humanplankton

The Last Post, Australia

After a 30+ hour voyage from Seattle, Colin arrived in the blazing Australian sun and mild winter. Eager to show Colin as many landscapes as possible, we tasted our way through more vineyards in the Margret River area. The green south showed us many of it's natural treasures, whales, kangaroos, snow white sandy beaches, stars so bright and crisp we could watch them for hours, and to my unpleasant surprise a sleeping python lounging in the rafters over a toilet!

Julian and I have seen so many natural wonders in our amazing travels that we had become accustomed to the amazing, Colin's astonishment and love of Australia, made us realize all over again how awesome our lives had become and how lucky we were to be living this lifestyle!

After several cold nights in the tent, Julian was keen to head to the warm north. Freshly supplied with fruit, vegs and plenty of nibbles, we drove for days until we reached the Pinnacles Desert, a geological anomaly, yet to be solved. We were surprised to learn that the formation of the Pinnacles is still under question, as they very much look like weathered termite mounds to me. Walking through this National Park was surreal, Australia had shown us another of it's otherworldly environments.

The three of us were having a fabulous time together, and were all very keen to swim with the whale sharks in Exmouth, so we motored north. We ventured into the World Heritage Area of Shark Bay. I had always wanted to see the ancient stromatolites. My expectations were high, but as fascinating as they are, they simply look like rocks in pristine clear water. On a cliff above Shark Bay we searched for the famed dugongs, but all we could see were sharks and more sharks, the waters certainly live up to their name. Julian and I had secured ourselves jobs building an eco resort bungalow on an island 19 miles off the coast of Shark Bays largest town, Denham, we would return after Colin left.

Colin and I swam with the dolphins at Monkey Mia and I was fascinated by the observations of the scientists working with the dolphins every day. Apparently the juvenile dolphins hold puffer fish in their mouths for extended periods of time without eating them. Many pufferfish are poisonous and the dolphins do not eat the pufferfish, so they are gaining something from the experience.

As we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and the sweat started pouring off us, we were all eager for a swim. Julian was saving his Western Australian swim for warmer waters. It was at this point I began to be concerned about Julian's headache. I decided, with Colin's support and to Julian's dismay, that Julian needed medical attention. We left Colin in Exmouth and I drove Julian to the closest hospital, 850km to the south. Julian had a CT scan in Geraldton, and it became apparent something was very wrong. Julian was flown on the Royal Flying Doctor service to Perth, WA where it was discovered he had a brain tumor. Surgeries were performed, Julian's life was saved, family from the ends of the earth came and supported. After a month in the Perth Hospital system, Julian and I returned to New Zealand to receive the rest of Julian's treatment. New Zealand and myself are taking care of Julian as he kicks this in its ass.

For now Julian and I are tied to the hospital as Julian receives his treatment.

Julian and myself have had a absolutely fabulous, challenging, rewarding, educational, fun and all round awesome lives especially over the past 4 years, and things were getting better and better all the time.

I don't think Julian and myself could have had better lives up to this point, we have created exactly the lives we want to live and we both can't wait to get back to them after this interlude. We will be back and better than ever in 2011. See you all then!

Green Australia

The remainder of our journey was leading us to the big cheese of Western Australia, Perth. Winding our way west and north, along the southern coast of Australia, we started to venture into a gastronomical tour of WA cheeses, meads, wines and chocolates. We passed through many charming, hippie villages and true, blue Ozzie farming towns, where a pub and petrol station seemed to be all a town needed to make it's inhabitants content. We stayed in one these good old farming towns with my Aunt Anita, Wayne and Jacob. We were introduced to their wholesome, organic lifestyle by working a day on the family farm, picking broccoli, cauliflower and my favorite, kale. As we worked our way through the field, gazing out over green rolling hills full of adorable, little lambs, we felt at ease with this natural lifestyle. We had a small glimpse into the hard, rewarding work involved in owning your own farm.

The cold, wet winter of Southwest Australia transformed the dry red landscape into a lush, green, agriculturally rich area in this vast, empty continent. This was truly a green sanctuary and I was glad to been in it, I had been missing the green.

