Thursday, November 29, 2012

Bali- Kuta

So I got to the airport wearing just about all the clothing I'm traveling with (after the last weight fiasco) which meant bike shorts, leggings, jean shorts, a bathing suit, a sports bra, 2 shirts and a cardigan, with 2 pairs of socks, running shoes, electronics in pockets and sunscreen down the back of my shorts. They didn't weigh my bags. I got on no problem. The only thing worse than a baby on an airplane is 3 babies on an airplane, 2 in the row ahead of you, and one a bit behind. The closest one was the one that didn't stop wailing the entire 4.5 hours to darwin. I read most of a book, tried to nap, and then had my 2 hour darwin layover. Next flight flew into bali, where I was immediately introduced to a new smell, and a new heat. After getting a visa (25 usd. Weird) I started to leave the airport, where I was getting pestered and beckoned at by people in currency exchange windows. I made my way to an atm and became a millionaire. I took out 1 million rupiah, which is about 100 dollars. No biggie. I haggled a bit with a texi before finally giving in and saying yes to the taxi driver who was following me around asking to drive me. He over charged me by about 100 percent, but the chat was good, I got there safe, and he basically helped me plan out the rest of my stay in Bali. $9 later I was at 'granny's hostel' in kuta, set up by a lovely jay jay to my airconditioned 4 person room. I set myself up a wee bit and then met the people from the 8 person room-- only occupied by 3. Boy from boston, boy from south of london, and girl from canada.

We chatted a while and then I went for the best shower I've had in ages (and the first time in 2 weeks that my shower ended with a towel). Sleep commenced.

Come morning they had breakfast for us, a choice of fried egg, scrambled egg, or pancakes, with juice tea or coffee. So delicious and sweet. 3 of the people staying here (two from the big room, one from my room) were supposed to go to gili islands today, but there were bus problems in the morning, so I followed them into town to recitfy the issue they had, and buy a ticket for myself. It wouldve been expected to pay 125 round trip for the bus and fast boat, but they haggled down to 40 the other day, so I was somehow able to get the same rate. Tomorrow, we should be off.

I wandered around kuta a bit alone and got a sim card, adaptor, and saw the beach. The streets are filled with people on motor bikes (sometimes 4 people on one!), people trying to see you cheap things, an excessively humid heat, and beeping cars. I didn't stay very long before over paying for another taxi to take me home, where I watched a bunch of batman with the hostel-mates.


Money is very funny here, with a waterbottle costing about 30 cents, a pack of cigarettes merely a dollar, the adaptor only 15 cents. I was asked if I wanted to buy a sunday paper. Today's monday. Bali is weird, but filled with the nicest people. Manicures for $2, but I reckon I'll save the pamper for the last few days of thailand, before going back home.

Rest of Melbourne

Good morning Melbourne! Well rested and filled with dat free muesli deliciousness, I was off to the library to enjoy the free internetz. Thought it was closed on my arrival (bit premature ae) masses swarmed in at the 10 am opening (just after I avoided a bird pooping by 6 inches). Though free, every 18 minutes the computer would restart, and if somebody was waiting you'd get kicked off. For 6 rounds of this I stayed, chatting, trying to figure out plans for my next adventures, and emailing. My next move for the day was put on hold by my immense desire for skyping, so I was back to the hostel. Finall I was on the move, making my way down-town, when I was put on to another hour hiatus, receiving a phone call from my mom and catching up.

Eventually I made it where I was going-- the ACMI in federation square. ACMI legitimately stands for Australian Center for the Moving Imiage, and illegitimately stands for Awesome, Cool, Museum I [went to]. Honestly, coolest place I've been to in ages. It took you through the beginning of broadcasting and television, into bits on the internet, video games,, CGI, all forms of animation, and 3D futuristic technologies.. Everything was completely hands on, so you could just walk around touching things and playing. Exactly what I needed. There was a weird room you could go in, press a button, jump in some karate like way, and then with the 36 cameras surrounding you, have a short matrix-like surround video taken. Obviously, I did it, and though I'm not going to post it here, feel free to ask to see this embarrassment. The other free exhibit in the museum was the work of some dude [i need took up his name] who constructed ridiculous contraptions to show images. the room was filled with weird magnifying glasses, lights, lawnchairs, tredmills, and textured metal bowls, all reflecting light and images in a bizarre way onto the wall. Though pictures weren't allowed, I swear it was sweet.

After this bit, and getting caught up in the free concert going on right outside, I went to the national gallery of victoria[which, as per my last post, I thought I had already been to.] Formally, melbourne, I aplogise profusely for the rash judgement I made about your art scene. I was mistaken. This place was awesome, filled with crazy ecclectic and beautiful art, and containing a first floor security guard who insisted on explaining ot me the theme of all the works in one section, as well as updating me on australia's art collecting state. I wasn't there long enough, but it was great.

Afterwards I went to grab sushi for dinner (best sushi I've had in too long.. It actually looks normal here) and went home briefly before going out again. I had a slew of night time activities planned, all which were quite different than intended.

First stop was some sort of photography art opening, 365 days of melbourne photos. I had trouble finding the alleyway and location at 630 pm, and then stumbled into some bar/cafe that had to be it... Old people filled the seats, and there were some prints on the wall. Not a gallery opening. I chatted with the owner, who was the photographer for a wee while, in which he wondered how I heard of this, and then decided it wasn't my scene and was off.

My next stop was a bar I had been hearing about, the croft institute. Off a weird random alleyway in chinatown one must wander quite a bit. Graffiti covered walls twist and turn with no civilisation until you find the door. The first floor is a chem lab type set up, with weird test tubes and other equipment, and large tables with 3 sides of cousion to sit on. It wasn't crowded (early) and mostly filled with an older crowd, but I went in to wander. The second floor is the 'dept of hygiene' and had a hospital waiting room before pointing to the creepy rooms that served as toilets. Though the third floor was closed at this early hour, apparently it was a gymnasium that acted as the club.

I felt it necessary to order a drink and stay a while since I still had some time to kill before going to a jazz show. After seeing the crazy stocked bar I decided to go against my beer-ly instincts and ask for a cocktail. The super nice asian bartender asked me a ton of questions about flavours and then started mixing in the most precise way, measuring out quantities of freshly squeezed fruits, combining various liquors, and rubbing mint leaves before presenting something amazing, albeit slightly expensive. It was a wee bit strong, but great. I found a corner table to sit at alone, but was soon joined by another girl who was also there on her own. We chatted for ages about travelling and life, and she gave me suggestions about other quirky bars in melbourne. Whilst sitting, that bartender ended up bringing me a free shot of something that seemed also expertly crafted. Too bad you can't tip in this country!

At 8pm, getting tipsy I want to find where this jazz event was to be. I saw a description online. For a quartet, but that was all I knew. When I found the venue I was surprised and wary of the chinese writing and combination spa, but decided to carry on anyhow. The beautiful lounge room was basically empty, with only 2 older couples there when I arrived, and the music was just starting. The place ended up filling up a wee bit more and The music was great. I had some beer and after spending ages chatting with the singer (50 or so lady) from the quartet during their intermission, I was also offered some wine via the band. I stayed for 2 hours and ended up loving it, though mostly due to the chats I had with her, about how she got into this job and whatnot, as an LA born want to be actress who sang pop music.

When my jazz night was done I was off to one of the bars I was told about, the carlton. Filled with taxidermy animals (like giraffes and ostriches) all donning pearl necklaces, the interior was crazy interesting. And I spent my night chatting with a few people from ireland and australia in the outside patio before heading to bed.

