A Last Few Days In Australia (And a Couple of Birthdays)!

In order to get from Melbourne and through Canberra to get to our final destination of Sydney (where we would eventually fly out from), we decided on the cheaper option of taking a bus to these places. Our first bus ride took about eight hours through some beautiful scenery before arriving in Canberra. 

I was quite surprised when we got near the city and the surrounding landscapes were more hilly than I had realized. The city is laid out in a very unique circular pattern in order to have less of an impact on the natural landscape. To be honest, it was a bit difficult to navigate to our hostel when we first arrived (partly because it was dark) as it was quite disconcerting to be walking down a street (3 blocks as we were told) and feel as if you're circling back around to where you started without meaning to. 

For any of those who don't know, Canberra is the capital city of Australia. We were told it was rather boring, but Kaitlyn and I decided to visit it anyways because we did a project last year on the Canberra Parliament Buildings and wanted to see it for ourselves. So, on my birthday (at least the Australian day), the two of us headed out in that direction in the morning, after a nice sleep in. It was quite surreal to see them in person, however although it is very impressive, I'm not entirely convinced that I like the architecture.

Our next stop was a nail salon in the mall to get our nails done as a fun activity for my birthday. We both got gel nails (to which my parents would later refer to as hawk talons - but seriously, they weren't that long!), complete with fancy designs. We stopped at a bookstore where I bought myself a book as a birthday present (as a tip - books in Australia are ridiculously expensive! A simple small paperback was $20) and went back to the hostel for a few hours to read and relax.

Kaitlyn and I went out for a nice pasta dinner, complete with a nice glass of Moscato for myself. As restaurants in the downtown area are also expensive, we decided to stop by a local grocery store afterwards  where we bought apple pie and ice cream as a birthday cake (since all they had were mud cakes that didn't look to appetizing). Although I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get any birthday candles, it was delicious.

The next hour or so was spent in the pool, spa, and sauna in the basement of our hotel. We went out for another couple drinks at a lounge next to the hostel before calling it a day. Although simple, I had a great birthday and think its just awesome that I can say I turned 21 in Australia!

We headed to Sydney the next day in order to be there for Kaitlyn's birthday on July 5th. To celebrate her birthday, we once again slept in, got a full delicious breakfast, and headed to Bondi Beach. We were planning on skating at the beach, however it was $30 to skate. We decided that the price would have been alright to pay if it were a nice day out, however it was raining on and off so we walked down the beautiful beach and I bought her hot chocolate instead.

After heading back to the center of the city, we explored around Circular Quay (the pier) for a few hours before the sun set and we got a few of the skyline illuminated at night. It was absolutely stunning and a great way to end our travels in Australia.

It's hard to believe that my five month journey to Australia has come to an end and I'm back in Kelowna for the summer before heading back to finish my final year of university in Ontario. So I think I'll just end my blog with this: it was truly an amazing experience to get to see and study in Australia and although I'm back to reality, I'll never forget all the memories and friends I made along the way!

P.S. Pictures will be up once Kaitlyn returns home and can send them my way.

The Rainy Town of Launceston.

Our next destination in Tasmania was Launceston. Since we weren't leaving until the afternoon, Kaitlyn and I checked out of the hostel and dropped our bags off at the bus terminal before grabbing breakfast. Afterwards, we decided to visit the library and use their public free wifi until we had to head back to the bus station. The bus ride wasn't too long but we ended up getting into Launceston later than planned because of a construction hold-up along the way.

We checked into our hostel and headed off for dinner at the Seaport. The weather turned from cloudy to rainy along the way, but we found a modern Italian restaurant that was warm and dry. Kaitlyn and I decided to share a pizza and salad, and we ordered a couple cheap beers too (only $4!). The ended up making the wrong size pizza so we got another one of the same size for free, which was pretty awesome.

On our second day in Launceston, and final day in Tasmania, we headed off in the morning - and more rain! - to find Cataract Gorge, the main highlight in Launceston, and only a 20 minute walk from the centre of the city. After a while of admiring the scenery we stopped in at a small cafe and ordered a couple of smoothies that were delicious. Since we didn't want to spend more time out in the rain (and it was raining quite hard!) we headed over to the local cinema to see Ice Age 4: Continental Drift. I think Kaitlyn and I may have been the only young adults there (the rest were young children with their parents) but we enjoyed ourselves none the less.

Cool bridge in the city.

On the trail to the Gorge.

Kaitlyn on the trail to the Gorge.

On the suspension bridge over the Gorge.

  

Cataract Gorge.

