humanplankton: May 2010

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.