I'm really not that good at goodbyes, so....

Living in Australia was the best experience of my life, and that may be something cliche to say, but it is so very true. I have never felt so independent, so free, so adventurous, and I have never learned so much about myself and grown as person as I did during the three months that I was Down Under. Thanks to the support and hard work of my family, and blessings of my Heavenly Father, I was able to embark on an adventure that I never thought would be possible.

I feel blessed to have been able to have gone on this trip. I was blessed with a safe home, great job, good friends, wonderful sights and beautiful scenery. I was able to experience another culture in a way that will leave an impression of my for the rest of my life. Sometimes, when I think back, or look at a map, it's still hard to believe that I actually lived thousands of miles away, on a different continent, for three months by myself. It's hard to believe that I was given such a wonderful opportunity, one that I will cherish forever. 

Of travel, I've had my share, man. I've been everywhere. (Part 2)

I'm not gonna lie, before I went to Australia, I was pretty ignorant. I had no idea the size of Australia, I didn't know about its proximity to the Philippines and I had no idea of New Zealand's location compared to Australia. Turns out, its to the southeast of Australia, right smack dab in the middle of "coolest-place-ever-ville". New Zealand is prettier than the movies show and definitely more fun. I didn't see any hobbits, dwarves or Legolas, which was pretty disappointing, but my trip definitely made up for it. So, to continue from my last post...

On Wednesday, April 13th, I woke up in my hostel, packed my things, and then caught my flight to Queenstown, NZ via Christchurch, NZ. I flew Air New Zealand for the first time, and it was actually pretty nice. I got bumped up to business class, so I had a larger seat, movies, and a meal for a four hour flight. It was a pretty sweet set-up. After my VIP flight, I landed in Queenstown, and I was already super excited/super nervous. There's just something about being in a different country that changes the way you look at things. I got into a cab, which was driven by a really nice guy named Spud (not making that up), and then I had a really nice drive into Queenstown. 

Views like this tend to make drives pretty fun.

Queenstown is a small resort town on the edge of a huge lake, surrounded by mountains. It is one of the most picturesque places you could ever see and it made my mouth drop every time I walked outside. As far as the town goes, Queenstown was a typical resort town, with a lot of shops and retailers selling outdoor gear, trips/packages and cheap nick-nacks. The town itself wasn't anything special, but the views were extraordinary, and you could do any extreme sport or outdoor activity imaginable out of Queenstown. You could jetboat, skydive, cave dive, tight-rope, ride ATVs, ride horses, canyon swing, hang-glide, para-glide, fish, hike, bla blah blah. It was crazy. I would eventually stay in Queenstown for longer, but I was only there for one night my first time being there.

The next morning, I hopped on a bus with 14 other people and took a curvy, mountain road up to Fox Glacier. My driver was apparently training for NASCAR, because we didn't go slower than 30 mph the entire time and I'm pretty sure he pulled the E-brake and smoked the tires a few times. On top of the fact that I was in the back of a van that was being driven by a man who must have shotgunned five Mountain Dews before we left, it was super cloudy and raining with an intense fog, which is pretty depressing weather. It was even more depressing because I was headed to Fox Glacier, where the only things they have to do are all outside.

Bleh...makes you want to kick something.

So I was carsick, wet, alone and headed to a place where I thought I was going to have the rare luxury of sitting in my room for three days. I wasn't a happy kid.

But it all turned out better than I thought! Even though it was still raining when I made it my hostel, I had booked a single room for two out of the three nights I was there, so I didn't have to worry about sleeping in the same room as anyone else. Also, the hostel had a hot tub! Hot tubs make all of your problems go away. Fact. I spent a lot of time in that hot tub the next few days; is was actually outside, with a tent over the top, so you had great views of the mountains and plains while you were chilling in the hot tub.

Would you believe me if I said I took this picture from the hot tub?

I walked around town and took a lot of pictures. The fog was actually really pretty, flowing through the mountains and making the landscape seem very eerie. Fox Glacier wasn't so bad after all. While I was in Fox Glacier, I had made plans to skydive (you can't imagine how excited I was for skydiving) and trekking on the glacier know as the, wait for it, Fox Glacier. Spoiler alert, my plans didn't turn out this way, but I still had a great time!

