Well we drove up through the center of Australia with no air conditioning and no radio. By the end of it we were covered in red dirt and crazy eyed but we've seen some beautiful things along the way.
We camped out in the bush the whole way through the center, saw the most amazing stars of my life. There's no light pollution at all. Spent a night camping UNDERGROUND in Coober Pedy, the whole town is underground! Well a lot of it is anyway, it's the opal mining capital of the world and people just burrow underground and live like little rabbits. They come up in the evening when it starts to cool down. That was pretty cool.
We hiked around Ayers Rock but didn't climb it as rain was forcasted. That rock is giant! Almost 10 k around the base, took us a couple hours. We also did some hiking in King's Canyon which is just a bit northeast and that was beautiful country. It had been raining quite a bit and we forded a couple of rivers to get in there. I thought I was going to die in our toy car, the water was about 10 inches deep! Very sketch. After King's Canyon we drove north to the Mcdonnel Ranges and spent a couple nights there. We camped on top of this hill and you could see for miles and miles. It was a good spot.
After all that time in the bush we went into Alice Springs, the only big city in the center and attended the camel races. It was awesome! I will tell you what, watching those camels lope along was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. They are hilarious animals.
From Alice we kept driving north and then east to Cloncurry. We spent about a week camped out at a dam where we met Larry, the ranger who looks after the area. We quickly made good friends with him and eventually his family too. During our week in Cloncurry there was a big event going on called the Stockman's Challenge that we would go and watch in the afternoons. I would wake up, have a run, have a swim, lay around for a while, read some, then head into town and watch some steers get herded around and then go to Larry's for dinner or back to the campsite to cook over our fire. It was a wonderful week.
Now we are on a cattle station about an hour and a half north of Cloncurry called Melinda Downs. We're helping our hosts, Danny and Tara, out mustering and drafting the cattle and also with Emma (16 months) and Matthew (2 weeks) at the house. We went to the Quamby rodeo last weekend with them and watched some bullriding and bronc riding which was very exciting. I'm becoming more and more convinced that maybe I should come back to the area and work on a cattle station. We'll see :)
Next we're off to the Great Barrier Reef to have a look around and then in three weeks or so I'll be home.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
happy father's day dad!
Dear Dad,
composed this song for you on this violen I found. Hope you like it!
love, Jewel
sheep and kangaroos!
I am currently in Keith, South Australia WWOOFing on a sheep and mixed crop farm with Dean and Adair, the couple who own it. Lots of exciting things have been happening here! Kristen, Erika and I got here right in the middle of lambing so there are babies everywhere. Every morning we go through all the paddocks and check on the ewes and help the ones who are having trouble give birth. Now, some of you who have spent a lot of time with me may wonder about how I did in those situations as I have a very strong fear of childbirth (or anything giving birth for that matter). I am proud to tell you all that I did quite well and even pulled a lamb out myself one morning. I almost hyperventilated and had several minor heart attacks but I feel like I'm making progress.
After my last update we went to another WWOOF host near Bega and stayed there for a week and then went back north to Sydney, exchanged rental cars, went straight west to Broken Hill and then south to Keith where we have been for the past week. We are heading into Adelaide tomorrow and then north up the center of the country to Alice Springs to see Uluru. From there we are going north a bit and then back east to the Great Barrier Reef and then down the east coast to Sydney where we will fly out late August. Well that's the Grand Plan at least!
After my last update we went to another WWOOF host near Bega and stayed there for a week and then went back north to Sydney, exchanged rental cars, went straight west to Broken Hill and then south to Keith where we have been for the past week. We are heading into Adelaide tomorrow and then north up the center of the country to Alice Springs to see Uluru. From there we are going north a bit and then back east to the Great Barrier Reef and then down the east coast to Sydney where we will fly out late August. Well that's the Grand Plan at least!
I thought this might just be a cliche but there are seriously kangaroos everywhere. Everywhere. You cannot get away from them. There are roughly 60 million or so. We have also seen wallabys (little kangaroos), wombats, emus, parrots, cockotoos, and kookaburas. No sign yet of the elusive koala bear but I am constantly vigilant in hopes of spotting one.
It's really beautiful, the outback. There's nothing there but red dirt and scrub for miles and miles and miles. Open sky and lots of space, I really like it. The closer you get to the coast the bigger the trees get. I have never seen eucalyptus trees like here in Aussie. They are absolutely fantastic.
final note: I'm not sure when I'll be able to write next. We don't have any other farms lined up and we're headed into the middle of nowhere for the next month or so. I will hopefully have many wonderful stories and pictures to share soon though. Love to you all.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
AUSTRALIA
Ok.