Saturday morning I woke up and stuffed free breakfast in my face to prepare for the tour I randomly signed up for. Through the hostel there was a free trip to 2 beaches and a market for the day which I decided to do. As we filled into the little bus, the driver warned us that if we don't want to be outside in the 34 degree weather for like 3 hours with no shade then we shouldn't come.. A couple of people left the bus, but I, armed with sun screen, stayed on. The first stop was pranham market, which was amazing. Crazy types of food and fresh everything lined this massive indoor market, and I ate massive amounts of free samples from all the stalls. After that we were off to black rock beach where we'd get dropped off for 2 hours to do whatever. I was chatting with a girl on the bus who was also traveling alone, and also named jenny, and we decided to borrow the drivers 2 sets of snorkels and try to go snorkeling, an activity neither of us had ever tried before. The sand was grainy and sharp, the sun was barely out, the water was freezing, and we were both unsure of what we were doing, but it was so fun (after getting over the initial hurdle of realising you can breathe underwater and finding yourself panting incessently). We only did it for a wee bit, and barely went anywhere, but it was a good first time, and led to a great period of laying out, drying off, eating lunch, and chatting.

The next stop was brighton beach where we were told to walk down the beach, take pictures of the skypine and crazy painted cabanas, and meet back at the bus. Swarms of weird bugs eliminated the pleasure and serenity of this walk, as everyone was uncomfortably pelted from every which way by the weird beetle like things, so it was a race to the bus, where the rest of the ride was markdd by picking them out of your hair. A good shower on arriving back fixed my excessive itchiness from feeling the bugs, and then I chatted on the phone with my mom for some time again.

Next stop was st kilda where I trammed for the evening. I wandered the quaint town and had dinner and ice cream (ferrero rocher flavored and kinder surprise flavored) before heading to the pier where I was told I could see penguins. On my way I met a german girl and swedish girl, both who we're opairs in oz and traveling around a bit. We waited a bit at the spot where heaps of people were and eventually penguins were swimming right up to the land and waddling into the rocks as people gawked and took photos. They were tiny and adorable, and though I couldn't get quite good pictures without flash on, the rain hampered out stay and we went out for drinks. The three of us joined forces with two other girls (one from france and one scotland) and went to some posh beatchside bar. They ended up being hilariously good company, especially the german girl in her hilarious thriftiness and open nature. I had to run back to town early to try to buy a netbook, so my st kilda night ended there.

I ended up buying this second hand netbook, but it's absolute shit, doesn't work if the charger's plugged in, and really glitchy... Hopefully it'll do the job for the trip though :/.

By morning I was up and moving, hanging out and planning before heading to the airport.

My flight to bali was in the afternoon!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Melbourne

So after checking in and whatnot (in a 16 person mixed dorm this time) i made moves to the night market only a block away. They do markets daily, morning into afternoon, but on Wednesdays they have a night time shpeel as well. it was epic. Soo many people, sooo many stalls, sooo much art, food and music. Pretty early in I noticed like every other person was carrying a kebab with a weird spirally thing on it, munching away. After using my spot-on private eye skills I located the source of this, apparently korean twisted potato, and tried one. You pick the spice on it, and I went with salt and vinegar. All it really was though was a potato sized french fry, cut spiraled out (reference yourself to an apple peeler corer and see what it does. My favorite kitchen tool). Aside from fatty snack, mine also posed as a conversation starter when a couple who just arrived from Taiwan were staring at it as googly eyed as I had been at all the others, so I offered them a piece of this similarly foreign food. They were so thrilled and went nuts when I said I was from new york... they each had to take a picture with me. random celeb moment? I could see other people nearby trying to figure out if i was someone they should know. weird.

I wandered a while more, watching people get drunk off sangria, and continued to satiate my hunger by trying kangaroo, emu, and croc (though I've had croc before). Some place sold them as burgers or sausages, but also had a sampling bit to get all three with salad. bingo.

outside of the massive complex which was filled with all the stands (like biggest pans for paella ever, a crazy hammock stand, street signs turned clock, clothing, coconut anything) there was a stage where bands played. I sat through a lot of the set of an african style band, complete with tribal type dancers and crazy flavour. Everyone was getting their groove on.

before departing I gave into the sweet beckoning of a macaron (disappointing. Nothing beats macaron cafe in ny) and listened to a bit of a spanish band's set (all dudes with a surprisingly sexy female bassist).

On my was back I was distracted by an alleyway that seemed to be pumping with music, people and art. Unfortunately I was arriving at the very end of an alleyway art market, but had enough time to stroll down it and try some dallah, ginger drink, and check out the crazy art work.

When I got back it was all chats with my bed neighbors who were working through a bottle of pimms. They were all really cool and gave me thoughts for the rest of my travels. One guy, Chris (who goes by steel because there are too many Chris' in the world) drank a bit more than everyone else and was soon coerced into getting his makeup done by luna, the gorgeous korean makeup artist. May have been the ugliest girl I've ever seen, ad he made no point in hiding it as he went bed to bed bothering people to get their makeup done too. no success.

Come morning I woke up to the free breakfast my hostel has (cereals and toast w/ spreads, and coffee/tea) pretty sweet, and then made my way to the zoo. It was really easy navigating the city's tram system, which only cost $4 for all day unlimited use. Throughout the day though I noticed that heaps of people didn't even pay for the tram, which is apparently a problem here. It's really easy not to pay, since you get on a door and continue, and paying would be holding your card to a wee box thing. In fact, I didn't pay (well not really pay, since I had paid for the ticket, but check in) for the tram the first 4 times I took it, because I had no idea what i was doing. Took an old man to set me straight.

I was at the zoo at 10am-- same time as all the school children with zoo field trips that day. I was off on my own briefly, peeking at the weird animals in Australia, but soon started talking to two 12 year old girls who were on an and of year, pre highschool, trip to Melbourne. They live 7 hours away but their school put them up with activities for a week. Nuts! They told me about all the weird native animals in oz and I helped navigated through the park most efficiently for the short while they had for exploring. It was really funny to hang out with these preteens, but to be honest, they made the zoo experience so much better.

Animal-wise, the emus and kangaroos were kept somewhere that was barely enclosed... like you could pet them if you weren't as terrified as i was, and there were crazy birds walking around everywhere, separate of exhibits. Meerkats were funny to see, and I now know what a wombat is. Not what I was expecting.

After the zoo I went to the botanic gardens and went up some crazy shrine they've built. No idea what it's for, but I assure you I could've figured it out if I read any of the hundreds of plaques decorating the walls. They I went to the observatory, which wasn't anything but a cafe during the day, so m eh.

Tiredness hit hard so I passed out on the grass for a wee bit before heading to the australian center for contemporary art. Tiredness wasn't helped there because it was all weird video pieces, something I've never been fond of (like, do you, lady, really think I want to watch a video of you ripping out moustache hairs?) That said, I didn't stay very long and walked towards the Victoria Gallery, much closer to my speed, but still not quite. Some bits of the building itself were really cool, like the water falling over crazy painted glass in front, all collected from rain, or the fact that there was a high tea place, but the art was all early european or not too exciting furniture. By the top floor I finally found a couple of things I liked, but overall not as good as the shit I went to in Sydney, art wise (which is all good because Melbourne itself is filled with unbelievable street art and architecture, making up for this small flaw). I was going to go to the acmi, (aus center for moving image) but felt that a nap was more in order, so I'll do that tomorrow.