The first day, I was supposed to go on the glacier trek, but when I woke up, it was an absolutely gorgeous day! The clouds had completely burned off, so it was a perfect day for skydiving. Knowing that days like this don't come very often, I jumped on the chance, switched my glacier trek to the next day and went out to go find the skydiving guys so I could jump out of a perfectly good airplane 12,000 feet in the air. That was a poor choice, as it turns out the skydive blokes had the day off. So, to sum up, I had postponed my trek in favor of something that I couldn't do. I now had a free day with nothing planned. So what do I do when I have nothing else going on? I take a walk.

Oooh.

Aaah.

Those are pictures of Mt. Tasman and Mt. Cook. Mt. Cook is pretty much covered by the clouds, but they are two of the tallest mountains in New Zealand, and the Fox Glacier is formed in their crevices and valleys. It was a perfect day for a walk, mid-60s, sunny, with a gentle breeze. I was walking towards Lake Matheson, one of the most photographed spots in New Zealand and, so they claim, the world. 

There claims seems to make sense.

If you Google 'Lake Matheson', you'll find gazillions of pictures that are better than mine, but most of them will be of the same general thing; the Lake is very famous for being able to perfectly reflect the mountains behind it. Go check out the other pictures, some of them are incredible.

This picture is also incredible, but mainly because I'm in it.

Lake Matheson was a very quiet, peaceful and (obviously) very still place. After my walk around the lake, I chilled at the tourism center and then walked the four miles back to the town. On the walk back, I was facing the mountains the entire time, which made for an amazing four miles. My first day in Fox Glacier, which I thought would either by rainy or foggy and dismal, turned into a beautiful day with a great walk around a beautiful lake.

My next day was the day of the glacier trek. Not surprisingly, I woke up to absolutely pouring rain, and, not surprisingly, I woke up to not being very happy. Luckily, the tour guides outfitted us with a lot of rainproof gear, and the rain turned to a mere drizzle a few minutes after we left the guide shack. We drove the ten minutes to the foot of the glacier, put on all of our gear, and then headed up the glacier.

Looks cold, don't it?

Part of our gear was crampons. It is a strange feeling, walking with crampons, but it soon became very natural. They have 1-inch long spikes, so you have to raise your feet higher when you walk and place your feet flat on the ground when you step. But they are amazingly sturdy, it’s like you’re Spiderman; you put your foot wherever you want and you stick to it like glue. The hike was pretty cool. We were able to climb through some tunnels, over the ridges and even down into some pretty deep crevices.

I never actually got out of here. I'm writing this blog from the bottom of this hole. 

Being on something that old and that massive is an incredible feeling. It was a long day of hiking and definitely an experience I won't forget. That evening, I packed my things and got ready for the next day's travel back to Queenstown, which would be pretty unforgettable, as well. It was unforgettable, no only because I had the same NASCAR driver as before, but because I got to see Lake Hawea! I didn't get my camera out in time, but if you are ever just happen to be in the area of middle of nowhere southern island New Zealand, be sure to have your camera ready, cause it is going to be worth it. This is the second time I've told you to Google something, but it is definitely worth. Lake Hawea is un.be.lievable.

We finally made it back to Queenstown, where I grabbed some dinner, then crashed at my hostel for the night. The next day, I was scheduled to go skydiving and hang-gliding, so it was going to be a big day. Unfortunately, just like the rest of my trip, the next day didn't exactly go as planned.

I woke up the next morning to beautiful weather, and I was pumped when I was walking to the skydiving office, but when I got there, they said that there were too many clouds in the upper atmosphere for us to be able to skydive safely. So, we had to postpone my flight for later in the morning. To make a long story short, I ended up postponing my flight four more times before the weather was deemed safe enough to dive. It was  a very, very long morning and I was pretty anxious the entire time. Skydiving was the one thing that I had really wanted to do, and it kept looking like I wasn't going to be able to do it. But, finally, the weather cleared, and I found myself signing forms and waivers and driving to the landing site. 

Skydiving is a very cool thing, regardless of where you do it. But skydiving in New Zealand definitely has its perks.

Look at the size of those peaks, er, perks.

Falling from 15,000 feet with that view was absolutely amazing. I can't describe a bigger rush or thrill or more beautiful experience. Your brain has absolutely no chance at comprehending what is happening to you, so you just let it all happen and then figure out what the heck just happened once you have landed. Definitely one of the best things about my trip. If you have the chance to skydive, totally do it. Do it, do it, do it! Also, do it in a place that takes your breath away. Flying to New Zealand to skydive may seem a bit superfluous and rash, but you'll be okay with it once your falling at 125 mph at those mountains. 