So the ENTIRE first week I was in Australia it rained. Erika, Kristen and I lived in a three person tent for 7 days. Wet. It was hellish.
Upon flying into Sydney two weeks ago we proceeded to rent a miniture version of a real car and take off down the coast to Jervis Bay where we camped. In the pouring rain. While an army of possums were invading. Our activities during that time consisted of sleeping, eating sandwiches, reading, railing at Australian weather, sleeping, picking fights with each other, kicking possums, and trying to figure out how to come home early.
After about 4 days in Jervis Bay we moved on to Canberra to see the sights there. Went to the national art gallery, the oldest Anglican church in Australia, and the Parliament building. We got to sit in on the question time in the Parliament and it was AWESOME. Basically what happens is the Senate is sitting in a big room and a person will be called up to a mic to address whatever issue. All the people who agree with the speaker boisterously call out their approval and clap and all the people who disagree heckle the speaker and laugh at them. It was absolutely hilarious and utterly fascinating. I could not believe the madness unfolding before my eyes as American politics are nothing like this. This was not stiff, crusty, or boring. I thought a few times that a fist fight would break out but it didn't quite escalate that far.
We also went to the movies one night in Canberra to escape the rain and saw Prince of Persia. To anyone who has not seen Prince of Persia yet.....go see it. If you like movies with fight scenes go see it. It's awesome. Props to Jake Gyllenhal for that role. It's a little cheesy but in a good way and definitely worthwhile. We snuck into another movie called 'I Love You Too' which turned out to be an adorable Ozzy romantic comedy. So we not only got out of the rain for four hours or so, we saw an epic Persian movie and got an Australian cultural experience.
Shortly after our trip to the Parliament we drove out to our first Ozzy WWOOF hosts, Greg and Sue. Here we've been having a wonderful time ripping tussocks out, helping get ready for the installation of some solar panels, fencing, shifting cattle, and cooking authentic American meals for the family (hamburgers and pumpkin pie which they have never heard of). I've been learning about strawbale house construction, passive solar heating, intensive grazing, and biodynamics, all of which are extremely interesting. I also learned to ride a motorbike and it was possibly the most intensely awesome experience ever. I also learned to drive a stickshift. With my left hand as I was on the other side of the truck! It was odd, but very fun and I am immensely impressed with myself!
Leaving tomorrow morning for our next WWOOF hosts. After that...not quite sure.
Love to you all!
Jewel
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Ridiculous Life
hello everyone!
We have been on the north island for the past couple weeks now. We spent about a week and a half in Wellington; it was very weird to be in the city after being in the middle of the boondocks for so long. At first we were wildly indignant just at the fact buildings were so close together and there were so many people and cars getting in our way. It took us a few days to reconcile ourselves to civilization again and we had a great time doing city activities.
(we still really miss our sheep and wide spaces of the south island though)
We went to the Te Papa museum, rode our bikes around the Wellington bay, spent hours in bookstores, watched classic Kiwi movies at a film archive, rode out to the Weta workshop, watched skaters and longboarders at the skatepark, raided thrift stores for giant New Zealand woolly sweaters, spent an afternoon learning to kickbox with our Irish friend Jerrod from our hostel, went to a comedy show and a small "country" concert (turned out to be emo/indie/grunge rock but we enjoyed it nonetheless), and walked all over and around the city wide-eyed at how many people there were.
We sold the bikes in Wellington.
It was a dark and gut-wrentching day.
We wore mourning colors and said a few tearful words and rented a car again for the road trip to Auckland.
It took about three days (at a very leisurly pace) to drive up the east coast. We tasted wine in Hawke's Bay, tasted cider in Gisbourne and got to tour a microbrewery there too, it was very interesting. The highlight of the east coast was watching the sunrise from the East cape lighthouse. We woke up at five and drove there to hike up 700 steps to the top of the cliff. It was a gorgeous golden sunrise. The lighthouse is the farthest eastern piece of land below the dayline. So that means we were the first people on earth to see the sun come up that day. That's a cool thought. There was a group of five ladies up there celebrating the sunrise with champange. Five times a year they go up there to celebrate each lady's birthday! We heartily approved this tradition and they invited us to one of the lady's beachouse where they stay every time they drive up from Gisbourne to the lighthouse. On the way there they stopped to show us the biggest Pohutakawa tree in NZ. It was a sight to behold. They made us a delicous morning tea and entertained us with their funny stories and good humored teasing. We were very sad to leave them.