I picked up earplugs from a pharmacy on my way back, and holy shit best spent $3 in my life... Like, why I didn't buy them sooner is embarrassing. I got such a good sleep, and am looking forward to equally amazing ones to come.

Once I peeled myself out of bed [nap], I was off to south melbourne for their Thursday night market. not nearly as good as the night market on Wednesday (really small) but the area was pretty cool to be in, and I got the best grilled octopus I've ever had. good enough to force the cart vendor to explain how he made that possible. I also got a few sharkfin dumplings at an asian spot to make the feed sort of count as a dinner.

I was then off to the angus stone concert, but was stopped at the door for wearing jandels. What. So I ran home, and by ran I mean took the tram, which took ages, and got running shoes (looked like a goober, but whatever man. there's only so much I can carry on my back) and returned. I missed the first opener due to this flipflopslipup, but the second one was really weird and interesting, something smyth... Angus was pretty good too, but I didn't really know what to expect because I only really knew his music when he was angus and julia stone. The crowd was majority girls and their boyfriends, with handfuls of homosexual couples mixed in, and almost everyone was drunk.

Sa'll good though, and sleep cometh.

Also, as a note on transportation since I keep forgetting, the sydney trains had something nuts that I've never seen before. You had the option of flipping the back of the seat... like rolling it over sorta in a really neat and well designed way, as to make it face forwards or backwards. Crazy, and I loved it.

Lastly, Melbourne's fucking cold, or like, the single pair of holey leggings and small cardigan I brought were vital, but not enough. Woooop bali on Sunday!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

End of Sydney into Melbourne

So my plan for going to bed early went slightly awry as I was up forever chatting with the people in my room. There was a new girl from Japan who was doing her working visa [like almost everyone else I've been meeting] which is like they get 1 year to work in Australia, and if they want to work another year, they have to WWOOF for a bit... and then it probably reverts back to weirdness with applying for permanent residence or marrying someone. Everyone's always complaining how America doesn't allow nearly anything, and I agree. It's dumb.

We played the age game... she said I looked young. I told her that I have no ability of distinguishing the age of asian people, but guessed 20. She laughed with a 28 and told me it's true. Asian people always look young, until one day, when they get really old.

Another girl who had been caved away in her bed the whole time I was there finally made an appearance. She's from Brazil, and I have no idea how old she is, but I reckon late twenties. She was feisty as telling us all about her life in one loud screamy blur. Apparently she met an Aussie in Brazil and followed him to live with him here, but then they broke up so she went home, and now she's back... but living in a hostel. weird.

Eventually I made it to bed, but I now know that earplugs are a necessary purchase.

In the morning I pressed snooze from 6:45 to 7:30 [I'm sure everyone loved that] and then crawled out of bed, packed my shit, checked out, and was on a bus to Bondi Beach before I was even fully conscious. I stayed thre for a wee while, but not long enough to get burnt. I was mostly just in a rush to get everything done for the day and still make it to Melbourne. I built a sand castle and then a sand person and then left. It was pretty though I reckon Manly was better.

After I got back I went to the Paddy Markets to do some souvenier shopping and stare at all the weird things they sold. There were stalls and stalls of random cheap crap, and then stalls and stalls of fruits and veggies. I got half a kilo of cherries for 2.50, which is sweeeeet, and they disappeared nearly instantly. Then I hung around the hostel a bit more and set off for the airport, with Melboune the next stop.

Aside from the bitch in front of me who reclined into my knees even though there were empty seats next to her and she refused to move, the flight was alright...., well no, it was turbulant and they made me throw out cosmetics to remove weight. Whatever. I'm here.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Sydney

So bus from Byron to Gold Coast airport and a short flight meant Sydney! I flew with Tiger Air which was surprisingly cheap but came with heaps of warnings about using their service. Everyone said that when they say 'be there 45 minutes before' they're not lying. They'll close the flight and make you pay. Oh and keep your bags under the max requirement [foshiz, they weighed it! Thank god they didn't weigh my tiny backpack that I had sneakily stashed every heavy item, or else I would've definitely been over weight]. The flight was delayed, niggly, but all good and I was in Sydney at like 4, already checked into my hostel. This round, a 4 girl dorm with not too friendly people. I noticed immediately that the friendliness of Byron Bay did not even slightly leak into Sydney [back to that new york dont-stare-at-anyone lifestyle].

I had very little of a plan but decided to go for a massive wander around the city. For a good 2+ hour journey I got to the aquarium [didn't go in], darling harbor, dawes point, the rocks, circular quay, sydney cove, the opera house, government house, royal botanic gardens, hyde park, had a wee reflection at the pool of reflection, china town, and then the chinese garden. Essentially, that's the city full circle. The weather was pretty reasonable and the walk was sweet. By the time I got back it was time for the super-early hostel outing to side bar. We were leaving at 7:30 for a pool tournament, free goon, and free finger food. I managed to not eat anything all day aside from a breakfast mango, so got massively drunk from the free goon, and was not rescued by the handfuls of fries we got [and by handfuls, I wish I recorded this event. Imagine 30+ people, and a massive tray of chips coming out. It was like feeding time at the zoo for humans. Savage would be the appropriate word. Don't even get me started on what it was like with the tray of wedges.] so I went home for an early sleep on somehow one of the most uncomfortable beds I've ever been on.

This morning I woke up super early with big plans to go to the beach before starting my day. After waiting 45 minutes to pee, while one of the girls was taking the world's longest shower, I got another shower in [yay for infrequency] and went downstairs to see that the weather was shit. The sky was pissing down hard and I had no backup plan. I ventured out to a starbucks to have some tea and wifi whilst trying to figure out what to do. While there the rain stopped enough for me to make it to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Twas a really cool place and I spent forever there looking at all the weird artwork people were up to, like a weird raised triangle kinda piece that was a different picture if you looked from the right side vs the left side. [hologram but really pronounced]. This reminded me of something that I can't believe I forgot earlier, so SIDENOTE: In Nimbin, at the art gallery I mentioned, there was the most amazing painting I've ever seen in my life. It was really weird and galactic looking just flat on, but then we realised there were 3D glasses right near it, so naturally we put them on and HOLYSHIT. This painting was 3d... not like, blue and red or fuzzy kinda 3d, like a kind of extra dimension i can't verbalize. If i was home, that baby would've been mine, but I can't foresee the practicalness of carrying around a painting for the next month and a half [though it was a funny bit to consider whilst admiring it]

When I left the gallery the skies had opened and the day was glorious. I decided to take a ferry ride to Manly. It's a half hour each way, and such a cool ride, especially when sitting right on top in the front. I was the photographer for every other couple or group, though none were as fun as the hilarious canadian indian family I was photographing yesterday in front of the opera house. [did you know american's tried to convince them to change the name to oprah house?]

Manly itself was gorgeous. A cute little sea kinda town with shops and happy people and ice cream everywhere. The beach, Manly Beach, which is a popular surfer spot was also gorgeous. Not crowded, super clean looking, and perfect. I set up camp for a wee bit [couldn't be bothered putting on sunscreen and didn't want to get burnt, so kept my stay short] and then wandered around the town a little before taking the ferry ride back to the city.

When I got back I was heading towards the art gallery of new south wales but got distracted by an aboriginal selling boomerangs. A bit of a haggle later, I bought three of them [shipping them home tomorrow I guess?] and fashioned a little carrying device on my backpack to hold them.