It was a day of ups-and-downs (that's a pun for skydiving, ha!). Skydiving was most definitely an up, but then it was time to hang-glide, and suddenly the day started to turn down. The guy that owned the hang-gliding company literally ran the business out of the back of his van. No joke, he had no office or storefront, he ran everything out of his old, beat-up van. 

Bad first impression, mate.

So I wasn't overly impressed to start out with. Things started looking up though, because after we drove up the mountain to get to the launch point, I was rewarded with this view.

Oh yeah, the day's getting better.

However, the good feelings died down, after we ended up waiting, strapped into the hang-gliders, for two hours for the wind to pick up. You see, without wind, "hang-gliding" turns into "fall-dying" pretty quickly. So, without wind, we weren't going anymore. Again, a long story short, two hours of standing later, we unbuckled from the gliders and drove back down the mountain. Not exactly the most exhilarating time ever, but the view was good, so there's a silver lining for ya.

It was my last day in New Zealand, and it was a great one, even despite the lack of hang-gliding. Skydiving tends to make your days good no matter what else you do. Overall, New Zealand was unforgettable. By far, it was the prettiest place I have ever been. I have been to individual locations that are as pretty or maybe even prettier, but in New Zealand, everywhere you go will take your breath away. I firmly believe that there is not an ugly part of New Zealand, which, unfortunately, can't be said for the USA (looking at you, Iowa.)

Going to New Zealand was definitely one of the best decisions I made while I was on my trip, and if you ever get the chance to travel to New Zealand, jump on it as soon as you can. Unfortunately, I had to leave the great country of New Zealand and fly back to Melbourne, Australia, and then fly back home. It was a great two weeks of traveling around Australia and New Zealand, and it was sad to leave both countries, but I was very excited to get back home. I was already missing living as an Aussie, and I was already planning when I would go back, but there's just no place like home. 

Of travel, I've had my share, man. I've been everywhere. (Part 1)

You know when you say to yourself, "Oh I'll just do that tomorrow." Well, for me, I said that for 217 days. But today's the day that I finally get this blog done! Or at least, today's the day that I finally start getting this blog done. It's a big day, and I don't think you're nearly excited enough about how awesome today is.

To review, my last post was about my family coming down to visit me in Melbourne. We traveled around for about two weeks and then they went back home and I went back to being cool. After they left, I had about three weeks before it was my last day as a Melburnian. During those three weeks, I...

1.) Went to Tasmania to visit my friends.

2.) Fed a Tasmanian devil.

3.) Hiked around Launceston, Tasmania.

4.) Drove a stick shift at 3 a.m., which means I was driving stick on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car in the wee hours of the morning. 

5.) Hung out.

6.) Went to see a few acts at the Melbourne Comedy Festival with some mates. 

7.) Went to a really fun footy match with Gab, and saw the Western Bulldogs demolish the Brisbane Lions.

8.) Went to Gab's 30th birthday party at his house.

9.) Kept it real. Kept it fresh. And I kept it real fresh.

So that's three weeks boiled down into 9 bullet points, PowerPoint presentation-style. The next two weeks, however, stand no choice at being boiled down. So, we're going to split the next two weeks into two blogs, which is super convenient, because I spent the first week traveling around Australia, and the second week traveling around New Zealand. So without further ado....

My travel plans for Australia included going to see Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta and various other Outback attractions. I flew out of Melbourne on April 8th, via Tiger Airways, which is kind of like shaving your face with a chainsaw. You have to do it, and it gets the job done, but you know you might die at any time. I flew into Alice Springs, which is the central-most town in Australia, and is about 27,000 strong. It is home to many people of Aboriginal decent, and has a lot of museums, tour groups, and historical sites. After landing, I checked into my hostel and then checked out the city. 

Check. It. Out.

I did some window shopping, learning and checked in to my tour shop for my tour the following day. I did my tour with The Rock Tour and they did a great job. I grabbed some dinner, walked around some more, then headed back to the hostel to arrange my things for my tour. I met two American girls who were in my tour, so that was pretty cool. One of them even went to kU, which was slightly less cool, but it wasn't too bad. I went to bed fairly early, as we were being picked up at 6 a.m. the next morning to start our tour. 