We flew back to Melbourne later that evening and spend the next day packing up for the last leg of our journey in Australia. My last few days were spent in Canberra and Sydney where both Kaitlyn and I celebrated our birthdays - that's next to come!

Climbing a Mountain!

On Thursday, Kaitlyn and I decided to do more hiking - this time a little closer to the city of Hobart. We took a bus up to a little place called Ferntree, which was 430m above sea level. It was quite surprising that the city has a public bus service that went up this particular road as it was rather steep and had a bunch of S-turns. Once we arrived, we started up the trail to the Springs (a common starting point for most hikers but we were a bit ambitious that morning and so we started lower). The trail was not easy at all; quite steep but we managed to make it all the way up to the Springs in the time it listed for the trail: 40 minutes. From here, we got a great view of the peak of the mountain, also known as the Pinnacle, rising a total of 1270m above sea level.

The Pinnacle - doesn't look that high, does it?

We also got our first look at some snow on the mountain, which I was quite excited about since snow in Australia must be rare, right??

Way too excited to find snow in Australia.

Kaitlyn and I decided (well mostly me) that we should totally try and hike all the way to the Pinnacle as the trail maps listed that the trail should only take 3 hours to return. Well we decided later that this silly decision was made because I had too much energy and Kaitlyn doesn't say no. So we started to hike up the trail, little to our knowledge that it would take three full hours to get to the top, much less come back down. Up, up, up we went, but it didn't take long before what was just a bit of frost turned into several inches (maybe even more than a foot) of snow. Shortly after, there was also ice covering the trail. Never fear, we're CANADIAN! We're used to this! Continue on!

Proud to be Canadian!

After climbing over lots of rocks, making our way slowly over the snow and ice and avoiding falling down some rather hazardous drop-offs, Kaitlyn and I did manage to make it to the Pinnacle to be rewarded with some amazing views of the city of Hobart in the valley below, albeit being constantly buffeted by some very strong winds at the summit (they were strong enough to move us and make it difficult to walk into them so we figure they were gusting around or over 60km/h). We ate some snacks in a shelter at the top, before beginning the long journey back down the mountain.

View from the trail.

View from the Pinnacle (in the shelter).

We chose to walk back down the mountain along the road that those fortunate to have cars drove up, with the idea that if we really wanted to, we could hitch-hike our way back down to the Springs. However, we ended up just enjoying the walk down. Kaitlyn and I stopped for a picnic lunch at the Springs, which we noticed was also several degrees warmer than the summit, before continuing down to Ferntree to catch the bus back to our hostel.

I don't think a sandwich has ever tasted so good!

All in all it was a good, VERY exhausting day of hiking, but we were also very proud of ourselves for what we achieved. We trekked up 840 meters (12.5 kilometers one way) of snowing hiking trails to reach the top of Mount Wellington! Cheers.

Find me next in rainy Launceston!

One of the Top Scenic Views in the World...

On Monday, Kaitlyn and I hopped on a bus that would take us just over two hours out of Hobart and drop us off literally on the side of the road (known as the Cole's Bay Turn-off) where we were picked up by a smaller shuttle van that took us into the small town of Cole's Bay. We checked into the small hostel, which was part of a larger campground that operated during the summer months. Kaitlyn and I set off to explore the town, which was tiny - with only about 150 locals who live there all year long. We found a jetty, a beautiful beach, and got a great view of the Hazards (the mountain range in Freycinet National Park that we would be climbing the next day). We finished off the day by relaxing at the hostel.

On the Jetty at Cole's Bay.

The entire next day was spent in Freycinet National Park - hiking. We left the hostel early in the morning around 8:30am and even though the start of the trails were only 3 kilometers down the road, it took us the better part of an hour to get there. We chose to start the loop trail by going to the famous Wineglass Bay first. The trail was quite steep and had too many steps to count, however once we emerged at the top we were rewarded with one of the top scenic views in the world - looking down at Wineglass Bay.

Wineglass Bay from the Lookout.

We continued down the other side of the mountain range and onto the beach itself, where we rested for a while and got took some cool photos that definitely have to be printed and framed!

Wineglass Bay Beach.

Our journey took us another 30 minutes down the Isthmus trail, which crossed the peninsula of Freycinet National Park to the beach on the other side, called Hazards beach. Along the way we say a cute wallaby who wasn't too afraid of us at all as we passed and just continued to munch happily on the grass. Once we arrived at the beach, we stopped for some lunch while admiring the view.

Hazards Beach.

