Living Large

The environment, animals and weather in Australia are certainly unusual. Things always seem to come in extremes, whether its venomous creatures or dry arid hot desolate landscapes.

This week for whatever reason things seem to be larger than life. I've already complained plenty about the weather, but this week, it was beyond torrential and more than ¾ of NSW, the state I live in, was flooded.

If that wasn't enough, you should watch out for objects of unusual size falling from the sky, such as this giant pine cone.

But I think I'd really rather accidentally run into a giant pine cone, instead of a 6 inch giant stick insect.

Sydney Summer

Well its finally arrived, though technically I think in the Southern Hemisphere, summer ends on the 22 of February. Hmm.

According to many long-term locals it has been the 'worst summer ever in Sydney' and I'd have to agree. Six out of seven days a week it rains. It often buckets down. While it may last only an hour, it's enough to clog the storm drains and leave you with water soaked shoes and pants if you're on foot. Not to mention the humidity is unbelievable. So with the heat, rain and humidity, come mosquitoes (or mossies). They seem to have a particular attraction for me, hence the latest addition to my one room flat is a mosquito net.

Summer hasn't been all that bad though. I've been to four movies already at the outdoor cinema, my favourite thing in Sydney. As well as the free Sydney Opera in the park. And I've jumped back in to ocean swimming. I found a few people to swim with through meetup and last week we spent an hour at Gordon's Bay where I saw the most giant groper. Apparently its a regular and the locals see him all the time.

The week before I visited the last remaining women's only coastal 'baths' at Coogee beach. Rock pools or baths are common in Sydney and essentially it's a pseudo swimming pool carved into the rock cliffs near a beach. The women's baths at Coogee were built in 1886 and still cost just 20 cents to enter. I saw a funky octopus zooming across the bottom of the rock pool when I swam.

It's a pub life

Of the many Aussie stereotypes I'd conjured up in my head, big drinkers was certainly there. While you can find plenty of people who drink a lot in Australia, as well as the US and a heck of a lot of other countries, I think it's the concept of a pub, or rather a hotel, that I now appreciate is so uniquely Australian.

Pubs and bars are actually referred to as Hotels, which I think, acknowledges that way back when, they were always one-in-the-same building. Indeed, many of the pubs still actually offer hotel accommodation upstairs.

While you might say to your mate, 'hey let's go to the pub,' you'd be hard pressed to find any bar that has the word bar or pub in its' name. I remember how confusing this was for a fellow American who asked me in the supermarket where he could find a bar. When I said, at the pub across the street, he looked at me incredulously and said 'Where is there a pub around here?' There were 3 'hotels' within a 5 minute walk of the supermarket.

But it's not just the name that's unusual, it's more about what a hotel encompasses, particularly in Sydney. You see, Sydney has very expensive liquor licensing fees, not to mention you can only buy alcohol (any alcohol) from a bottle shop (aka a liquor store). As a result, few small bars can afford the fees, which has resulted in 'mega bars'. Any hotel will have an actual bar with bartenders, stools and plenty to drink, but also a seating and dining area complete with a separate window to pick up the food, rooms with plasma TVs for the cricket and footie (rugby), pokies (electronic gambling slot machines), an outdoor courtyard and a bottle shop.

My local, the Carlisle, from my flat window

Around 2008 Sydney changed the laws, to encourage small bars and they are slowly popping up. But the locals are neighbourhood institutions, they've been around for decades and they aren't going.It's not just that some hotels are so large, it can take 10 minutes and directional signs to navigate, it's also that they function like a community centre. They are family friendly gathering places.

In fact at my local, the Carlisle Castle Hotel, I was having dinner with a friend last Friday, when a mum and two kids came around selling raffle tickets for a meat tray, a huge platter of raw meat they carried around the hotel as incentive. Unfortunately, we didn't win, but there's always next week.

Maybe then I'll tell you all about clubs and RSLs...

