The time had come. Well, I was almost out of money at any rate. The adventure was winding to a close. As my final days in Dunedin approached, I put everything I owned back into my Honda and turned off my internet (my ISP while I was in NZ was "Xtra" and their commercial always talked about "Xtraordinary people" hence the above naming of the sad day when it was all gone.) After chatting with the extortionist company that was going to rent my duplex, I said a very fond farewell to this beautiful Southern city. My very first stop was not far away. After an hour of driving north on Highway 1, I stopped off at a beach to check out the weirdly spherical boulders the place was known for. As bizarre as advertised!

I then drove a long way to check out Mt Cook. I watched a cute video at the visitor's center, looked up at the mountain from the base foothills, but then decided I was too tired to do much more than keep on driving. Eventually, I made it to Christchurch (and got lost.) The next day, I decided to try something I had not yet done yet in New Zealand: Gamble! I bicycled to the dress-code-enforced casino - no smoking allowed - and played some blackjack. Fun. Didn't win much, though. Not dallying long, I got back in my car and followed Highway 1 North - parts of it were along the ocean with mountains on the opposite side and absolutely stunning - until I made it to Picton. I hopped on a late ferry to Wellington, arriving at a multi-storey hostel at 2am and quietly crept into the room I was assigned so I did not wake anyone (at least I was in a bottom bunk.)

I wasn't super happy when I woke up the next morning and realized that 1. I was the only girl in a room with five guys -- opening your eyes to unfamiliar tighty whities when the great majority of the rooms I had stayed in on this trip had been all girls, yeah, not great -- and 2. that I had been sleeping directly on the mattress with no cover sheet! Eww! It would be the only hostel I had been to in NZ that did not have a cover sheet (or provide one at check-in) that I had to arrive at when it was too late to see.

I checked out the famous "Te Papa" Museum of New Zealand, met a poetic Ethiopian Museum Guide on the top floor and chatted with him for a while, and generally checked out Wellington. I went up a trolley to the top of a big hill, visited Carter Observatory, walked on some lovely tree-filled trails and stood in the Sundial of Human Involvement. A lovely wander around Wellington. On my way back to the hostel, I was walking along a sidewalk with a chain link fence on the side and, out of nowhere, there was a hubcap! Just one hubcap, sitting there, all alone. It followed me!

Just north of Wellington, in the Lower Hutt - Upper Hutt area, was supposedly where they filmed Rivendell and so that was my next stop, because I'm that geeky. The nice old ladies at the visitor center gently warned me that there was not much to see, but gave me a prettily-drawn map of where to go anyway. I drove around the foresty hills for quite awhile, anticipating the awesome. However, sadly, there was no awesome to be had. The Upper Hutt area is quite a beautiful place to camp, even in the drizzle, but nothing like the splendour of Rivendell. Apparently, even the waterfall was CGIed.

Mt. Taranaki
(there is a volcano in the picture, I swear)

Next, I hugged the southwest coast on my way to Taranaki, this little bump on the side of New Zealand that has an active volcano on it! A co-worker I knew in Dunedin (with an American husband) had moved here and invited me up for a few days. I kept my eye out as I drove, knowing that the giant volcano had to show its face at some point as I got closer and closer. When I reached practically the base without seeing so much a hint of any mountain, I realized the whole thing was covered in a cloud. After nearly losing my hosts' dogs when I brought my baggage in and they bolted out (I found them on a country road a quarter mile a way and thank my lucky stars they followed me back when I called them) I had a very nice time in rural Taranaki. During my few days here, I kept a look out for the giant conical monster, even driving all the way around the thing, but only caught glimpses of it. Elusive nature, sheesh! but the lake (pictured) had really cute ducks. While here, I met some of my hostess' family, learned the card game "500" at a farmhouse with a group of hilarious ladies, saw miniature horses for the first time as well as what I can only describe as a bird-toed cactus plant. We watched "Assassins" starring Antonio Bandaras and Sylvester Stallone and I made everyone dinner (I mean "tea"). In town, I met a woman priest and chatted with her for a while (because, growing up Catholic, I had never seen such a thing.) I also spent quite a long time in the cute town of Stratford driving around. Why? Well, you see, the street names in Stratford are all named after Shakespearean characters and I was determined to find the intersection of Romeo and Juliet. (Unfortunately, it turned out to be in a field.)