The last leg of our hike took the longest and circled one of the mountains that make up the Hazards. We got to see some beautiful coves, great views across the ocean bay to see the towns of Swansea and Cole's Bay, and awesome forest walks. We stopped quite a bit to just enjoy the scenery and managed to see another two wallabies. Once we finally made it back to the start of the trails we were exhausted but proud of the full day of exercise. We caught a shuttle back to the hostel, had dinner, and had great sleeps.

Kaitlyn sitting on some rocks near the hiking trail.

On Wednesday, we checked out of our hostel, got some great (and cheap) chai lattes and wasted some time waiting for our shuttle back to the turn-off by walking down another beach that was right across from the campground. Soon we were headed back to Hobart for another day before taking a bus to Launceston - our final destination in Tasmania. 

Waiting at the turn-off for the bus.

Next post: climbing a mountain in Tasmania!

Hobart, Tasmania!

On Friday, June 22nd, Kaitlyn and I woke up super early (around 4am) to get to the Melbourne airport to catch our flight to Hobart, Tasmania. After arriving in the city and finding our hostel reception not open yet, we walked to a nearby coffee shop and ordered ourselves a couple vanilla lattes with apple scrolls (they looked like cinnamon buns but filled with apples). We quickly decided they were very delicious - possibly the best we had ever tasted, however to truly be sure, we have to taste the coffee at one specific shop called 'The Red Brick' once we get back to Guelph.

Once we dropped off our luggage at the hostel, Kaitlyn and I decided to explore the town of Hobart. We ended up finding the pier and boat docks, the street where the Salamanca Market was held (only on Saturdays), some small but pretty beach areas, and an expensive and impressive residential district. Four hour later, we returned to our hostel and spent the rest of the day relaxing.

On our second day in Hobart, Kaitlyn and I headed to the Salamanca market. There were tons of shops, lining both sides of the street for several blocks. Its a venue for both locals and visitors with stalls selling everything from mini-pancakes and coffee, to clothing and books, to jewellery and furniture and more! The two of us bought a pairs of mittens for ourselves because the weather was quite chilly. Next, we headed off to see the Botanic Gardens, however we ended up spending several hours wandered around the Queen's Domain before we found them because the map of how to get to the gardens was incorrect. The gardens were beautiful, even though a lot of plants weren't in bloom for the winter season. After walking around for a bit, we headed back into the city for dinner at the pier.

Sunday, the two of us set off for Port Arthur, which is a nearly historical site that used to be an old convict jail. It's quite a large site, covering around 100 acres and it has 30 ruins and old buildings on site. Kaitlyn spent the day exploring through the structures, but we did have a short 40 minute tour with a guide in the morning and a 20 minute river cruise around two nearby islands that were used for a cemetery and a young boys reform school.

The next few days were spent at Cole's Bay, climbing Mount Wellington, and in Launceston. Individual posts on these to come!

An Outback Adventure!

On Thursday, June 14th, I boarded a late morning flight from the Adelaide Airport that would take me to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. I arrived around noon and stepped out of the plane to bright, sunny and hot weather! I dropped my luggage off at the hostel, and took a walk into the downtown of Alice Springs to check in with the tour company for my outback trip. Alice Springs was a rather small town that wasn't too busy and didn't have much of a spark to it. The outdoor mall was probably the most lively place of all and only because that's where all the restaurants could be found. I bought some lunch at the food court and a couple souvenirs before heading back to my hostel to check into my room and change into shorts.

Todd Mall.

 On my second journey out from the hostel (this time armed with a hat, shorts, sandals, and two water bottles), I walked around the dried up river and across the "bridge" - which was no higher than the bottom of the riverbed - to the Olive Pink Botanical Gardens. The gardens were more of a bushwalk filled with native vegetation than organized planting but still nice to walk through. There was a large hill that I climbed up with the prize being an spectacular view of the surrounding landscape.

Lots of steps...

View from the top.

My second destination was Anzac Hill, which I had seen from Kaitlyn's pictures of her time in Alice Springs, that had a great view of the town. The walk up was called Lion's Walk and shorter and less steep than the Botanic Gardens but the views were no less impressive. I made a quick stop at a reptile centre but shortly left since I wasn't too keen on having snakes free to roam around and I'm too much of a wuss to get my picture taken with one. I spent the rest of the evening relaxing at the hostel before going to sleep early to be able to wake up for my tour the next morning.

'The Gap' from Anzac Hill.

Anzac Hill Lookout.