There were 20 other people on my tour, not including the two tour guides, Mark and Charlie. We would spend the next three days with each other, and we would spend about half of that time on the  road. Needless to say, getting a good seat on the bus was the most important decision I made during my entire stay in Australia. 

I spent more time in this van than I did in class all this semester.

It was a 4 hour drive to get to Uluru, and on the way we stopped at a few smaller rock sites and landmarks. Once we got to Uluru, it was time for my mind to be blown. It’s one of those things where, from driving up from a distance, you go ‘There is no way it’s really that big’, but as you get closer, it keeps getting big and bigger and...

Biggest.

It's seriously large. It is 1,142 ft tall and has a 6-mile circumference. Pretty much the biggest pet rock you could ever find. My tour drove a lap around Uluru, and then we got out of the van and walked around Uluru while our tour guides explained some historical and cultural aspects of Uluru and the surrounding area, and other customs of the local Aboriginal tribes. After our walk, we got back into the vans and drove to a spot to watch the sunset. Uluru 'glows' red at sunset, due to the reflection of the sun's rays. It was a very pretty night, with millions of stars in the sky and a glowing red Uluru. After the sunset, we drove to a local campsite, unrolled our sleeping bags and tents and got to making a campfire. The guys of the group made the fire and drank beer while the girls of the group went to the restrooms and showered. It was a nice night for a campfire, and a nice night for sleeping outdoors. I forgot to mention one thing, though. The travel brochures are pretty straight forward with Uluru (it's a big rock, you can't really mess that up), but one thing they don't tell you about is the flies. I could walk from the parking lot to Uluru without ever touching the ground because I was walking on the flies. If you were short on some protein that day, all you had to do was open your mouth, run forward and boom! you had your daily nutritional content of protein.  

All of those specks on their shirts are flies. Literally, there were thousands of them.

The next morning, we woke up and drove back to Uluru to catch the sunrise (prettier than the sunset, in my opinion) and then we drove the 30 minutes to Kata Tjuta. Kata Tjuta, which means "many heads", is 36 rock domes spread out across 10 square miles. They can range anywhere from being 800 feet tall to being 50 feet tall. We hiked around KT for the whole morning, with Mark and Charlie stopping and talking to us about certain Anangu (the local Aboriginal tribe) things. Kata Tjuta was very green, so there was great contrast between the massive red domes and the greenery underneath. 

Contrasted. Boom.

Kata Tjuta was prettier than Uluru, but Uluru was much more physically impressive. We hiked around Kata Tjuta for almost four hours, taking in the sights and sounds and the magnitude of the formations. My group was a lot of fun. We had about 3 Americans, a French couple, a British girl, a very pretty Dutch girl, a Brazilian girl and then the rest were either German or German speakers. So, the group was pretty much split into either being German or not German. It was a cool group, and we all got along really well. 

It's hard not to get along when you're looking at this view.

After hiking around Kata Tjuta, we drove to a campsite by King's Canyon to stay the night. On the way to the campsite, we stopped on the side of the road to dig for grubs, just like the Aboriginal women used to do. The key was to look for roots of special trees that had huge bumps in them, and that showed that a grub had been present. 

Grubs.

After you found that root, you dug up the rest of the tree's roots to find other roots which had grubs living in them. It took us about 30 minutes, but we ended up finding four or five grubs, and we put them to good use.

Real good use.

We built a fire (guys with the fire, girls with the showers), cooked dinner and headed to bed. The night was so much clearer than before, so I could see the Milky Way, Southern Cross and millions of other stars. It was great falling asleep under those Australian stars.

The next day, we woke up early, as usual, and drove to King's Canyon for our last day on tour. The sun came up while we were climbing ‘Heart Attack Hill’, a very steep start to the hike. It was a beautiful sunrise over the Canyon, and a great start to the hike. We hiked for about 4 hours, and we got to see a lot of awesome rock formations, canyons, valleys and ponds. The gorge is a low point for the surrounding area, so regardless of the type of weather, there is always a cornucopia of trees, plants and wildlife in the bottom of the gorge. 

The wood bridge grew here naturally, as well.

Overlooking the top of the canyon. 