Then I wandered through the domain, chatting with a couple for a bit about some concert stage that was getting built and made my way to the gallery, but not before stopping in the beautiful library. Everything was super cool and they had 2 gallery exhibits up there as well - one about  ballet in australia and the other about the changes in fashion over the last 100 years. Both were really cool. The actual art gallery was way more than a gallery. It was a full on museum and it was great. In fact, the art work couldn't have been grater [this is going to be a helluva lot more funny when i get home eventually and post a picture of the cheese graters that were on display.] I was initially drawn because of the Francis Bacon exhibit, but didn't want to fork up the cash when I realised the museum was sweet anyhow. I spent ages there and then decided to head back to the hostel for some internet. I wandered around a supermarket on my way home contemplating cooking kangaroo for dinner, but you could only buy large amounts of it, so I'm going to wait till I get to Melbourne s I have it for a few nights, instead of eating 4 hamburgers tonight. It's pretty cheap compared to the other meats.

Tongiht I'm going to go to bed early I reckon and then try to wake up super early to get to Bondi Beach in the morning [weather looks good] and then hit up the markets perhaps before catching my flight to Melbourne!

All in all, Sydney is pretty fricken cool. It's like surrounded by amazing beautiful things, but is, in its core, a big city with big city kinds of people who don't act all friendly-like. China town is not as good as new york's china town, but cute.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Byron Bay - Nimbin

So, before the BBQ I decided the move would be to pick up beers. I was going to made for a walk,w ith my toe feeling less ominous, but on my way out saw the shuttle driver about to leave. I asked him for a ride, and he both dropped me off and picked me up from the bottle-o. This place is amazing [amazingness #2 for the day, with the first bit beign the free extra blanket [should be $1] i was able to get].

Holy shit is beer expensive here. Goon is the way to be, but I got some Carlsbergs and with it to my surprise came a free glass [amazingness #3] - sidenote, ended up leaving it with the lady at reception before I left as a thank you and as a I-cant-carry-this-around-for-months.

I got back, scoped the picnic table area for the friends that I would have for the night, and found a table with really interesting looking people [black chick with the coolest hairstyle ever, bearded hippie looking dude, other nice folk] and sat down. They were all french, and all really cool. Before I knew it the table grew to be 8 french people and me, with an age difference spanning from 5-11 years my senior. They spoke english really well [when they weren't speaking french] and one guy made it his mission to teach me how to open a bottle using a lighter [mild success rate]. the BBQ dinner was way better than the night before, and there was a guitar player from new zealand playing right near by. He was really good and my table-mates were having a great time singing and dancing with him, as well as randomly breaking out into song on their own.

I was iffy about going out, being so tired, pained, and at this point, without a phone [lost it]. Also, it was on and off raining which sucked. I was going to retreat back to my bedroom, which by this point was completely empty [just me, 3 empty spots], but then amazingness #4, some chick found my phone. the rain stopped. my desire to go out escalated. and out. We went to the 'cheeky monkey' where drinks were expensive and the dfloor was a bunch of metal tables that people were dancing on. One of the guys stole a bike from the hostel and rode it there. Since this weekend was Schoolies weekend [end of semester for high school kids, so they all go out and take over clubs and shit] the club was filled with youngins, but mostly fun. I went back after a bit to see that I now had roommates. Three girls from brazil, who were all hilarious, and all getting drunk and getting ready to go out when I just got back. It was 2 am when they finally left, and they came back at 6:30 [apparently this is their usual].

At 10:20 the next morning I was waiting outside of our hostel to get picked up for my trip to Nimbin. So, Nimbin was a place that I had only recently heard about, and basically the reason I made a stop in Byron Bay.

Nimbin is a town [and by town I mean tiny street that you could get through in like 5 minutes] that thrives off of its sale of pancakes, and pancake related desserts. All the stores suggest this theme, and the tour bus I took there was filled with 34 other excited people to get to Nimbin. Our tour guide was a hilarious south african who was telling us all about the place and kept the bus blasting amazing tunes the whole way. We stopped at a pub on the way to pick up beers for the ride [not me. bleh beer breakfasts] and then made it to nimbin for a few hours to walk around and consume pancakes. Everywhere you went there were people offering to sell them, and similar creative products related to pancakes. It was so weird! After everyone was done shopping around, going to the funky museum, checking out the art gallery, and enjoying their various forms of pancakes [the cookie ones were most popular [but we were warned with stories why we should only half about a half of acookie. they're really rich] ], we were off. I was tryign to buy a frienship bracelet at a shop, and after picking out a really simple leather one, the shop owner told me that that wasn't one of the bracelets-- it was something that came on the structure that held all of them, and i could just have it. I also tried jicataba [i have aboslutely no idea what they were called... and I can't be bothered looking it up right now] berries, which are some brazilian thing and they were delicious. I ate like half a kilo of them.

Once everyone was done the bus driver took us on a really long scenic drive through beautiful plains and trees, before stopping at anothe rpub for us to get drinks before going for the bbq. Everyone was so full of pancakes so barely anyone got drinks. We were all starving though by the time we got to the park where the bbq was going to be. The driver made us all a great barbeque feast and we soaked in the sunshine that was so unexpected by the forecast. After we did a rainforest drive [nuts] and then stopped at a waterfall for a little [pretty dry but whatever]. Generally this tour goes for a swim, but with the shitty expected weather, we didn't go.

When I got back I napped for a bit and then went into town for dinner. I got great food at some vegetarian place as I watched the craziest swarms of beetles begin out by a streetlight outside. Like,  looked like a plague kinda formation. Terrifying to run through, but I made it home again where I saw that this beetle infestation was somewhat of a trend, with each light being filled with them.

I then found my french friends from yesterday and hung around there for a while before actually going to bed, with an early wake up and busride to the airport with my next destination : sydney!

Friday, November 16, 2012

A bit of a review

Brisbane: pretty cool. kinda philadelphia like
Gold Coast: south beach miami. that is all
Byron Bay: cute and wayyyyy chiller

Byron Bay

Next stop post Gold Coast is Byron Bay. We took an airport shuttle [lol] here. As I was picked up from the bus stop by a shuttle for the hostel, I got toured around the teeny city a bit to see where I'd make my moves later.

After checking in and getting set up I decided to hire on of the bikes the hostel offers for free and head down to the light house where they have an epic walking track. The ride was funny since the brakes did not work whatsoever, but all good. The walking track was great, and the lighthouse beautiful, though I was pretty puffed for a lot of it and it was painfully hot out. Oh yeah, that's something to mention. Oz at this time of the year is scorching... like it was 32 c in brisbane! such a change from Dunedin.

Whilst wandering I climbed a tree, and then fell out of it. Like proper fell out of it. Did not get hurt, but it was a waste of a fall since no one saw it :(.

at the very end of the track I had injury 2, when I tripped up a set of wood/dirt stairs. I'm relatively certain I broke my toe, but it feels a bit better than it did earlier [poo. I would].

The bike ride back was fine and I had a shower [finally ha] and then went to get some internet [hello internet!].

Tonight is a hostel barbeque which will hopefully be slightly less ghetto than the other one, and then who knows!

Gold Coast

So, on this train thing that we took from brisbane to the gold coast I had such reminiscent thoughts of amurrica. The train was like home. the outside views were like home, the whole place was so american it was weird. Made me happy that I studied in NZ instead of aus.

We arrived late afternoon and found our hostel pretty easily. There were people moving out at the time we got there, but no one seeming to be moving in. Once settled we wandered into town, looking for the beach and a shop to buy sunnies. After going the wrong direction for a while, we figured it out and found a beach that, like the trains, reminded me of home. Populated, supervised, straight up sand and water kinda beach.