And so began my three day camping tour in the Australian Outback. Our three destinations were Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), and King's Canyon (in Watarrka National Park). The first day I was picked up at 6:00am and we began our drive to Uluru - 200km, stop for fuel, then another 250km to our campsite. We stopped for lunch where we walked up to a small lookout point and got our first view of the well-known Uluru (otherwise known as Ayers Rock). Next, we spent an hour at the Cultural Centre, learning about the rock from the Aboriginal perspective - which was quite interesting as they have many different stories and it was nice to understand its importance. I also loved seeing all the artwork, although that which could be bought ranged from $85 to at least $1200, which was only a little bit out of my price range.

The tour then took us to the base of Uluru where our guide, Geejay, took us for a short 30 minute walk, before we broke off in separate groups with the choice of climbing Uluru or walking 10.8 kilometers around the base of Uluru. I chose the latter as the Aboriginals ask all visitors not to climb the rock and although I was sure the view would be spectacular from the top, seeing it from all sides would be awesome too. The walk took several hours, but luckily it wasn't too hot and I drank enough water as to avoid becoming dehydrated. It was about 4:45 when finished and time to head to the Sunset Viewing Area to see the rock change colours with the setting sun.

Panorama of Uluru.

Classic Uluru Photo.

Sunset in the Outback.

We headed back to Yulara (our campground), which means the howl of the dingo. We had some delicious chicken stir-fry with noodles  for dinner before sitting around the campfire and exchanging travel stories. We eventually started setting up our swag for the night. For all those that are unfamiliar with swag, it looks like a large sleeping bag with plastic on the bottom and canvas on the top. It has a zipper down each side and a "hood" flap that covers your head so your head doesn't get cold during the night (however it doesn't close completely so a little bit of fresh air can still come in). It has a mattress in it that provides some cushioning so you don't have to lie on the hard ground and in addition, you put your sleeping bag inside it. Our guide informed us that they were called swags as a short form of 'Sleep With A Guide'. It turns out the swags were super warm (without a guide) and I had a great sleep. It was such a great experience to sleep under the stars in Australia; not only were the stars completely amazing (I was able to recognize the Southern Cross and Milky Way) but I also heard dingos howling.

We woke up early on the second day to drive to a viewing area near Kata Tjuta to watch the sunrise. The rocks changed colour a little bit, but I thought the silhouette of Uluru with the rising sun in the background was more beautiful.

Silhouette of Uluru.

First look at Kata Tjuta.

We drove to Kata Tjuta for an early morning walk of 7.4 km around and through the beautiful rock formations. Along the way, we even got to see some feral camels. After this, we drove about 500km to our last stop of the tour, King's Canyon, however we did stop along the way at a roadhouse with an emu walking around free, some salt lakes, and Atilla - another large rock formation.

Lookout point along the path at Kata Tjuta.

Salt Lake.

Atilla. A.K.A. The toothbrush & Fool-uru.

Our campsite for the night was a bit more rustic than the last, but had a great big fire pit. That night we got to have some kangaroo, sausages and chicken for dinner, as well as some bread and potatoes that were made with the coals from the fire. I fell asleep under more amazing stars and the howls of dingos nearby.

The last day of the tour was spent walking around Watarrka National Park and the well-known King's Canyon. Our tour guide gave us lots of interesting background stories along the way. The most beautiful part of the walk was going into a canyon where, at the bottom was The Garden of Eden (not at the bottom of King's canyon, but between another canyon). King's Canyon was pretty cool too and provided some awesome photo opportunities.

The Garden of Eden.

Kings Canyon.

Living on the edge!

Before we got back to Alice Springs, we stopped at a camel farm where a couple people on our tour got to ride camels. We also stopped at the entrance sign to the town of Alice Springs for a group photo. That night we all went out for dinner at a local restaurant called Monte's. It was a nice ending to a great tour. I'm so glad I got the opportunity to travel to the Australian Outback - it was definitely one of the highlights of my tour to Australia.

My awesome outback tour group!

Next: Only a few more days spent in Adelaide before travelling to Tasmania with my good friend and travel buddy, Kaitlyn! Although the weather is a bit chilly, we're having a great time so far. As of today, it's seven days and counting before heading home!

So excited!

Kangaroo Island

On Monday, June 11th, I woke up bright and early to be picked up by my tour bus that would take me to Kangaroo Island at 6:15am. The bus left the station at 6:30am and headed toward the Fleurieu Peninsula. The driver talked a lot during the trip, giving lots of interesting background information about the places we drove past. Unfortunately I think most of the bus would rather have been sleeping. The landscape we drove through was mostly beautiful rolling hills - much of which was used for agriculture. One highlight for me was when we came around a bend and the driver pointed out a water reservoir that had a beautiful layer of fog above it. After another bend, a great canopy of trees enveloped the road and the sun was just shining through a little bit. I was also quite surprised when we drove through the small town of Myponga and there was a bit of frost on the ground.