It was times like this were I was glad that I did a tour and didn't try to see everything by myself. This canyon would have been cool to experience by myself, but I wouldn't have gotten all of the background knowledge and little stories that Mark and Charlie knew. After hiking through the canyon, we made lunch (with a heavy side of flies), then hopped into the vans and started the long eight hour drive back to Alice Springs. On the way back, we played games to keep us occupied and I took a nap. Driving through the Outback is probably one of the more boring things you could do while in Australia. Think Kansas, but with stubby bushes instead of corn. Not the most exciting drive ever. After we arrived back at Alice Springs, I made my way back to my  hostel where I unpacked my things, started my laundry and then took a good long nap. The past three days had been very early mornings, hikes, heat and late nights. It was still a great experience. That night, my tour met up at a local bar and we all celebrated a successful tour. It was pretty fun partying with people from all over the world; dancing is a universal language, so it all worked out well! I went to bed pretty late that night, but was able to sleep in the next morning, so it wasn't too bad. 

The next morning, I woke up, packed my things, hopped onto the bus for the airport and caught my flight back to Melbourne. It was great being back in Melbourne. I stopped by work to say hi to my friends. They gave me a few mementos, including a really cool 'Lend Lease' winter vest that will come in handy. I said goodbye to them, then checked into my hostel, grabbed some dinner and called it a night. 

This is what a hostel looks like, in case you didn't know.

Overall, it was a great trip out to the Outback. The Outback is definitely something that you can't get anywhere else in the world, and it was one of the best parts of my trip. Uluru, Kata Tjuta and King's Canyon were a lot of fun and definitely unforgettable, especially Uluru and Kata Tjuta. I had a great time out in the middle of nowhere of Australia, but now I was getting excited about heading out to New Zealand to see how the Kiwis lived. The next day, I would fly out to Queenstown, New Zealand, and embark on the next half of my trip.

Admittedly, I may have slacked off a bit...

Remember me? Maybe you don't, so I'll introduce myself again. My name is Reid The Man Mason, previously known as the kid who was interning in Australia, now known as the kid who's sitting at home watching TV and playing with his dog. Kind of like the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, except I'm a college bum and not very royal.

However, I am officially back home! I flew into Kansas City over a week ago, last Wednesday night, April 20th. It was a long trip but good trip home. This week I've been catching up on sleep, getting over jet lag and generally being lazy.

But that's not important. What is important is the question "Reid, what did you do for the past month? You fell off the face of the planet, what happened?" First off, thank you for being so concerned with my well-being; that's very sweet. Second, I was actually really busy! I'm family came and visited me for a week, then I went on a few travels, then before I knew it, it was my last week in Melbourne. Time flew by for the last month or so, as I was really busy at work, thankfully, and doing a lot of things outside of work. But now that I'm home, there's never been a better time to tell you what I did for the past month.

One of the biggest things that happened was my family coming to visit me! They were in Australia for ten days and we made those ten days count. We saw Melbourne, drove the Great Ocean Road, drove back to Melbourne, drove to Phillip Island and saw the penguins, drove to Canberra and then finally made it all the way to Sydney. It was a lot of driving, but we saw a lot and had a lot of fun. 

Hey Family!

In our first go around in Melbourne, we checked out my house, the Royal Botanic Gardens (see above picture) and a lot of the other sights that Melbourne has to offer. It was great being able to show my family where I had lived for the last 3 months. I felt like such a tour guide, it was great. After our a few days in Melbourne, we drove the Great Ocean Road, which is renowned as one of the greatest stretches of road in the world. 

Oooooh. That makes sense.

Where was this taken? Kansas City or Australia?

It was a very pretty drive, even though about half of it was through a national forest. Great Ocean Road going through forests? Yeah, it confused us, too, but the road was a lot of fun regardless of the tree filled middle. A huge highlight on the drive was seeing wild koalas!

It didn't move a lot, so it could have been a prank by some bored teens...who knows.

 We took about 45 pictures of this koala, then we figured out that there were four more koalas in the area. We had run into a koala posse! Which, honestly, is probably the least frightening posse in existence. We kept on driving until we came to the Twelve Apostles, which are 12 towers that have become separated from the coast. There are only eight still intact, but those eight are still impressive. We checked out the Apostles, then drove to a nearby beach and had ourselves a little frolic. 

Beaches make everything fun.

After some good times playing in the waves and getting everything went, including a close miss of the camera, we kept on driving until we reached Port Campbell, our home for the night. We stayed in a sweet log cabin, and Joy and I were actually able to drive our van around town! Driving on the left feels wrong, because the right is right. We woke up the next morning and drove back to Melbourne, where we stayed for a day and checked out my work. On the way, we saw wild kangaroos! It was awesome seeing the animal in the wild. Once in Melbourne, my family met my manager and foreman and Joy said "They're pretty much exactly what American girls picture when they think of hot Australians." Yep, that pretty much sums it up, I guess. After we tore Joy away from my co-workers, we kept on driving on, headed towards Phillip Island and the famous Penguin Crossing. 