Visiting Napier was a bust because apparently New Zealand's Art Deco city was having a massive festival that weekend and there was nowhere to stay anywhere nearby without advance reservations. So I headed for Rotorua instead. I had extended my Rotorua reservation when I changed plans, but they had lost it. They found me a single room for a few nights anyway and told me that I would receive my own crockery. (As I had no idea what crockery meant, I somewhat anxiously asked what it was. Turned out it's tableware. Crockery, ha! That's just a funny word.) On a related note, I could not figure out how to use the industrial sized (they were taller than me) can openers in the hostel dining area, though, even after multiple irritated demonstrations. Anyway, Rotorua is the best place to experience Maori culture. Also, Zorbing.

In addition to having someone push a giant plastic ball down a hill with me (and a bucketful of water) inside it, and visiting (and solving) a wooden maze set up in the middle of nowhere alone, I also visited a Maori village (with "Tamaki Heritage Experiences"). This was great! A group of us boarded a bus and were welcomed into an authentic-looking forest settlement with Maori stationed at various places, explaining and demonstrating various aspects of traditional tribal life. Then we gathered in the dining hall for a dinner cooked in underground ovens. (The emcee asked all the Australians, English, and Irish to raise their hands, then he told them where the bar was. Ba-dum tish!) It was entertaining and humorous. On the way back, we did karaoke (acapella; no music, just a mike) on the bus. I sung the first verse of American Pie.

So I kept on driving north, past Auckland, stopped at small place to eat called "Green Cheese" after passing a cop by mistake, but made it to Whangarei. Did I mention I love the names of places in New Zealand? So much fun to say. I checked out the sights, read an entire Terry Pratchett novel in the hostel common room that I picked up off the bookshelf, and was generally disappointed at the lack of Olympics being shown on TV. I guess the New Zealanders do not have many entries in the Winter Olympics, there not being much snow and ice down here, even in winter. Usually, they were in 22nd place or some such. At one point, though, the hostellers in the TV room were debating between the Sopranos and the Olympics.

Back in Auckland

And I've come full circle. Back at the Auckland YHA hostel. Back at the Sunday car fair to sell the Honda (for half the price) that I had bought here last year. Back wandering the streets of Auckland spending a lot of time in the bookstore reading entire novels and learning why the sky is blue and how Santa Claus got his name, and when I was absolutely starving, coming upon a cute restaurant with the subtitle "For Those Who Need Food." You wanted to know, didn't you. The sky is blue because there are less and smaller particles in the upper atmosphere and so only the light waves with higher frequencies absorb/reflect from them. Santa Claus is St. Nicholas with a language and time warp.

Australia

After a couple confusing tries, I managed to get a ticket from the not-particularly-intuitive automated machine on the tram and head downtown. It was my first experience using Melbourne - or even Australian - public transportation. Not long after I had seated myself, this slightly transient looking man approached me and said, "Give me ticket." I looked at him blankly. He clearly wasn't a uniformed ticket collector. I was sitting next to the ticket machine, but I wasn't in charge or anything. I had no idea what to say. A man my age nearby stood up, and giving me a reproachful look, helped the man buy a ticket. (He must have been handicapped or mentally ill, I realized later.) I felt kind of bad but hey, this was my first day in Australia, my first day in Melbourne, and my first day using this tram. I wish I'd had the presence of mind to inform the guy of this. Anyway, I had a nice time exploring the city. I had noodles for lunch on Hardware street. I saw some very pretty views of the city and do wish I remembered why I wrote the next line.