But our days with The Beast were winding to an end and we pushed on to Perth, in hope of buying our own vehicle to carry us, and Colin, our friend from the states further north, along the western coast.

Perth is a flat, sandy outpost that still has the feel of a wild west town. Perth's few skyscrapers didn't manage to hide it's working class roots, and the 'cashed up mining bogans' cruising the strip in their supped up 90's Holdens further confirmed this.

While staying with my cousin Anna, we managed to find our new wheels, a 1993 Toyota Tarago 4X4, royal lounge van, outfitted with curtains and 2 sunroofs, perfect for parking and sleeping anywhere. Anna showed us the nibbles in town and we once again explored a new city by walking all of it's streets.

On June 8^th we handed over The Beast back over to it's real owner, Chris Tant. Handing the keys back to him, was like giving a poor child a gift on christmas, his smile was from ear to ear.

Julian and I, however, were not so happy to be in our own wheels, we felt like we had gotten out of a Ferrari, into a Kia Sportage.

Thank you Chris for entrusting your your precious to us, mere strangers, you helped us to have the experience of a lifetime!

Crossing into the West

We once again, filed the tank with diesel in Port Augusta, stocked up on water and food, leaving the last scraps of a town, grunted off west.

Heading inland, the desert gave way to dry farmland sprinkled with small towns, often just a single shop complete with a bench of staring locals; we grunted on past. Not tempted by the scenery, we made the coast before nightfall.

It was now cloudy but dry, the locals looked nervously for their mighty sun god who was strangely absent from their scorched landscape.

The southern edge of Australia is a huge piece of limestone, this massive flake of earth just drops off into the sea dramatically. Its not hard to stare South off the cliff-edge and the edge of the globe, the Ocean ending in a massive waterfall, pouring off the charts.

In surrounding directions the limestone plain has been swept of soil and nothing bigger than scrubs and small bushes survive, thus the Latin name for these huge plains

: Null_Arbor, no tree.

Even here there is life. We saw Dingoes scavenging road kill, Emus gawking as they do, and truckies moving massive mining machines and camping on the roadside; a truck can pull a lot more when the road has no hills or grade to fight up!

Not much else to be said for the Nullarbor Plain, its very flat and it's really big.

Anyone who has driven across States will know the boredom of endless miles of plainsAnyone who has driven across the States will know the boredom of endless miles of plains, well its the same but with less gas stations, less people and more dingoes., well its the same but with less stations, less people and more dingoes.

Eventually trees reappear and the road begins to regain features, leading us inland and into WA!

After two days driving we turn South, heading back to the coast and the town of Esperance.

Our supplies were low, our cameras out of batteries and the only showers we could find resembled the filming location for every prison rape film scene ever made, so we raced to a local State campground on the beach.

The Southern Sea is freezing cold and even Australia gets cold in its winter; coldish anyway for a couple of months that is, but the Southern coast is amazing!

The beaches are pure white and the water is deep blue, despite the cold these were the best beaches we have ever seen; Rounded rocks jut into the surf and rise as little islands just offshore!

Stretches of perfect white sands curve the land free of roads or settlements trembleing in te powerful surf. Really pretty.

We showered, shaved and cooked with a friendly family of Kangaroos investigating our every move, in the distance and rolling thunderstorms drifting thru.

What Ozzie heaven!

Brain Cancer

So i wake up in hospitable, i cant focus my eyes and everything is loud and echoes like a dream, Ami is there, looking tired as hell and worried.

As i kick start my thinking, i begin to worry,why am I here?

It turns out at the end of our big Australian road trip, i began to get head aches and slight dizzy spells, one morning I awoke, in-pain and against my pleas, Ami took me to an Aboriginal clinic in the tropical north of Western Australia.

It turns out i was lucky to survive the last stages of a very aggressive brain tumor, i was operated on in Perth and my life was saved... so far.

But before the doctors let the good news slip, they had more numbers and odds of survival to use on me. It turns out to be a very rear kind of cancer, one of the rarest in the world, and starting next week here in Auckland i will be receiving big doses of radiation and chemotherapy to try and kill it off for good.