We made it to Phillips Island, which is about a two hour drive from Melbourne. The island itself is fairly large with a lot of things to do. We went to the Nobbies, which is a series of rocks and small islands on the edge of the island. It's a breeding ground for many types of birds and sea lions and penguins.

He wasn't thrilled that I was taking a picture of him.

The Nobbies. Rough name, but pretty view.

 That evening, we went to the Phillips Island Penguin Crossing, which unfortunately, has a strict policy on prohibiting cameras. But envision in your mind if you can: a 100 foot long beach, with two concrete bleachers built into the hill side, so the water is 20 feet from the front row. The penguins cross on either side of the two bleachers, heading from the surf into their burros in the hills on shore. We saw probably 40 Little Blue Penguins cross that evening; the Rangers said that they could see an upwards of 300 penguins cross on some nights. It was cool seeing them come in from the ocean, and as we walked back to our car, you could see and hear them call to their partners, locating their burrows and generally making quite the racket.

The next morning, we stopped at a Koala reserve before leaving Phillip Island and headed on our way to Sydney. We stopped about halfway between Melbourne and Sydney in a town called Bairnsdale, and we actually stayed at a hotel called....

You couldn't make this stuff up.

At one time, the motel was owned by the Kansas family, who thought it would be fun to have a city named after them, apparently. Pretty fun coincidence, and it was a pretty good hotel, too. We walked around Bairnsdale in the evening, and checked out the local river walk.

Hey look, it's a river. Let's walk!

We left Bairnsdale the next morning, after a good breakfast at McDonald's, and kept on headed towards Sydney. A few hours into the drive, we saw more wild kangaroos!

Proof that they really do exist.

We saw about 20 kangaroos in total throughout our drive, most of the time in groups of four or five. We stopped in Canberra, Australia's national capital, and checked out the parliament. We did a little learning too, as we learned about the Prime Minister and the Governor-General, whom I had never heard of.

The Mason family about ready to undertake an unsuccessful coup d'etat

 The Parliament was pretty neat, but we were on a schedule, so we high-tailed it to Sydney. Sydney is a seriously big city. I don't know what you picture when you think of Sydney, but whatever it is, triple it. Sydney feels a lot like Chicago, except filled with Australians. We spent two days in Sydney, and had a very full two days. We went to the zoo, Bondi Beach, the CBD, Olympic Park and the Sydney Opera House. Sydney was a lot fun, but a very busy city, and it took awhile to get around. On the first day, we went to the zoo, which was also pretty busy, but even in spite of the crowds, the zoo was a lot of fun, and we saw a lot of cool animals.

Seriously impressive. He's the size of a Toyota Prius.

 The zoo is set up really well for viewing the animals, with medium sized enclosures with good viewing areas. It ended up being a perfect day for the zoo and the animals were all active. The chimps were one of the highlights; there were two 1 yr old chimp brothers that were swinging around the enclosure and causing general mischief. They kept playing with each other and having a great time. The zoo was a pretty full day, but we wanted to go to Bondi Beach, so we powered through and drove to the beach. It wasn't exactly a perfect day for beach-going; it was about 65 degrees and windy. But we were only at Bondi Beach once, so we went for it.

And by 'we', I mean everyone but my mom. She has a serious hatred of cold water.

 We played in the surf and body surfed for a while, easily over an hour. The water was pretty warm once you got used to it, and there were still about 30 people surfing, even despite the poor conditions. Bondi Beach was a lot fun, but definitely tired us out, so we drove back to our hotel and crashed for the night. The next day, we woke up, had a nice breakfast, then headed to the Olympic Park.

Home of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The Olympic Park was gigantic, with a ton of stadiums and grounds and parks. They now hold concerts and a variety of athletic events on the complex. It was cool being able to see where all that history had been made. We left the park around lunch time, then headed into the city and the Opera House, as we were scheduled to watch the YouTube Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House that evening.

As pretty as you imagine it, and even more impressive.