Phillip Island

We drove south of the city to Phillip Island for a couple days. The first evening, we went to the Phillip Island Penguin Parade and, finally, I saw penguins! (I never had managed to see any in New Zealand.) They came up from the water onto the beach in groups of two and three at dusk as the audience watched from the beach bleachers - say that five times fast. Very neat! The next day, we went to the Koala Conservation Center. We learned about the sleepy koala day and their vegetarian diet and walked around the grounds spotting many koala along the way.

Mar 2, 2002: Scrambled Eggs, The British Way Day

That evening, we had afternoon tea in the Dandedongs. I love the concept of afternoon tea. We need to have more excuses to drink tea in the states.

Williamstown

The Great Ocean Road

Along the southern coast of Australia is a gorgeous highway called The Great Ocean Road, a 150-mile stretch built in the early 1900s by returning soldiers as a memorial to WWI. (Thank you, Wiki.) We saw funny signs like "Give Way to Stock" and stopped at a few places along the road including a famous lighthouse and the well-known Twelve Apostles rock formations, several hours west of Melbourne. We joked that there may have been 12 apostles, but there were 1200 tourists. Still, I had never seen anything like it. The whole drive was stunning and I highly recommend it.

Sovereign Hill

The next day, we drove northwest from Melbourne for a little over two hours and arrived in Ballarat. Near Ballarat is an historic town built to look like the gold rush town in the same location in the 1850s: Sovereign Hill. To me, it was incredible just how much this looked like Old West towns in the same era in the United States. I didn't think anything else existed like the Old West - but here it is, halfway around the world! Admittedly, the "New York Bakery" was a strange name to see among the shops. We did get ourselves some sweets, though. They had all sorts of re-enactments happening including an elaborate one where we took a tram from station to station. By far the most amusing was one of the last ones - a dramatic depiction of a battle. It was not the battle that was amusing (in fact, it was very well done) it was just that, when things came to a head, the announcer calmly said "The Police are Firing at Random, Please Return to your Tram."

Sydney

AMP Tower

I bid farewell to Melinda and got on an overnight train to Sydney. I do not particularly recommend this. I did not get much sleep on the 11-hour train ride; the seats were the same as the daytime train and simply not very comfortable. I had reserved a cheap hotel based on price and how close it was to downtown, but ended up in the red light district - oops. Oh, well, my pink hotel was not all that bad in the end.

The next morning, I located the nearest observatory and checked the city out. Every time I visit a city with a tower or observation deck, it's one of my favorite things to do - I love seeing the city from above. (Which is why, if you read my Hong Kong entry, you will see why I was so frustrated there; I no like when I no find observatory.)

After that, I wandered around downtown Sydney and did what ~~any massive geek~~ anyone would do and try to find places in the city where scenes in The Matrix were filmed. <geekiness> I found the fountain where Morpheus teaches to Neo about the Agents and Girl with Red Dress walks by. Cool! And I think I found the building where Neo worked in the beginning. </geekiness> As you can see, I was far too excited about it.

I checked out the Sydney Opera House in more detail, walking all the way around it, though failed to see an opera. I took a close-up photo of the Sydney Harbor Bridge, though failed to cross or climb it. (I forget now whether it was the price, the schedule, or the scariness which turned me off.) But I did wander the garden that bulged out into the harbor and offered a place to capture the possibly two most famous landmarks in one photograph. (I guess the garden itself was pretty, too.)

I also did the Harbor Cruise on my trip. This was a great tour around Sydney and not just because of the three nude beaches the guide pointed out along the way. We saw a lot of the surrounding area and even a glimpse at the Pacific Ocean. On the way back, we saw the Opera House. This was neat because, in just a few weeks, I'll see the Sydney Opera House again from a boat, though this time, it will be a lego reproduction of it. Speaking of nudity, I also checked out a Norman Lindsay exhibit while in the city. He's a famous local WWI-era artist. Due to a series of late subways, I missed the Airport bus from my hotel by five minutes and ended up getting a taxi. I made it to my flight, though, and was soon back in Auckland (and was one dollar short.) I spent a day in Auckland, then headed out, but they never stamped my passport when I departed, so to an official observer of my passport years later, it looked like I had never left New Zealand. I arrived home on my birthday!