Sunday, February 6, 2011

G'DAY!

First things first we were getting very sad that our time in Melbourne was dwindling down, we had really acclimated ourselves with the area, made some friends at our hostel, and figured out the areas of the city we liked best. One thing about Australia though, there is a very bad 4 letter word here that many young backpack travelers need to learn the hard way. Similar to a frat, you don’t truly understand the meaning of the word until you reaaally do, and this word is GOON. Goon is the Australia version of Franzia, just cheaper, more plentiful, and filled ingredients to give you the worst possible hangover. Things were great in the world, free Goon was flowing at our hostels wine and cheese party, we were meeting more people, some awesome some not so awesome. We started picking up our Goon intake when Birmy picked up our own personal box, and the drinking progressed as our fellow Patriot decided to discuss Obama’s Health Care. No thanks. Goon plus healthcare was the worst scenario you can get yourself into in a foreign city filled with liberal hippies. We went out and celebrated the birthday of a fellow traveler at a club, made a long trek home to the Mansion and fell fast asleep.

6 am were up feeling fly, looking forward to our 2 day excursion of the Great Ocean Road. Obviously Birmy is running late and realized half way into a walk to meet the group that he had left every important charger he owned in the room. He ran back, and now we were hopelessly running though the streets of Melbourne passing attractive young professionals on their way to work. We also were passed by a couple on the move in a similar situation, equipped with hiking boots, floppy hats, bug nets, and fanny packs. Then all of a sudden, there it was. The extra long double wide peace van that was probably used to follow the Beatles tour in the 60s. This lovely piece of machinery would be our home for the next 2 days. Clearly we were the last 2 people on the bus, and there were only 2 seats left out of 21, in the very back row in a sea of Asians and what we thought was a full 10 person from Shanghi. Then another thing happened, the Goon struck again, and we were both instantly turned into the 2 biggest Goons in the back of the bus. This toxin left us green, shaking, ill, sweaty, nauseous and very uncomfortable for the upcoming 3 hour adventure in Happy Wok.

We were so caught up in Melbourne that we literally forgot to eat for the last 28 hours. Luckily, breakfast was included with our tour. After the first three hours of driving 300 miles an hour through the deserted fields of Australia, on roads similar to Lombard St., with speed bumps the size of the grand canyon with no slowing down, we occasionally (or frequently) would hit speed bumps going 200 km/hr just so that our rally car of a van could catch some air. This was also a bad combination with Goon, but really provided a unique opportunity to meet our neighbors in the back of the bus. Back to breakfast, which at this point Birmy was ready to eat his shoe, and Carley was already chewing on the Le- Le’s green tea leaves. Le-Le had enough green tea leaves to start a garden. The van pulled into the first sign of civilization, where there was an outhouse and picnic table to accommodate our tour. Fortunately, our tour guide provided a healthy and hearty breakfast. This consisted of one chocolate chip cookie “biscuit”, and tea that was poured from a Birmy’s third grade Clifford the Red Dog thermos, into Little Tikes cups. Le-Le did not appreciate having to drink someone elses tea, instead she just pulled out another handful of leaves to make her own.

After our “breakfast”, we boarded the bus we got to know our neighbors with a friendly bus quiz. There were some awesome British girls, a terrible Canadian guy, some soft spoken lads, and one interesting man from Canada named Pascal. Pascal was a combination of Mr. Bean and the guy from Men and Black who turns into an alien. We also forgot to mention that we had the combination of Dennis the Menace and Mr. Myagi, Peter a little tot from China, in the back row with Birmy. The bus continued to fly down small roads, until we hit the Bay of Islands. This was our first great look of what was in store for the next 30 hours. If you look at our pictures, a lot of the scenery looks the same, but it was all breathtakingly beautiful and different when you were actually there. There was then a pit stop to see some wild life, where we then learned Koala’s are the most bazaar animals of all time, as they sleep 20 hours a day, and are born after 35 days the size of a nickel. So we saw some Koalas, emus, kangaroos, and wallabies. Our next stop was Bay of Martyrs; the most gorgeous and isolated beach that either of us had ever seen. We were the only people on this beach in an alcove surrounded by gorgeous cliffs, greens and miles of beaches. We spent the night in the small town of Port Cambpell, right past the 12 Apostles. It was great to have a 2 day tour because we really got a feel for this part of Australia, life in Port Cambpell, was simple, in a gorgeous setting, and really fun. After our group cooked and had amazing Australia BBQ fresh from the Barbie, we headed to the 12 Apostles for sunset. Our group had grabbed some wine, and we were ready to take in this unbelievable site for 2 hours around sunset, and were able to get a glimpse of penguins strolling onto the beach after nightfall after their day of fishing.

Day 2 began with a 7 am wake up call and we were off for a day of beach hopping along the coast. This was another day filled with incredible sites, great pictures, and awesome beaches- we hit Apollo Bay, watched surfers at Bells Beach, and went to Loch Ard Gorge. The day ended with the only bad part of the trip. A walk through a rainforest. The Great Ocean Road is a windy, but gorgeous road, which while in a peace van will leave you feeling like you just got off the local carnival cruise line that was rocked by 40 ft swells. Nauseous and farly tired a rainforest was not what we needed. Pascal, however was ready to go, leading the group with a fanny pack, floppy hat, high socks, zipper off cargo cut offs, and a smile that went from here to Canada. I wish we could actually explain this computer science professor in his all time glory. Neither of us could stop laughing as he admired trees, and ever tried to eat a couple plants. When the group was quietly admiring the silent beauty of the rain forest, we were uncontrollably, yet unnoticeably laughing in the back of the group. We finally made it back to our hostel after a 4 hour car ride through flashfloods. Went to sleep at midnight, and had to get up at 4 am for a 7 o’clock flight to New Zealand!

Queenstown is amazing! Doug is here and weather has been great! Another update to come soon! Hope all is well in the US!

CHEERS MATES!

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