Then we found a mall and walked around in there for a while and enjoyed some coffee at starbucks [cough amurrica]. We bought food at the supermarket to suffice as dinner and breakfasts for the next days, and I picked up a goon because I'm a classy lady. 30 standards for $11. not bad ae.

Dinner was funny without a microwave since I bought microwavable food, which meant I stuck the plastic bag filled with a fish fillet into boiling water hopint it would do the trick. pretty successful.

JAcob ended up going to see a concert that night, and I didn't want to spend the money for a band I had never really heard of, so we parted ways and I went out with the hostel. A group of us met at 9pm downstairs for drinking games [as in, a handful of awkward people with different accents trying to get drunk. awkwardly] it picked up though and ended up being pretty fun, and we all got let into one club and got one drink for free there. After downing that, I followed a couple of girls to a club that they said ladies could drink free at till midnight. bingo. So, the way this worked was you'd get a glass, and when you finish it, just bring it back and fill it again. The drinks were pretty weak, with only a mere jigger surrounded by some chaser and an entire iceberg [or bubbly, but ew], but I managed to skull ~15 of them, just going bartender to bartender. It became somewhat of a game.

We moved around club to club [leaving me with stamps all over my arm come morning [afternoon]] and I met a lot of really funny people, before making my drunken way home and passing out hard.

Once I peeled myself from my slumber the next day I decided the beach was what I needed to get mobile again. It was soo nice out and the water was great. The horrific sunburn on the other hand, not so good, but that didn't hit me for a while anyway. After the beach I jumped in the pool back at the hostel, and ended up floating around in a teeny kiddie pool for a while.

We had time to kill before the hostel bbq dinner we had signed up for, so we wandered around town and ran into a street fair. I ended up tasting many yummy things and buying a ring that was made of an old spoon, a leather bracelet, and a little australia boomerang leather keychain. There were heaps of other things I had to hold back from buying, but all good.

I then got a 30cent icecream at mcdonalds whilst stealing their internet to book busses, and went back to the hostel to get ready for dinner.

Dinner was pretty funny, as we'd all wait in line and slowly get served one item at a time, be it a tiny hamburger on a piece of white bread or a sausage on a piece of white bread. I don't understand why they put everything on whitebread here... buns are so much better. Onions/cheese/sauce/bits of lettuce accompanied.

Going out seemed to attract more people this Friday as the pre out drinking games were filled with people and way more fun. I interacted with a bunch of new accents, and realise how adorable the irish accent can be on chicks.

The night followed a similar path, going club to club, and ending by walking a half hour in the wrong direction, and then finding my hostel.

Best drunk characters of the night:

Boston. His name is anders, but he's from boston, so he's boston. On the way, he found one of those claw things to grab shit with, and while we sat in the club, he grabbed people's asses, and they had no idea.

James. Pick up line: "I know this is weird, but I love you. I just have to tell you that I love you." never met him before.

Brazilian Trio I met outside: they found glowsticks like it was their job.

Brisbane

At 4:30 am the next morning my phone alarm went off. It read 5:30 [apparently not all states follow daylight savings]. I was awake, alive, and moving, until I realised the time was wrong.

At 5:30 am the next morning my phone alarm went off. It read 6:30 [this was good]. I was less awake, less alive, and trying to move. I was off the see the solar eclipse with Jacob and Blake, a stanford student we met the night before. It was to peak just before 7, so we trekked all the way out to Kangaroo point. The 'ah, yeah should only be around a quarter hour' walk took 45 minutes, but the weather was great and we were continuously entertained by all the running people and groups boxing outside. The actual eclipse was really quite interesting, with its first appearance coming in the form of shadows shaped like cresent moons, instead of circular forms. Then, when we got a chance to actually look at the sun [and when I could finally see again after staring at it through my camera lens] we used 3 pairs of sunnies on top of eachother to get a view. It was really nuts how weird the sun looked. It looked like the moon sorta.  I got a few decent pictures, but none that could compare to the pictures that the girl nearby was getting. Eventually a dude sat on the neighboring bench with special glasses to see the eclipse and he let us try his tin-foil glasses. Literally looks like you're looking through foil, but it worked so goddamn well.

After this early morning adventure we wandered around a bit and got lunch before realising that we woke up way too early to maintain functionality for the remainder of the day, and took a nap. Post nap we went back into the city and I speed wrote a couple of letters and postcards to mail out. It was early evening and we saw that there was somesort of market [basically entirely food] on, so we walked by and since it was about to close, the prices were hilariously cheap. Heaps of mangos and random veges later, we were off to the supermarket to purchase a few more staples in order to have an epic massive feed.

Dinner was funny and vaguely flavourless with our lack of oil or spices, but did the job as we drank aroudn in the hostel and played pool before going to bed.

Our room was filled with a good wee crew of people, from another jenny who was working there to a man from the netherlands who so quickly and openly told us about his bitch exwife who moved with the kids to australia.

To and from parts of the city there was a shuttle service that the hostel ran, and the drivers were always funny and knowledgable, and essentially helped plan the rest of our oz trip by suggesting new places.

The next morning we met Ross, Jacob's friend, in the city and hung out in the Botanical Gardens. The animals there were really weird [oh, side note. bats. They have heaps of massive bats in this country that are ridiculously weird to see fly through the trees], but mostly just birds. The free internet allowed for a wee skype sesh, and before we knew it we were on a train to the next destination: Gold Coast.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Off to Oz


Though the New Zealand part of my adventure ended there, The next stop was Australia. After being dropped off at the airport, I went to the check in desk and tried to check in. Tried. "Oh we closed that flight. You were supposed to be here 5 minutes ago," is what that bitch said. I stared. I stared awkwardly at her. She then, which why the fuck won't you tell this tear filled girl right away, said, "but it's okay. I'll open it for you. hang on." Bitch. Anyway, was really stressed going through security because of that, and then had to show the man all of my liquids one by one, but made it to the plane no problem.

As they went around with their annoying 'do you want to pay to watch movies on our tiny little movie player?' I sat writing letters. "Jennie?" the flight attendant addressed me, "do you want a movie player?" After I said, "uhh.... not really?" she told me that I had apparently paid for one whilst buying my ticket and should get one. Sure. I ended up watching some movie about the world ending and needing a friend, and the beginning of moonrise kingdom. all good. Apparently I also paid for a meal and drinks. Airplane indian food and 4 beers. sweeeeeet as. Only flight problem was the baby next to me, who not only cried, but also kicked me with its little baby feet every few minutes. Bogans.

I landed in Brisbane and immediately found Jacob [well, not immediately. First I rash purchased a waterproof camera in duty-free, and then I struggled with customs as I claimed that I had medicine/illegal drugs... just malaria pills, no biggie]. We took a train into city center and got a shuttle to our hostel. After claiming it home, we went exploring.

The night life seemed pretty sweet, with a Tuesday night scene being filled with live music, live comedy, and heaps of people otp. We got beers at a mexican flavoured bar with a live band. The beer was Toohey, which I found to be a humourous over spelling of the New Zealand Tui, but not as yum, and sat in on a little bit of amatuer stand up comedy. After, we ventured back towards the hostel and spent the night with a few more drinks and good chat with various other Americans we met. Apparently a huge group of Stanford students were staying at our hostel, on their study abroad program which toured them around Australia essentially. The night was fun, and with exhaustion of stress as well as an unaccounted for 3 hour time change, I passed out quite quickly, glasses still on.

