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Welcome to the Tropics

Sunday, July 8th, 2007

My tour is now officially finished and I am sitting in Darwin contemplating how to get to Broome. I met with my group that I was leaving one last time for supper before going to bed for my early morning departure. My room, that was empty when I left, was now occupied by two Canadians. One of whom snored all night preventing me from getting a decent night sleep. I woke up at 4:30 am, got ready to leave, and went down to wait for my pickup. The bus finally arrived an hour later than it was supposed to. I was one of the last people to be picked up so I was relegated to a seat in the very back of the bus. This bus was very different from the one used to get to Alice Springs. The seats were all high which gave good neck support, but impeded conversation. The group was also much bigger consisting of 22 people which nearly filled the bus. We had a female tour guide/driver. The trip over the next three days mostly took place on the bus with a few stops in between. [read on]

Northward Ho

Saturday, June 30th, 2007

I am now sitting in Alice Springs midway through my 14 day tour of the red center of Australia. I have one day off here before rejoining the tour for my trip to Darwin. The trip began with a 6:00 am pick up at my hostel in Adelaide. I was the first one to be picked up and proceeded to meet my very energetic guides who had such interesting names as Horti and Doc. These are not there real names of course, but merely nicknames that they have either decided to grace themselves with, or have been given to them by others. We then went around Adelaide and picked up the rest of the people on the tour. The final group consisted of 10 people (8 girls, two guys, and two male guides). The group was made up of two Koreans, two Mexicans, one Spanish, one French, one German, two Swiss, and me. I was the oldest person in the group with the exception of one of the guides who was 30. I belive the youngest person was 21. After completing all the paper work we started on our way. The bus we were in held up to 21 people so we had lots of room to spread out. We began to do the usual things that happen when you throw people together. We introduced ourselves to each other with the help of such musical classics as Ghostbusters to help break the ice. We soon left the city behind and made our way to Parachilna which was our first stop for the night. [read on]

Adelaide

Saturday, June 23rd, 2007
I have spent the last four days exploring Adelaide and attempting to wrangle up someone to share fuel costs with for a trip through the Outback. As usual and much to my frustration, I have had no luck in this ... [Continue reading this entry]

Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007
On Friday, I caught a Country Link XPT train for the 12 hour trip from Sydney to Melbourne. I passed the time reading and talking to people on the train. For a good part of the trip, I sat next ... [Continue reading this entry]

Sydney – The Beginning of A New Journey

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007
A rather turbulent airplane trip over the Tasman Sea (or "the Ditch" as its called here) took me to Australia's largest city of Sydney. I arrived at the airport and unlike New Zealand I positively flew through customs. I did ... [Continue reading this entry]

Winding down in Akaroa

Friday, June 8th, 2007
This week has been one of my slower weeks since I have been in New Zealand. I spent a day walking around Christchurch exploring the cathedral and the surrounding area. On Monday, I woke up to a beautiful day and ... [Continue reading this entry]

South and Eastern South Island

Saturday, June 2nd, 2007
As mentioned in the last post, Jayne and I left Te Anua to explore the Caitlins (an area of remote beaches, lighthouses, farms, seals, whales, sea lions, and penguins) in a vehicle that Jayne was borrowing from her future employer. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Fiordland National Park

Saturday, May 26th, 2007
After a while even travel and seeing new places becomes routine. It just becomes what you do and obtains a sort of normalcy. It is still fun but you tend to loose the sense of excitement that comes with seeing ... [Continue reading this entry]

Helicopters, Hitchhiking, and Hangovers (I needed one more H)

Sunday, May 20th, 2007
The helicopter ride and glacier walk were by the far the most expensive things outside of airfare that I have done on my trip, yet, but well worth it. (Aunt Rosemary, you said you wanted me to use your monetary ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Heaphy Track

Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
I arrived in Picton after completing a cloudy and windy crossing from the North to the South Island by ferry. The ferry left Wellington at 8:30 am and cruised out of the Wellington harbor into the Cook Strait. The area ... [Continue reading this entry]