We arrived at the Ferry dock at around 8:30am and had lots of time before it left for its 45 minute journey over to Kangaroo Island (KI). The water was fairly smooth so I managed not to get sea-sick. We met our cheerful tour guide, Kate, at the docks on KI in the small town of Penneshaw. Our first stop was a local farm to watch a sheep shearing demonstration. I thought it was really cool to watch the dogs round up the sheep and I was quite surprised at the amount of wool that came off the sheep! Shortly after, we stopped at a lookout point and got our first look at the beautiful coastline of Kangaroo Island.

Coastline of Kangaroo Island.

For lunch, we stopped at a Eucalyptus oil company and got a chance to see how the company was run and buy any of the merchandise before we ate some simple but delicious sandwiches. I was quite surprised to see that they also sold mouthwash and toothpaste.

Our next stop was the famous Seal Bay Conservation Park where we got to see the seals in their natural habitat and observe them from as close as 8-10 meters away. This part of the tour was really interesting because I got to see baby seals playing, suckling milk from their mothers, two males fighting on the beach, and a baby seal surfing the waves. I thought the baby seals were the cutest, of course. I'm also a bit jealous of them - lounging around on the beach in the sun and surfing the waves every day seems like a pretty good lifestyle to me. Plus, they have some awesome scenery!

Two male seals.

Baby seal calling for his mom.

So close! Well not really, but still pretty cool.

Some of the awesome scenery. 

How cute are they!?

Finally, the time came for what I was the most excited for: sand-boarding at Little Sahara! There were two kinds of boards - large, wide ones that you sat on (or could fit two people on) and skinny ones that you  stood up on. Starting off small, I sat down on one of the boards and went down the hill just to see how fast I'd go. My second try was more successful. Although the dunes looked pretty steep, I got up the courage on my third try to stand up on the skinnier boards. It was much more fun (and difficult) so I tried a few more times. I was only partly successful, but I still had a blast.

Super stoked!

First try.

Courageous!

Yeeaah!

Before arriving at our hostel for the night (which was quite nice), we stopped at another lookout point that overlooked Vivone Bay. We relaxed at the hostel for a couple hours and had some great barbeque for dinner before heading out after dark for a walk to see some penguins. We saw quite a few but unfortunately my pictures aren't too clear because we weren't allowed to use the flash on our cameras as it can negatively affect the penguins eyesight. No worries though, it gives you all a reason to go to Australia in the future.

Vivone Bay.

Penguin!

We got a bit of a sleep in on our second day before heading off to a nearby koala sanctuary where I saw more koalas, kangaroos, cockatoos, and even a wallaby. We continued driving to Flinders Chase National Park, home to the Remarkable Rocks - which were quite impressive - and Admirals Arch - even more impressive - where I spotted both New Zealand and Australian Fur Seals as well as whales in the bay!

Big yawn!

Classic! Rock on!

First view of the Remarkable Rocks.

Pretty cool!

I felt like I was on top of the world.

Admirals Arch.

Next was a long drive to the North coast of Kangaroo Island where the landscape changes to beautiful green rolling hills, beautiful beaches, and more impressive coasts. We stopped quickly at a Snellings beach before heading to our final destination of Stokes Bay. Stokes Bay was really cool as we had to walk through a rock cave to get to the beach, parts of which were a little bit claustrophobic. Nevertheless, I made it through the cave to the beach, which was lined with tall cliffs. I rolled up my jeans a bit and walked through the cold sea water along the beach. It would have been a great end to a trip. Unfortunately, I still had to make it back to the mainland before a two hour drive back into Adelaide.

Rolling Hills on the North Coast.

Path to Stokes Bay.

Chilly water.

New friends.

Rocks at Stokes Bay.

Another ferry ride. No worries, right? Wrong. The wind had been blowing quite strongly all day and I didn't think much of it until we arrived back in Penneshaw and Kate mentioned that it might be a rough trip back. All would have been well and good, but I get seasick. Thinking that I'd be brave, I lasted a total of about 8 minutes before taking a travel sickness tablet that my friend happened to have. Let's just say that the 45 minute trip went by VERY slowly and was not enjoyable at all. I barely made it through the ferry ride. Ah well, not everything can go smoothly. It was still an awesome trip and I'm glad I got to go!

Here's a bonus for all of you:

Next stop: Alice Springs and the Australian Outback!