Farewell


With adventures aplenty, and times amazing, it was difficult to finally say goodbye to the wonderful city of Dunedin. Tears escaped me with many goodbyes, and my trip to the airport was hard [especially with the leftover stress of trying to ship all my shit home]. I've had a fabulous semester and met some of the most amazing people, and can only say thanks and hope that I'll see everyone again someday, be it in America, New Zealand, or somewhere completely separate. xx

519 Top Chef: Burgers


To carry out an idea that had come quite randomly a few days before, a burger-off was in order upon our return to Dunedin. 3 styles of burgers were to be made by chefs Jessie, Jake, Jennie, Liam, and Robbie, with guest chef Tess on chip duty. Liam and I teamed up, as well as Jessie and Jake, whilst Robbie was a lone chef in this battle. We all went to New World together to purchase the goods. The heat was on in the kitchen as we all cooked, trying to maintain a rocky theme song style playlist. After some work, we gathered around the table and the taste test began. The burgers were split in half for easy consumption and we went burger by burger with a presentation, taste, and then review.

Robbie: Robbie's burger would definitely be most accurately described as the 'dessert burger.' The actual patty was pork mince with apple [and probably other things], and there was grilled apple, warmed turkey, and a veggie array, all on a soy and linseed bun. Quite different, quite delicious, and stood together quite well.

Jessie and Jake: I'd like to call this the 'man burger' as it was a thick, juicy patty, sticking to a very classic feeling. Onions joined the mince, and there was a usual array of vegetable on top, but the kicker was that it was served in an english muffin. Twas quite a new flavor and kept it together well.

Jennie and Liam: We also presented a bit of a sweet burger, putting a twist on our usual mince and blue cheese patty. Onion marmalade coated the homemade wheat buns, bringing in the sweetness, and our patties were filled with minced beef, blue cheese, caramelized onion, portabello mushrooms, feta cheese, and the various spices and sauces we pulled from the pantry. On top was more sauteed mushroom, avocado, tomato, lettuce, some more feta, and a wee bit of mayo. They were quite good as well, but I mustn't toot my own horn. The only flaw was their inability to stay together, a fact we discussed post battle as an art of layering.

Overall, we had no losers, and 3 sets of winners, but the best chef may have been Tess, with her kumara chips that filled us all up, and delicious homemade aoli dipping sauce.

Wish we had thought of this kinda competition bit earlier, because man this was a delicious dinner.

Jake also fucking delivered later by grilling pears with caramel and giving us each plates of it and cream. Dank.

Millbrook


My last weekend in New Zealand was spent at Millbrook, a gorgeous golf resort just a wee way away from Queenstown. It was Liam's auntie's 50th birthday so the whole family [plus me, after some convincing] went there to celebrate for the weekend. Each family had a villa to themselves, all in a strip of villas reserved for the entire crew. Liam's parents had their own room with a king size bed, and Liam and I shared a room with two single beds. Both rooms had an en suite bathroom, filled with amazing shower, large bathtub, and bathrobes. We were living like kings. Downstairs was a fully stocked kitchen, and a great livingroom/lounge area with a big TV, comfortable couches, and basically anything anyone would ever want.

We arrived there Friday evening after having a poached egg lunch at Liam's and watching across the universe in the car. Food stops on the way led to purchases of kinder eggs, and getting weird madagscar toys. I also tried my luck at a crane game to pick up stuffed animals, and with the first dollar picked it up fully, brought it all the way to the dumping area, and then it hit the side, and bounced back in. bullshit.

When we got there we moved in slightly, and then beers started going down. We walked up the block a tiny bit to where Suze was staying [birthday girl] and I began my train of meeting everyone as we snacked on smoked salmon, cheese, hummus, vegetables and crackers. Liam and I left for a bit to explore Millbrook, which meant wandering around the lush grasses, and laying down to watch the ducks and talk about their potential discriminatory behaviour. Once we got back to the villa, dinner was served.

An epic bbq was before us, with lamb, steak, chicken, baked potatoes, stuffed potatoes, salads, asparagus, orzo, sausages, and breads [potentially forgot stuff, but unimportant with this quantity]. Everything was delicious and everyone brought different pieces to the meal. Dessert included cheesecake [yum], icecream, and pavlova [my first pavlova in New Zealand, and I have to say [sorry aus] that it was pretty reasonable].

Night time meant more wandering, which meant getting hilariously lost on our adventure to and from the swimming pool. Though it was closed, we contemplated crashing various functions and stumbled our way back home.

Saturday morning started with croissants with jam, and took us to Queenstown, in search of togs. [note: togs is a swimsuit] Stupid me forgot to bring togs, even though I regularly bring them on weekends away where they're far from necessary, so I had to purchase some in order to enjoy the great pool and spa baths. After success was had [Liam left me in the store, of course, and I only ended up trying on black and white bathingsuits, of course] we ventured around the area for a bit and headed back to Millbrook. There, we made our way to the pool and enjoyed the completely secluded and empty outdoor spa baths and indoor pool. When Liam was done trying to drown me, we started our venture home, but not before awkwardly standing around the golf cart area trying to convince the other one to muster up the balls to ask to use one. After deciding we were both too pussy, we were walking away, and I blurted out that we wanted to know how getting one worked. The nice man with the snack filled golf cart gave us keys and told us to have fun for a half hour, so naturally we spent the next two hours touring.

I drove a bit, but was pretty well forced out of my drivers position as we went all around Millbrook, searching for the best picture.

Once we were done we went back, showered up, and made ourselves look presentable for the fabulous evening to come.

The plan was to meet at Suze's for pre dinner drinks and snack, and then take a shuttle to arrowtown for dinner [yeah. that means everyone should be drunk enough to not be able to drive] Fancy snacks were aplenty and chat was great, and then we were into arrowtown. For dinner we were split into a kids table [proper under 14], a almost-adult-but-not-quite table [14-21], and an adult table [30+]. Side note: this split, as in ending at 21 and restarting again at 30 [or a little over 30] was a really funny bit of our stay in Millbrook. The whole time I felt like the oldest child there, in the complete wrong age bracket for being at this resort. Anyway, beers and beers were ordered, and delicious food consumed. Ribs and bread as appetizers for our table, and then a duck entree. Fruit cake made for the birthday, and before we knew it we were on our way back.

Many hung out at Suze's afterwards [cue introduction of timtams] and then we were off again for our final sleep in Millbrook.

Sunday was a lazy morning with mroe croissant and strangely sad goodbye hugs. It was nice feeling so welcomed so quickly with such a new family. We trekked home [stopping in arrowtown where I finally got a greenstone necklance that wouldn't carry the curse of Maui [you can't buy one for yourself apparently] [thanks Liam :)]] and before we knew it the pampering and cleanliness were gone with our entrance into our flat.

Peninsula


As a final Thursday in Dunners I went with Liam to the peninsula for one last time for a picnic dinner. We went out to Allan Beach, which is the furthest point in the peninsula essentially because I didn't want to be running down sand dunes with heaps of food, but also wanted to be on the sand... bad idea. The wind was horrific and all our food was sandy, but we both had a good time and our short stay was fun. We brought smoked salmon, shrimp, a baguette, brie, and other various food fillers. No penguins were seen, but it was beautiful to watch the sunset there through dinner.

Finals


I reckon it could be interesting to hear about the education system a bit in Otago, and how I found the semester to be post finals. While the semester is reasonably lax, with only irritating papers and what not to fill the time, but then at the end of the semester you're faced with exams that make up about 70% of your final grade, have barely any practice materials to look at [like, maybe essay questions online, but no answers nor multiple choice examples], AND you have zero desire to be studying for it. All in all, I hope I passed?