From the lighthouse we drove to Wahi Beach where we got to stay a few days in a friend's beachouse! We had a beautiful house all to ourselves not even 30 meters from the ocean. It was awesome. We cooked in a real kitchen, slept in beautiful comfy beds, took hot showers, and did laundry in an actual washing machine for the first time in more than a month!!!! For the next few days we would drive up the Coromandel Penninsela exploring during the daytime and come back to the beachouse at night. I ate the most delicious pancake breakfast of my life at a little organic cafe in Coromandel Town, we examined beautiful pottery at a small place just down the road, lay on our backs in a Kauri tree grove looking up at the 600 year old trees towering 60 meters above us, dug a hot tub in the sand at Hot Water Beach and lay in the steaming water all afternoon sipping cider and watching the waves and reading, and hiked to Cathedral Cove to watch a magnificent sunset color the sky. That is the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life. We feasted on alvacados and kiwis we bought by the bag from people selling them by the road and kept exclaiming to each other how wildly happy we were.
We fly to Oz land on Monday. I know it will kill me to leave but I'm thrilled to be moving on to a new place and I can't wait to explore Australia. As the time in NZ comes to an end we keep trying to make a list of all the good moments and it seems like we end up covering about every moment on the trip (however Goat Hills dominates the conversation by far). We've had a tremendous time in New Zealand. Most of the time making the list we're laughing so hard it hurts my chest and I think my heart can't pump enough blood to keep up with the happiness. Life is pretty dang good.
We have been on the north island for the past couple weeks now. We spent about a week and a half in Wellington; it was very weird to be in the city after being in the middle of the boondocks for so long. At first we were wildly indignant just at the fact buildings were so close together and there were so many people and cars getting in our way. It took us a few days to reconcile ourselves to civilization again and we had a great time doing city activities.
(we still really miss our sheep and wide spaces of the south island though)
We went to the Te Papa museum, rode our bikes around the Wellington bay, spent hours in bookstores, watched classic Kiwi movies at a film archive, rode out to the Weta workshop, watched skaters and longboarders at the skatepark, raided thrift stores for giant New Zealand woolly sweaters, spent an afternoon learning to kickbox with our Irish friend Jerrod from our hostel, went to a comedy show and a small "country" concert (turned out to be emo/indie/grunge rock but we enjoyed it nonetheless), and walked all over and around the city wide-eyed at how many people there were.
We sold the bikes in Wellington.
It was a dark and gut-wrentching day.
We wore mourning colors and said a few tearful words and rented a car again for the road trip to Auckland.
It took about three days (at a very leisurly pace) to drive up the east coast. We tasted wine in Hawke's Bay, tasted cider in Gisbourne and got to tour a microbrewery there too, it was very interesting. The highlight of the east coast was watching the sunrise from the East cape lighthouse. We woke up at five and drove there to hike up 700 steps to the top of the cliff. It was a gorgeous golden sunrise. The lighthouse is the farthest eastern piece of land below the dayline. So that means we were the first people on earth to see the sun come up that day. That's a cool thought. There was a group of five ladies up there celebrating the sunrise with champange. Five times a year they go up there to celebrate each lady's birthday! We heartily approved this tradition and they invited us to one of the lady's beachouse where they stay every time they drive up from Gisbourne to the lighthouse. On the way there they stopped to show us the biggest Pohutakawa tree in NZ. It was a sight to behold. They made us a delicous morning tea and entertained us with their funny stories and good humored teasing. We were very sad to leave them.
From the lighthouse we drove to Wahi Beach where we got to stay a few days in a friend's beachouse! We had a beautiful house all to ourselves not even 30 meters from the ocean. It was awesome. We cooked in a real kitchen, slept in beautiful comfy beds, took hot showers, and did laundry in an actual washing machine for the first time in more than a month!!!! For the next few days we would drive up the Coromandel Penninsela exploring during the daytime and come back to the beachouse at night. I ate the most delicious pancake breakfast of my life at a little organic cafe in Coromandel Town, we examined beautiful pottery at a small place just down the road, lay on our backs in a Kauri tree grove looking up at the 600 year old trees towering 60 meters above us, dug a hot tub in the sand at Hot Water Beach and lay in the steaming water all afternoon sipping cider and watching the waves and reading, and hiked to Cathedral Cove to watch a magnificent sunset color the sky. That is the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life. We feasted on alvacados and kiwis we bought by the bag from people selling them by the road and kept exclaiming to each other how wildly happy we were.
We fly to Oz land on Monday. I know it will kill me to leave but I'm thrilled to be moving on to a new place and I can't wait to explore Australia. As the time in NZ comes to an end we keep trying to make a list of all the good moments and it seems like we end up covering about every moment on the trip (however Goat Hills dominates the conversation by far). We've had a tremendous time in New Zealand. Most of the time making the list we're laughing so hard it hurts my chest and I think my heart can't pump enough blood to keep up with the happiness. Life is pretty dang good.
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