We got to the city a little early, so we walked around the Opera House, and the Botanic Gardens. The Opera House is actually three separate buildings, so it's more like a complex than one singular house. There are two gigantic halls for the opera and other concerts, and then a smaller room for more personal performances.

Left: Personal performances, Middle: Concert Hall, Right: Opera Hall

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra was a lot of fun. Artists from around the world recorded themselves playing their respective instruments, and then submitted them to YouTube to grade and make their selections. The Orchestra contained artists from something like 33 different countries, which was really cool. The show lasted about three hours and was generally really entertaining. Also, the inside of the hall takes your breath away.

Taking a picture with a flash was permitted, so sorry about that.

It's pretty much the biggest room ever. After the orchestra, we headed out and had dinner at this really good pizzeria. Unfortunately, we picked possibly the worst time ever to go, because we sat in the same room as the world's biggest bachelorette party. With no exaggeration, there were 30 women at one party, all in white dresses and all rather tipsy. The food was good, and the party provided some entertainment.After dinner, we walked around Sydney and did some shopping, then headed home for our last night in Sydney.

The next morning, we woke up, packed up our things and then headed to the Sydney Airport. My family was headed back home and I was headed back to Melbourne. It was pretty strange flying to a different place than them, but I knew I'd be home in a month or so, so it wouldn't be too long until we saw each other again. It was a great 10 days in Australia and I was really happy that they were able to come down and see the great Down Under!

The Great Getaway

What exactly is a promontory? It is a good question, and before I visited Wilson Promontory, I had absolutely no idea. It turns out a promontory is a mass of land that overlooks lower land or a body of water. That definition seems oddly general to me, as there are many places that overlook lower land or a body of water, but we'll work with what we got.

And what we got is Wilsons Promontory (a.k.a. The Prom) (So yeah, I went to The Prom last weekend, which makes it sound like I was a huge creep and went to a high school dance. I didn't, I went hiking.). Whenever I would talk to the locals about my travel plans and sightseeing adventures, they frequently brought up The Prom. "It's Victoria's landmark national park." "Oh mate, it's awesome, you'd love it there." "I have no idea what a promontory is, but it's unbelievable." So, I decided to do a little research and see what the fuss was all about. I began researching the possibility of a trip on Wednesday, and that following Friday, I was sitting on a bus headed for The Prom. In between that I bought a tent, hiking boots, food and packed my bag for the weekend.

My bag for the weekend.

It was a 2.5 hr bus ride to Fish Creek, a tiny rural town, then an hour bus ride into the park. I'd love to tell you that the Australian countryside is incredibly scenic and all, but I was asleep for about 2 hrs of the 2.5 hr bus ride, so I didn't get to see much. Once I got into the park, around 5:30 p.m., I found my campsite and set up my tent.

Home sweet home.

As you may notice, my tent isn't exactly spacious. I bought a small, two-person tent, which turned out to be a very small, two-middle school persons tent. I had to lay corner-to-corner in order to be able to fully stretch out. But since I was the only person in the tent, it actually worked perfectly.

After setting up my tent, I grabbed some dinner (a candy bar and Vitamin water), and then headed out to check out the campsite. I knew there were some scenic locations closeby, so I decided to venture out and see what I could find. On my way, I found a wombat!

The head is on the left, the tail is on the right. Just in case you're confused.

The Prom is known for having a large wombat population, and the wombats are very used to humans, and so they freuently come into the campsite to look for food. It is very common to wake up in the morning and find that a wombat has ripped a hole in your tent or kncoked over tables looking for food. Luckily, that didn't happen to me. My only experience with the wombat was touching him and taking this picture. Still, it was pretty cool to be able to see Australian wildlife.

Seeing a wombat was pretty cool, but it ranks pretty low on the list of things I saw over the weekend.

This is high on the list. No explanation needed.

I probably stood at this point for ten minutes, just taking it all in. The beach in the background is Squeaky Beach, which is named after the fact that the sand squeakes when you walk on the beach.

This is caused by the characteristics of the white quartz sand, which is so fine that there is an incredible amount of friction between the sand particles, causing it to emit a squeak whenever you step into the sand. All in all, it makes for an interesting experience walking across the beach.

A quick side note: I took over one hundred pictures over the weekend, so I want you to know how much of a struggle it was for me to select only a few for this blog.

The next morning, Saturday morning, I packed up my gear, caught a shuttle to the base camp, and headed off for my two-day hike.

I was going to Refuge Cove, via Sealers Cove.