The Races that Weren't


All semester I had been hearing about 'Race Day.' This day where everyone put on their nicest frocks, donned a darling fascinator, filled their bellies with alcohol, and made their way to the horse races. Only a wee drive out of town was the location for the horse races, and it was set on the same day as the Melbourne Cup, so attendendence was always high.

I joined Liam and his friends for the event, dragging in our other flatmates and though they all started drinking at around 9am, I had a final to complete before making my moves. At 1030, when I was finally able to leave the restraints of the final's rule, I ran home and then waited through varied goodbyes and getting ready rituals to get to Simpson Park.

Behind Ash's house Ash, Campbell, Cmac and various other hands have been working over the years to turn forrestry and bush into a wee park. Though the stairs were questionable as they were dirt cut with a spade, the area was perfect for drinks on a warm sunny day.

A bunch of people were gathered there when I arrived with my bag of goon to make a fatal mistake and play the game of 'catch-up'

Catch-up: the situation one is placed in whilst arriving a few hours late to a drinking event, wherein everyone is already pissed, and said character feels the need to rapidly catch up to the rest of the crowd. This is often a fatal mistake, and in most cases leaves people in, shall we say, a state.

We chatted, took pictures, watched people try to go on the flying fox, and ultimatley got ready for our 50 person coach bus to the races. A good crew of people were working on a concoction they had created with 5 different bottles of spirits, a box of no-doze, energy drinks, tea bags, lemons, and whatever the fuck else they threw in. It was surprisingly yummy, but so dangerous.

The bus ride there was fun, and that's about all I remember. [catch up]









On the way back I realised we were on our way back and not still on our way there [awkward] and that I lost my shoes.


Though I recall no horse, the day was fun and I got hungover early enough in the night [2:30am] to then be sweet for the next day filled with studying for my final final.

Home on the Range


On Sunday the 4th I went home with Liam to his farm to get a proper this-is-a-farm trip. We left as noon began to close in, and upon arrival Liam made me an omelette and pointed out my excessive quietness whilst talking with his mum. After lunch the two of us went out on his quad to get a tour of the entire farm. I had never been on a farm before, and never been on a quad before, and the combination of two 'new's as wildly exciting. From paddock to paddock I was gate opener, often having trouble fiddling around with locks and nearly locking myself on the wrong side, or fearing the approach of the animals inside [especially the horses that were ominously approaching me]. It was quite fun, albeit kind of stressful with the occasional dodgy driving off of wee hills. After our tour we went back to take the car for more adventures bringing us firstly to the jump that a one sam jumped his car off of, over 20 meters. We wandered around a little forest bit after getting introduced to Liam's uncle, and then made our way to the tunnels.

So, if you know me at all or have been reading anything that I've been posting you know that I'm not the most outdoorsy of people, often haunted by uneven grounds and incapable of trusting my footing on anything. When we were approaching the 'tunnel' that Liam was telling me about it was to no surprise that I freaked at the concept of climbing down grounds I couldn't see, and potentially using a tree to aid me in my jumping off of a small cliff. Let's just say it didn't work. By the time we altered our tracks and went the 'easy' way I was still freaked and barely made it down there. After, I realised my camera had spontaneously broken, and I was afraid to climb out. After some embarrassing whining, We made it out and headed back home.

We [I... liam passed out] watched the majority of the World's Fastest Indian and hung around for a bit until dinner was ready. A few beers, a delicious steak, potatoes, and two kinds of salad made the feast.

After stealing a lasagne from his parents freezer, we went back home to Dunedin.

Sue She


Twas a Saturday night and my usual dinner plans were foiled with Liam's overambitiousness for going out, so I moved myself next door. I brought the wonton wrappers and various pieces for pot stickers [as well as meatballs, with the extra mix and lack of wrappers], and all the other bits and pieces required for sushi were already there waiting. We made regular and inside out rolls stuffed with slices of chicken, a tuna salad made with canned tuna, and vegetablely bits. Not quite the fish sushi I'm used to, but chicken in sushi is randomly really popular over here, and a much cheaper option, so I couldn't complain. It was one of the rollers first time rolling sushi, which is always a cute little feat. Everything came out delicious, putting a small plug in my obnoxious desire for sushi.

Kiwi's First Halloween


I was crushed, confused, and then empowered when I heard about the lack of celebration that Kiwis attributed to one of my most favorite of holidays: halloween. Failing to celebrate just wouldn't suffice so me and all the other internationals [mostly of the American variety] decided to ensure that the holiday would be had. Thoughts of flat trick or treating emerged, which would mean going flat to flat in the complex in costume, getting a cup of a weird concoction and candy. Though we were the only flat with a concoction, and only some random stragglers had candy, parties went on.


The concoction:

So, as a tribute to bubble tea and my failed attempt at making a sago pudding right before, we decided to put together a massive punch bowl, filled with tapioca pearls, and random beverages. In went tequila, blue food colouring, raro [juice powder that people here love... it's obnoxiously sweet and if you read the label you'd notice that there's somehow more sugar in it than the package weighs. some eat it right out of the package instead of adding it to water... this can be coupled with pouring it on your tongue and then taking a shot. It comes in tons of fun flavours]some mixer sodas, and other unidentifiable finds. It wasn't bad, and got everyone silly.

Costumes:

Liam and I went as Pebbles and Bam Bam which required trips to a thriftstore and some thoughtful placements of electrical tape, as well as painted cardboard bones. A bat played the role of his club. Jake, another flatmate, went as another international student, copying his style, hair, moustache, and even recorder usage. Jessie and Tess were sheep, which looked hilarious and was so perfect. Unfortunately most of the people at the party weren't quite as dressed up as we had been, though our guest Green Man helped balance it out.


Back to School


The week post Wellington and pre othershits was one filled with study. It came to my attention that EVERYONE was going to be done with finals before I even started mine [stupid late timetable] so I figured while everyone's immersed in text book, I should be as well, to lessen the pain that would come with their partying completion, and my continued studying. As much as I wanted to do this, it was hard, and parties waged on...

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Vaudeville, Diwali, and Recovery

Okay, so before I explain what this vaudeville thing is, I should continue on with our tracks for the day. Post beer drinking, we went back down towards the harbor for a Diwali Festival of Lights, which was an Indian festival with food, dance performances, and fireworks. We nommed hard and watched the performances and fireworks, before heading to the bathroom where I skulled 3/4 of a bottle of wine.

Steps went forward, and armed with a crappy $2 mask [twas a masquerade], the rest of the bottle poured down, and I went, ticket in hand, to the emperor's bathhouse. I was attending an event which I knew absolutely nothing about. It was to be some sort of 'queer women and their friends' lgbt event that was filled with vaudeville performances. My copilot of wellington wasn't planning on going, but when we got to the door, and she turned around, the bouncer and friends all said that someone came earlier with an extra ticket and she should just come in! [must have thought it was my girlfriend? ha]

We were reasonably late, as the intermission just started, so took this time to make a wandering journey of the club. Club... I don't even know if that's what we should call it. We went upstairs and were immediately confused by all the rooms that were open with weird set ups, and tables, and hand sanitizing containers on the wall next to the paper towels and condom dispensers... ? Next, we passed walls that were intertwined and filled with gloryholes... and another room with a contraption for one to tie themselves up in, as well as a leather swing. Weird. We stood in front of what we thought was a 1 way mirror for a while, but it was just a window [noticed when the guy on the other side finally waved back].