{This ain't your grandparents or friends lump, cancer so no comparisons or advice thanks...}

So, now, after waking to the long blurry nights and days in a druggy Hospital haze, Ami watching over me.

My entire family came and visited from the edges from the globe.

Not to spoil the ending, i survived to write the story, and we end up being flown back to NZ for the remainder of my yet to come treatment.

So before i talk of Australia, and our amazing adventures this little hurdle as thrown a spanner into the works. I am expected to recover my vision and walking etc.

We are now in Auckland and thanks to the awesome help from our families we have rented a villa near my new best friend, the Auckland city Hospital.

Now if you want to hear of the horrors of surgeries, needles and brain damage i'm not the one to ask. Its not worth remembering and it's not that interesting!

The best part of this whole story is how Australia payed for all my medical care and even flew me home to NZ where everything is free! We even get a sickness benefit and housing allowance to keep us going! got to love a caring socialist society!

I Am pretty sure if this had happened in the U.S. I would be dead by now.

I'm a pretty cheerful guy, and this experience has given me some massive insights into the brain and our awareness and all I will say is that the brain is less cluttered or perhaps more robotic than I understood. From what I have had the privilege to witness, we are far less flimsy humans. More like supercomputers with shitty software holding us back into emotional cuffle!

I had two days with pure logic and Vulcan like emotionless and they where the most relaxing and rewarding of my time here on earth.

Just an observation. Now back to the past!

South Australia, slippery when wet.

The Central desert of Australia is gravel with fine, red, powdery dust that makes a fine road surface, we hardly slowed down as we crossed the emptiness towards the legendary seasonal lake Eyre.

Being 12 meters below sea level but too hot to keep water, the shallow salt bowl in the southern center of Oz fills only when heavy rains thousands of miles north, flood south into a vast shallow sea.

In the salty waters brine shrimp manifest from the dry bottom and a ecosystem appears from the desert, feeding fish, birds and I'm sure at one point Aboriginals.

The skies had been threatening rain, but it was still warm and dry when we came across the south shore of the massive shining lake, no birds were to be seen but we drove up to its salty shore and jumped out.

As we walked out across the crunchy salt crust, squishy salty mud squelched under our feet. Ami, elf like, didn't break the salt crust, while I myself sunk into the sticky slippery mud beneath, struggling to keep up with the nimble Elf.

I waded to the waters edge, covered in stinky salty grit, only to find a ring of dead fish and locusts preserved in its briny juice.

The lake was only inches deep as far as I could see, stretching off into the horizon, like a cost-cutting Hollywood movie set; just the faint impression of an ocean.

Cleaned off we slept in the desert near a man made spring, it gushed water, creating an oasis from some deep hidden source of water, sleeping in the desert is like having your own private planet, just you, the earth and the eternal night sky.

Coober Pedy is a town built from the once used Opel mine shafts and is so dystopian it has starred in the Mad Maxx and The Pitch Black movies without any set dressing.

We slept underground in a cheep hostel room as the outback skies released their fluids, the dusty town became a flood of red muddy streaks.

In the morning the wild dogs and depressing homeless Aboriginals drove us from town back on the road, but the rain had left its mark on the desert and cars began to pass us covered in red mud.

Having the biggest, baddest, highest, 4X4 on the roads made us shrug at these lesser vehicles as they wallowed past in the slippery red mud.

We slipped and skidded along slowly but suddenly we saw something you don't see much in the remote outback, a slight incline. This granny slope was covered in pure grease, and we slid sideway, more than we moved up hill, the mud flew and the Land Cruiser wiggled up towards the tiny summit.

It took almost an hour to get enough speed up to cross the verge and just as we conquered the bump an ancient, rusty Land Cruiser with panels missing and what appeared to be three dogs driving, blasted past at 80kph, in a tornado of mud and diesel smoke. We had been schooled!

Once back onto paved road the condition signs had their lights flashing, the road was closed behind us and we would have to stay on the paved roads once again. We refueled and a looked out across the muddy desert plains, the Toyota was made for such terrain and once delivered it will be crossing more than 1800Ks offroad, Chris is going to have a blast!