The weather was perfect for hiking. It ranged from high 50s at night to high 70s during the day, with little rain and partly cloudy. You worked up a sweat when you were hiking, but then were able to cool off whenever you were taking a rest. It was perfect 'jeans and a t-shirt' type of weather.

Pictured: Jeans, accompanied by a t-shirt.

The hike was gorgeous. Lush, rich forests with thick underbrush. As you would expect, it was an amazingly calming and peaceful place. I was truly able to get away from it all and get into nature. 'Nature' includes the trees, rocks, ferns and....wallabies!

Smile! You're on Candid Camera.

The wallaby and I did the whole "stop and stare at each other" thing, then he decided I wasn't a threat and went back to eating. Of course, that all changed when I decided to try and get closer, and he bounded off into the woods. This was about an hour into my trip, and it was a fantastic way to start the hike.

Initially, the trail was very open and very well marked. But as I got further and further into my hike, I started to hit the less traveled parts of the trail. The trail would change from rocks, to mud and then it would disappear into the ferns, leaving you guessing where it went.

It's there, you just can't see your feet when you're walking through it.

Walking to a remote campsite on a remote trail was one of the most fun things I've done. It feels great to be able to stop, pause and listen for sounds, and all you hear are the birds and the wind. No planes or car horns or people talking. Listening to nothing was an awesome experience. But the listening had nothing on the looking, and I was able to look at some pretty awesome views.

Sealers Cove, in all of its majesty.

You know in the movies when someone washes up on a deserted island and you think "I wonder if those places really exist?" Well, they do. Now, I wasn't on a deserted island, but it was pretty awesome being able to stand on a beach and know that the nearest restaurant or traffic light or even electricity source was three hours away. This was nature in all of its original glory.

It took a little over three hours to get to Sealers Cove. I stopped there, had lunch, took a nap and then went on my way. Refuge Cove, my ultimate destination, was another 6.2 km away, or about 2 hours.

10.2 down, 6.2 to go.

The hike from Tidal River (the base camp) to Sealers Cove was entirely in the forests. However, the hike from Sealers Cove to Refuge Cove followed the shoreline of the park, which made for some stunning views. About an hour into the hike, I reached the summit of one of the bluffs on the shoreline, and was in awe of the beauty.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

I stood here and admired the beauty and took pictures for probably ten minutes. Most of the pictures turned out great, although not all of them were winners.

Best picture of the weekend.

I'm cool.

Despite the injury to my pride, I was able to shrug off the photography mishap and keep on hiking. An hour later, I finally made it into Refuge Cove, my home for the night.



You could do worse than having a home here.

I arrived at Refuge Cove around 5:30 p.m., unpacked my gear, pitched my tent and then took a nap. Naps in the wilderness are awesome. During the three days I was gone, I took around 7 naps.

After I awoke from my glorious rest, I decided to hike up to Kersop's Peak. It was an hour one-way hike and during the hike, I saw another wallaby! This guy wasn't messing around though; the second he saw me, he gave me a quick glare and then bounded away. No photos for this guy. Still, the mini-hike was a lot of fun, mostly because I didn't have my pack on, but also because of the scenery.

You don't get this in Missouri.

I made it to the top of Kersop's Peak at about 7:30, when the sun was getting lower and lower in the sky. It made for some awesome pictures.

I stayed at the peak for about half an hour, then hiked back down to the camp, and went to sleep to the sound of the waves crashing against the beach.

The next day, I did the exact same hike as the day before, just backwards. I didn't take many pictures on the return journey, mostly because I had already taken pictures of everything on the way there, but also because I was dead set on getting home and I didn't want to stop and waste time. I made surprisingly good time on the way back, and was on track to make it back to the base camp three hours before I was supposed to catch the bus to head back to Melbourne. So, since I had all of that extra time, I took another nap.

It was high 70s, sunny and breezy. Pristine napping conditions.

I took a nap at the Windy Saddle, pictured above. An hour later, I woke up, thought about going back to sleep, decided against it, and headed back onto the trail. Another hour later, I was back at the base camp, tired and sore, but feeling great.

Check, check, and check. Did all three. Booyah.

It was a great weekend at a great national park, and I would definitely go back. The weather was perfect and the views were stunning. If you're ever in the area of Fish Creek or Foster and you feel like getting out and working up a good sweat, I totally recommend Wilsons Promontory, even if I have no idea what it means.