Tramping South Island Style

Over Christmas and New Year's I took a long holiday. One of the great things about working in Australia, is not only the annual 4 weeks of leave, but leave loading...where you get paid extra on top of your normal salary when you go on holiday (I get an extra 17%).

view of stewart island from the helicopter

walking through cook arm inlet

So a few days before Christmas I flew to Christchurch, New Zealand and attempted to sleep through the 5 aftershocks that night at a friend's place. Then drove down to Invercargill to meet Kate, Illona and Tony and took a  puddle-jumper plane to Oban, the only village on Stewart Island, the furthest south inhabited land before you hit Antarctica. After a cozy night at a homestay, we hopped the helicopter and flew to the bottom of the island to begin our 8 day tramp back. As the helicopter flew away, it felt a bit like Bear Grylls, in the sense that we had just been dumped in the middle of nowhere, and now had to make our own way back without trails (of course we had food, gear and maps). That was Christmas day, which after a nice daywalk, we set up camp and had steak, mashed potatoes, ratatouille, and porcini mushroom cheese sauce followed by coconut brown sugar pavlova with strawberries, mascarpone cheese and chocolate. Yes, I'm sure I put on weight this trip.

on the tin range

We then worked our way back to Oban. It was a great adventure that involved swimming through inlets, getting stuck in the mud, picking and cooking fresh muscles, and waking up to a sea lion in the middle of camp. We had the most amazing and unusual weather - it was sunny.

Me, Illona, Kate and Tony on last day on tin range on Stewart Island

After we arrived in Oban, cleaned up and got a good sleep, we caught the ferry back to Invercargill and watched the albatross swoop down with the boat. Then Kate, Tony and I drove to Wanaka for the night, the following day we were off to Brewster glacier for 3 days of playing in the snow and walking up Mt Topheavy. Again, beautiful weather.

By then, Kate and I were done walking. So when we dropped Jackie (who'd flown down to meet us) and Tony near the base of Mt Aspiring for a summit climb, we decided to stay in the helicopter. We then took a leisurely 3 days roadtrip back to Christchurch stopping off at Mt Cook, Lake Tekapo and a few hours in Christchurch.

Kate checking out Brewster glacier

Then it was off to Wellington for a week of catching up with friends, hitting my favourite op shops and cafes. I ate too much, laughed lots, soaked up the sun and can agree, Wellington does have the best coffee (sorry Seattle)!

On to the next adventure!

There are plenty of photos, many of which I stole from Tony.

A walk in the park....

It is on nights like these that one sees in a flash the inner springs that make bushwalkers what they are. The secret of keeping one's vision is always to be a nomad, never to remain long in one place.

~From The Barefoot Bush Walker

Did I mention in the past few months, I managed to squeeze in a little holiday to the Northern Territory, the least populated and one of the larger Australian federal division (it's not a state). Four fellow punters from the Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club came over to join me on a meander through the West MacDonnell National Park.

Actually, we took on a mammoth trip, walking the entire Larapinta trail, just over 230 kilometres in 10 days with no rest days. I had first suggested to Tony that I'd like to do a 4 or 5 day trip in the Australian outback. Tony suggested the Larapinta, which he had heard about from a friend; even though the guide books recommend 18 days for the full distance, as trampers, Tony thought sure we could do it in less. I added up the estimated hours and figured, averaging around 8 to 10 hour days, we could and of course we would be much faster than the recommended times...or so we thought.

It was a tough trip. Our pace wasn't faster than the recommended time and nearly each day took 9 hours or more. We would start at 7am with a long 1 hour lunch break and finish each day at 5, just before the sun dipped down. Sunset was early as we were walking in the dead of winter to avoid the heat, though it was still in the mid 20s Celsius. Even though it was a long walk, the company was fabulous and the scenery was often beautiful (as long as you ignored the long stretches of dessert that just lasted for hours). Luckily with food drops every few days, we ate massive good meals.

At the end, nearly everyone was aching or had sore feet. My boot broke on the second day. We were covered in dust, much darker from suntans and terribly smelly (who wouldn't be if you wore the same clothes for 10 days!).

After an epic shower and a giant pub meal, we all split are off our separate ways. Kate and I had just enough time to squeeze in a drive to Uluru (or Ayer's rock) and arrived just before sunset. It was long a drive, but worth it. All the guidebooks say its 'magical' and in truth that is just the way it felt.