South Australia, Heaps good.

With the great dry continent of Australia receiving sprinkles of rain, we turned north from our coastal path into the rusty interior.

As we grunted along the trees thinned into scrub and old worn down mountain ranges appeared on the horizon like the carcases of melting ice sculptures.

We had been lured into the famous Flinders Ranges by the recommendation of so many a retired caravaner, between sighs at our comparative youth and complaints of the nasty Australian Winter.

We drew out a dusty path heading in a triangle, first northeast into the real outback, then across a dirt road to Coober Pedy, before returning south to resume our costal pilgrimage.

We knew we would be venturing off the paved roads onto the dirt tracks whose condition depended on the weather, or lack of and we had been under a dark cloudy ceiling for days now.

As we wound through the beautiful Flinders Ranges, the postcard landscape crinkled and folded from West to East like an educational picture in a childs' science book.

Huge stripped flakes of the old countrie's crust lay stacked in rippling ridges, with a red, black and brown cross section cut away by the now dry river beds.

With the Galah's squawking the whole area felt like a prehistoric dinosaur park, and at sunset the sun casts jagged shadows across the land finishing the days displays with a grande finale.

The roads straightened out once again as the hills faded into featureless dusty plains, whose isolated pubs and truck stops make Mad Maxx look like a travelogue.

Its amazing how a few ramshackle buildings becomes a town, sitting on the flat earth, trying to ignore the stripe of pavement that bisects it and disappears in two directions of seemingly never ending nothingness; and you think you live in a small town?

We eventually found the end of the road, leaving the casual traveler on the pavement, we turned West and onto the dusty brown road towards the Opel mining town of Coober Pedy.

Cuttlefish!

Leaving our new favorite Australian city, Melbourne, we headed towards the Australia we came to see, The Great Ocean Road, Lake Eyre, The Nullarbor Plain and distant Western Australia, only half way through that now, we have found so much more.... Winding along the Great Ocean Road, we found a little bit of green New Zealand in Australia. We walked through a temperate rain forest in Otway National Park and ended up staying for three days in a fabulous horse/kids camp, Bimbi Park. Bimbi Park is home to a massive, some say too large, population of Koalas. We saw them running form tree to tree, sleeping, slowly chewing and my favorite, just starring at us as we set up our tent below them. Leaving the Koalas and the warm fire, it was hard to push on to the West. We were quickly swept away as we neared the section of the coast with the famous Twelve Apostles. Walking on one of the many beaches I found cuttle bones from the Giant Australian Cuttlefish that breeds along the south coast of Australia... more on that later. The coast had many treasures to offer, massive caves, 'petrified forests,' moon like landscapes, vineyards and loads of bird life.

We camped out on the shores of Lake George, a freshwater lake, very close to the ocean, where heaps more birds squawked away, I imagine the sounds there would have sounded similar to the time when dinosaurs roamed, it felt prehistoric. Coming from a land of plentiful water, to me this looked like an old salt pan, with a very light dusting of water, I was surprised to see the birds actually floated, it looked like they were touching the bottom!

We passed through many old Victorian settlements along the coast, founded during the whaling era. Some were more charming than others, our favorite was a tiny place called Robe; where we had some local tuna pies and I bought a new book from a charming bookshop.

Next we headed to Mclaren Vale, a small town near Adelaide where we went on a walking wine tour.

Julian found an article that lead us on a detour to see the Giant Australian Cuttlefish. Whyalla, a industrial, charmless town, where the cuttlefish come to breed. Unable to rent wetsuits, we jumped into the frigid water with our snorkel gear, hoping to see the amorous cuttlefish. Eventually we worked our way into the water, swam around, started shivering uncontrollably and to our dismay didn't see anything so we decided to head back in. Just as we did, Julian sighted a foot long cuttlefish amongst the rocks and seaweed a few meters below us. Another male, rapidly morphing colors at his neighbor, hovered below in a splotched green/brown color, with blue/silver spots on it's mantle.