On our trip downstairs we stumbled upon what we thought was the wrong way-- a changing room set up, and hot tub. just sitting there casually, a hot tub.

After the intermission, we got jugs of beer and made our way to our bogan seats in the middle of the aisle, ready to watch what show was about to begin. Ladies [manly ladies] came out dressed up, lip sang some theatrical song whilst stripping down and performing a dance. It went on and on, with the kind of nudity that neither of us wanted to see, but it was quite hilarious. The entire audience we noticed at this point was filled with women... like 200 women, all at least a generation older than us.

After the show was a dance party, which got wild and hilarious, as we made good friends with 40 year old gay campbell and learned about his new fiancee. We managed to make it in to the hot tub later as well as in the sauna that was cleverly attached. All in all, an epic night.

The next day I decided to look up the place and figure out what the hell kind of establishment we were at, and apparently it's an all male sauna that sometimes holds lesbian nights. Who woulda thunk.

Based on our wild evening, Monday was pretty tame, watching TV, cooking delicious pancakes, and painting weird designs into our nails. Dinner was an amazing pumpkin soup and we slept like babies, before my flight the next morning, back to Dunners.

Wellcome to Wellington

After my extremely long bus ride, stopping in a weird diner of sorts for a while, with my only entertainment being a really irritating baby crying and running around, I was in Wellington. I had absolutely no idea where I was going, and only a vague list of directions of how to get there. I followed around a couple and they helped me get in the right direction. I was to be couch surfing with a girl named Naomi, but she wasn't going to be home when I arrived, so after banging on her flatmate's window I was let into one of the coolest, most eclectic flats I've ever seen. Every room had a different flavour, and even though the kitchen was split into two, every weird piece of design made sense... from space jam poster to charcoal drawing.

Though arrival mish was done, I now had a new mish... venture back across town and find where Naomi was, hanging out with friends. First I stopped for pie and wine, and then was back on a bus, confused again, but heading the right way. It was easier than I thought and before I knew it I was introduced to a bunch of her friends. The night was surrounded by chat, a new ind of drinking game with a pyramid and calling peoples' bluffs, and watching america's next top model. major throwback. Naomi and I ended up sleeping there on a makeshift mattress that emma had set up, which was honestly the most comfortable thing I had slept on in a while.

By morning we decided to venture through Wellington on the gorgeous day that it was, with barely an agenda. After picking up assorted pastries at a shop to substitute for our lazy lack of breakfast, we went onwards and climbed to the top of a massive parking structure, to see all of wellington. Chats began about these strange coffee making styles that bring you delicious coffee in weird chemistry like contraptions. Had to go. We went to a place where we each got a different contraption, and there was a bluesy guitar player outside jamming for our entertainment. perfect morning.

After we were walking around the harbour and I expressed my desire to go to a dr seuss exhibit, which was... somewhere. After a few mis communication moments, we found the exhibit. It was really weird to see the work that dr. seuss did aside from his books-- i gained a new respect for the man, even though i didn't grow up as a dr. seuss kid.

On our walk back home we picked up assorted tuatara beers at the supermarket and sampled them whilst hanging around and getting ready for the night that I sort of built my trip around: Vaudeville.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

What's that smell?

Thursday evening my bus pulled into Rotorua and I was picked up by Jacko and his daughter Te Aorere. They're both Maori and were going to be my impromptu couch surfing family for the next two nights. On our way home we stopped at Pack and Save, where they bought groceries and so many biscuits. Like, imagine going to the supermarket with the mindset of a 10 year old, and then just doing your thing. Cadbury chocolate bars, chocolate fish, and rolls of cookies. The uje. I offered to cook dinner for them, and was even scrambling to get recipes from my flatmate over text, but on my way home they decided they were too hungry to wait for that and picked up fish and chips instead... and when I say fish and chips, I mean they got more fish and chips than I had ever seen. As we were waiting, Jacko told me that this is the place they always go because you'll go in, ask for 3, and leave with heaps of fish and chips for the price they  were originally going to pay. No lie. We got home and there were masses offish and chips... my only regret is that I didn't take a picture of the spread on the table.

We went to bed early-- I was sharing a room with Te Aorere, and in the morning we woke up at 6:30am to begin the day Since it was a Friday, there was school and work for both of them so I was on my own. I was dropped off near Jacko's work and wandered around the area, armed with a little map he had for his couch surfers, labeled with places to see and how to get around. I started in a park that was filled with hot pools. The smell was something new-- I was warned that Rotorua has a certain scent to it, because of the sulfur in the thermal heated hot pools, but it wasn't something I expected. Vaguely revolting, but pretty cool to look at. There was also a little kid park set up with things to climb on, slides, swings, and whatnot. I found a massive contraption spider-web looking thing, got to the top of it, and sat up there for a while, drawing pictures and watching little asian ladies on a tour group that had arrived struggle and fail at getting up it. I also chatted with the tour-guide from that trip for a while, as he made his way up to say hi and tell me to go to Taiwan if I ever get the chance. 
In addition to hot pools to look at, there were also a couple of spots where there were pools for people to rest their feet in, also heated from the ground. I hung around by one for a while, heating my feet. It was sooo hot, but nice to get away from the rain in. Chatted with a girl there who had the cutest puppy.

After wandering a bit more and climbing a tree, I headed towards a walking path that went around the entirety of Rotorua's coast. It was pretty interesting and nice, and started off with a Marae that I could walk into and look around. Though my studying, or lack thereof, for my Maori paper didn't let me remember the names of everything that I was seeing, it was cool to be able to properly see it. The rest of the walk was dotted with weird landscapes and weird smells, and ended in a massive garden.

After, I wandered around the shopping area for a while and then settled down in the library, for some much needed magazine reading and relaxation, but not before going into a weird shooting range with air sof guns [new zealand...] It was $3 for 12 shots, and the nice asian man working thre taught me about how to correctly hold a gun, and gave me lollies for the targets I hit. He also took heaps of pictures of me with the guns. cute ha.

For dinner I cooked chicken tikka masala number 2 for the fam, which was some weird version of it since they were without cinnamon, cayenne pepper, ginger, and had garlic paste instead of garlic, but all was well and all was swallowed down happily. I also prepared a little icecream dessert for them before we went to bed for my last evening there. In the morning we went to the saturday market.

There wasn't much there that I wanted in terms of clothing, but the food selection was really great. Even though we had already had breakfast, Te Aorere bought lamb kebabs [awesome, I had one] fried dumplings [also amazing] & fried bread [didn't try]. I then saw a sign that indicated the largest hotdog at 1.5 feet, and had to buy it. On a ciabatta roll and dressed in bbq sauce and mayo, it was a challenge, which I got some help from Te Aorore with, but managed to complete.


After I was dropped nearby at a gypsy festival where there was more food, weird entertainment, a mini cooper festival, and zombies. Well, people that were dressed as zombies or in the process of getting face painted to look like zombies. Apparently it was for a zombie walk to raise money for brain disease, a concept I'm not sure how keen I am on, but it was funny. [I ran into their walk while I was waiting for the bus to leave, so I was met with hands slapped against the window, and dragged across sloppily. The high point of my gypsy stay though was when I found a small ceramic painting stand where you pay 2.50 for a little something and paint it. Amongst the numerous little kids all painting single coloured, or multicoloured, mud like pieces, I stood there for ages, perfecting my little tokens. I left with a cow turn vampire, and a silver fern