed with the friends I have made.  They take such good care of me. 

It still hasn’t sunk in I’m gone.