Suddenly, noticing us, it magically shifted to a nervous brownish red, as it glided under the safety of a rock ledge. Eventually the cuttlefish regained it's confidence and slowly came out from underneath the rock and starred at us curiously. The look struck us with an unworldly intelligence. Julian and I were so engrossed we didn't notice that we were surrounded and being stung by jellyfish. Being Australia, where everything kills you, we decided to get out of there fast {Don't worry you Mums, the sting wasn't strong}. Fueled by an adrenaline and excitement high we headed north toward Lake Eyre, were the desert awaits!

One of the many koalas at Bimbi Park

Near the twelve Apostles along the Great Ocean Road

The beach was littered with cuttle bones

Lake George

Vineyards at Mclaren Vale

Pt.2, finally off.

Grunting down from Brisbane to Coomera we stopped in to see my Grandad Peter on his house boat in the Coomera river.

Its always an adventure visiting Peter, living in the watery divide between lush sugarcane fields and massive palatial investment properties gazing empty across the river.

Recently a flood had torn thru dragging logs, boats and even entire docks down the river with it, as Grandad mored onto anything that could hold his boat.

We enjoyed a couple of nights on the boat, scrubbing the decks and retelling our recent history as Peter records things with a book like memory.

We had a long way to go and decided to start moving South, into the Great Dividing Range and New South Wales. The New England Highway was a great introduction to an Australian landscape unfamiliar to us, dry, rolling farmland full of life.

Testing out the new gear as we camped, every night it got colder and colder until staying at a farm stay in Glen Innes we lay shivering in our cheep sleeping bags.

After borrowing some blankets from Steve the owner, Ami enjoyed a 2hr horse ride through the rolling hills of Bullock Mountain.

Promising ourselves better sleeping bags ,we loved the spot enough to stay a couple of nights, watching the Kangaroos feed and listening to the Platypus slosh in the creek at night, but it was cold!

Driving south quickly, the cold followed us and as we collected blankets the nights became more and more comfortable, the brown grassy hills rolled by, but much colder that we expected.

Nearing Melbourne, we had an arsenal of blankets and sleeping bags, we had the truck well organized and were still getting used to the luxury of having refrigerated food.

The nights were now wet and cold, making our routine of setting up and tearing down the tent cold, wet and a bit miserable. The hot and dry of the desert never sounded so good!

These birds roosted so close to the ground I could touch them!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Horse Riding at Bullock Mountain

Otway National Park, temperate rainforest

Bimbi Park in Otway National Park, there were heaps of koalas. The best campground we've been to.

At the Melbourne Zoo, where Julian, Eric and I got to go behind the scenes to see a female cassowary. This is a red tailed black cockatoo.

Oinking it up in Melbourne!

Melbourne City Scape

Pt.1 Enter Truck.

Chris was in Brisbane outfitting his new Toyota Landcruiser with suitable off roading equipment for his rugged outback adventure.

We packed our cameras and trusty laptop, tent and camping gear into our backpacks with suitably outdoorsy clothing and jumped on a cheep flight to Sydney.

We met my cousins Christian and Jamie, in Sydney where they live in a modern apartment tower together. We had a great 24hr visit, seeing a small slice of Sydney, hearing about funny types of Australian girls, strict road rules and other Ozzie things strange to us.

That next morning we flew to humid Brisbane to meet Chris at his hotel. Waking along the warm streets lined by gum trees big diesel SUVs rumbled past us; usually Toyotas or Nissans, Ozzies love their 4wd trucks with their roof top plastic intake snorkels, ready to drive anywhere, even underwater!

In order to handle the extreme vibrations and jolts of off roading, Toyota had continued to produce an older model of truck, simpler than modern luxurious SUV's, harder and more rugged and much loved by the mining companies and farmers who live and work in the unforgiving outback.

Powered by a hi-tech 4.5 liter, twin turbo diesel V8, pulling through a 5-speed manual with lockable front and rear differentials, this truck was built to handle anything the desert can throw at it.