I took plenty of photos. But Kate and Tony took some amazing ones and thanks to the wonders of the internet, I have slipped their photos in with mine. If it looks like impressive photography, you can bet one of them took the picture.

Migrating

Don't worry, I'm still in Australia. In fact I'm just applying to renew my visa to stay on a little longer. Really, how could I pass up another summer with beautiful beaches, ocean water that's swimmable without a wetsuit and endless outdoor movies and festivals.

Instead I've migrated both my home and my job. The job shift actually took place back in March. I found that my first wasn't all that I dreamed for and when I discovered another job at the University focused on family violence, I couldn't pass up the chance to throw my hat in the ring. So I didn't move far. I'm now on the main campus and enjoying the job. The work is interesting and fun, mostly reading and writing. And its a great group of women who are as nutty about coffee and chocolate as I am. Needless to say there is plenty of laughter.

look hard - here's a head and a tail

Much more exciting though is that I moved to a new flat. I finally decided I was tired of the noise from my upstairs. As much as talked to them and as apologetic as they were, I didn't think it was going to be possible for a couple and 9 month old baby in a 200 square foot flat to be much quieter. I jumped online on an impulse, found a top floor flat and 10 days later moved in.

check out the blooming flower bushes next to the houses

It's not only much quieter, but has heaps more natural daylight and a proper kitchen. Unfortunately, it was not furnished though. As my other place was nearly fully furnished I made the most of freecycle and gumtree (the Australia version of craigs list) to get all the needed bits and pieces. Luckily, I'm a member of GoGet, a car sharing program, which allowed me to travel all over the city to pick things up, including driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge with a mattress tied to the top of the car. In fact, I'm such a fan of GoGet, I volunteered for them at the Newtown festival.

Newtown is my new suburb and for those of you living in Seattle, its like squeezing Broadway from Capital Hill and the Ave from the U district in to one. It's the perfect neighborhood for me and I've already been diving in to exploring it.

And before I forget, I went on a long walk this Saturday (to help get me fit for my Christmas/New Year's plans) and saw not only a kangaroo but 4 giant lizards. Haven't a clue what they are, but they were very shy and hard to get a photo of. In one of these you can see the guys head at the top and tail hanging down the bottom. They were cool! Also walked along a river for part of it and though the flowers blooming were beautiful.

The paint spatter approach

Once again I've been remiss in my updates. So I'm taking a paint spatter approach. In other words, a random sampling of interesting bits and pieces:

Megan's first meat pie

I go to pub trivia every Tuesday with a few North American expats and our one token Australia. Usually we do quite well (regardless of my ineptitude at trivia). In fact we won the $800 jackpot and subsequently took ourselves out to a fabulous tapas dinner. Then we had to find a new pub to play trivia in. I always get the $10 special, which is usually schnitzel (the most common pub meal possible) or rump steak, but a few weeks back I sucked it up and had my first meat pie (not so bad, but still not good). Pies should be made with fruit only.

I am finding myself interested in yoga more and more these days. So in exchange for volunteering on clean-up, I attended the two-day Evolve festival of yoga workshops. Now I'm just trying to decide when to sign up for the yoga instructor course. 

And now that summer weather is here, lululemon's free yoga at the beach and in the park are back in full swing. Nothing like being in down dog with 50 other yogis on a sunny day while tourists take your picture.

Still trying to keep up the creative writing, I went to a evening workshop with Arnold Zable, an Australia writer known for crafting together true stories. And a week later I found his first book on sale at the bookshop. Just about to read it now.

Blue mountains bush walk with Sydney Bush Walkers

I also joined another daywalk with the Sydney Bushies in the Blue mountains. I saw my first snake and was thankful it was both non-venomous and very far away.

And for Labour Day weekend, I did a 3 day trip with the bushies in the Blue Mountains just outside of Yerranderie, an old ghost mining town. It rained most of the weekend which was good for keeping the snakes at bay, not so good for leeches. Actually took some photos this time and pinched a few from fellow walkers. Thankfully my $30 kmart quality tent is still holding up.

And I attended my friend Chiara's Hens night (aka - bachelorette party) and wedding, which was beautiful as we were on a glass boat floating in Sydney harbour.