Chris had bought the truck new and immediately had the suspension raised, bigger wheels and big roo-bars bolted on, extra large capacity fuel tank, 4000lb winch, roof rack, spotlights and CB radio installed. Not to forget the 12volt fridge bolted in and rear, satellite navigation, twin batteries, built in air compressor and cargo draws installed in the back!

He also had only days to buy the necessary camping gear and test out his truck before we collected it, now filled to the ceiling with tent, cots, camping stoves, tools and everything necessary for Chris's survival in the bush!

I'm sure he will be counting the days until he sees his new toy again in Perth on June 8^th!

Australia

While staying with Ami's incredibly hospitable Aunt and Uncle, Lesley and Oscar we heard of Oscar's friend and employer Chris who was planning a trip across Australia.

The story was this: Chris was planing to buy a truck to drive across a famous 4x4 trail called 'The Canning Stock Route,' the problem was the Truck would be in Queensland and the trail starts in Western Australia 5000 or so k's away.

Although keen, Leslie and Oscar had too many responsibilities to be gone for the month or so it would take to get the truck across the country at a comfortable speed, who has that kind of free time you cry?

Much to our amazement people weren't lining up for the opportunity to pilot a new vehicle across Oz with enough time thrown in to see the sights.

Only bums such as ourselves had the ability to drop everything and meet Chris in Brisbane a few weeks later, bags packed and insurance payed up!

Only time will tell if we were wrong to throw aside our original nesting plans for something more adventurous but on paper this looks like a dream trip!

South Island and The Start of New Things...

After a mad panic transplant from Washington to New Zealand Ami, I and our now seven bags of possessions arrived in Auckland as wide eyed immigrants.

As Leslie and Oscar drove us back to their home where we set up our new base of operations, Auckland smelled sweet of flowers and new beginnings.

The skyline of Auckland with its lone tower dwarfing the surrounding cityscape looked familiar in our new home.

We arrived filled with plans and schedules; get a car, check out Wellington as an possible new home and then look for jobs; the long process of setting up a life for ourselves.

Before we even got to step one, we were off visiting Ami's uncle Michael in the lush North of Ami's childhood. This sort of spontaneous action drove us from the North to the very Southern tip of NZ, touring the South Island while we still had good weather.

We did get to see Wellington, nestled in the windy hills at the bottom of the North Island, home to NZ's government and its blossoming film industry, poster child WETA.

As rushed as we were it checked all the right boxes; not too big, not too small, friendly, cosmopolitan and filled with future career possibilities.

But its windy. Face re-arranging, hair piece destroying windy.

The South Island was and remains gorgeous, still charming and frozen in history but now with English and German tourists peeking at its every crevice.

We had a great month on the main land, but began to dread the bungee jumping, path marching, bush squatting swarms found at every turn.

Stewart Island was the highlight, we had a amazing night in the woods feasting with a friendly group of retired farmers who where enjoying a week on the island hunting, fishing, diving and drinking in each others company; it was priceless. We walked on the 3-day Rakiura track and saw lots of native bush and birds. From Stewart Island we caught another water taxi over to predator free Ulva Island, where we saw a kiwi, wekas, Stewart Island robins and saddleback, a bird lovers paradise!

Once back in the North island we had a busy schedule of visiting relatives dotted across the Island.

It was really nice to see cousins grown, Aunt and Uncles still warm and welcoming and grandparents reminding us we have a home and its here in NZ. A feeling I had almost forgot in the past twelve years living in such a distant dot on the big, big map.

Amazingly as we got back to Auckland and began to once again to work on settling, things lured us from any sort of solid plan.

Lydia and Eric were arriving for a week from Washington, before we left to go to OZ {more on that later}.

Having some pieces from our old lives in our new one was disorienting but a lot of fun in a discombobulating way.

Ami, Eric, Lydia and I saw our ever growing little brother Oliver, Stepmother and Father as we raced around the sights feasting on NZ's finest chocolates.

We caught plenty of fish, family history and had lots of small adventures.

Eventually Lyd and Eric dropped us off at the Airport, and thru chance and good luck we had a Truck to get from the East Coast to the West Coast of Australia in six weeks!

Here a just a few of the pics we took on our trip around the South Island of NZ.