november 25, 2009
Ok, so i am currently under the influence of the of a thing that the english language currently defines as "alcohol", in other words I am drunker than a Sailor on Sunday, which is making this blog a little harder to write than usual, anyway lets get started.
So I am curently in Melbourne again, we spent the day ine Bellarat, which is a cool city of 60,000 that was originally a gold mining town that has evolved to survive without it's boloved mine. It was abandoned 50 years ago, but it did operate from 1850-1951, wich has allowded several old style brick buildings to rise and stay risen while the mine has fallen away to be buried by time. The difference between this city and other mining towns, is that the mine operated for long enough to allow enough idustry to spring up around the town, that so when the mine shut down, the city didn't just die, the mine brought the city massive amount of money, but it didn't die when the mine shut down, it just kept ticking. There is a massive amount of old 19th century buildings including the old train station still linking it to Melbourne today. The town was just cool, 19th century downtown with the promanode full of trees, grass, and monuments to Victoria, King George, and Robby Burns. Very interesting, but the radio drue my attention as well today. One of the most interesting points of traveling to other countries is turning on the radio and seing what the news of the day is, and boy was I on the floor laughing today. While driving back from the Granthian mountains, the radio on scan, spurted out something truely Australin, killer kangaroos. On the front page of the Melbourne newspaper was about a Kangaroo who was running from a dog, it "Bounced" into a pond, and the dog chassed it, and as the dog swam towards the roo, the kangaroo grabbed him with it's front legs, and drowned it with it's front arms. Aparently, this happens more regularley than I thought, even the radio anouncer didn't beleive it, until about 12 people called in to correct her. As for the Granthians, they are a mountain range I cannot yet explain, they have trees evrywhere, it rarely snows up here, they are not nearly as baren or wild as the rocky mountains, but they are still worth checking out. They are different, but a nice change from the bright, hot beaches of the coast, as well as the pounding surf causing me to loose my balance on that wonderful surf board of mine, but enough shots at the cold Canadian climate, it would be rater rude of me to give shots at those who just got snown upon, but anyways. Anyway funny thing is that chris and I discussed the movie "Cruel Intentions" earlier today, and now I am watching it with 2 German girls in my common area, bring on irony, or maybe I am just drunk. Tomorow we will board a big boat to Tasmania, and hit the Melbourne market, big day, must first find bed, and room, and room key, and maybe shoes to walk to room in....Baby steps Pluim, baby steps. But I due wish that the walls would stop spinning. Anyway, goodnight, must make way to room, when I remeber which room numberr it is. This seemed so much easier when I wasn't drunk.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Well we didn't expect that
Dear blog
It has been 5 days since my last update.......whoops..5 days, really? Well, lets get cracking.
Well we drove into Melbourne with little to no trouble, avoiding the toll roads (will cost you 13 Aussie dollars if you don't) and made it all the way into the ferry depot where we parked and inquired about getting over to Tasmania. That is where the bombshell broke, the ferry was booked solid for about a full week. I just about collapsed when I heard that, but we booked our tickets for the 26, and decided how we were going to kill 7 days. After some discussion we decided to head out of Melbourne and hit the great ocean road, which is when the worst part of our trip started, we had to get out of Melbourne on a different route than when we came in, still avoiding the toll roads, and as we discovered with no good maps of the city. Well with Christian navigating and I driving we attempted this task. If you could have plotted our route out of the city, I am sure you would have believed it to be an excellent impression of a screwed up artist, or maybe it looked like a crushed snail shell, or maybe it is best compared to what you would get if you asked a drunk Irishman to spell his name in Cantonese. Anyway, our eventual course came out so, starting from the ferry depot we went East, then South, then East, then South, followed by a very quick U turn (as I discovered we were heading up an off ramp onto a freeway, heading into one way traffic) North, East, North, West, South, west, North....and somehow we emerged on the North end of Melbourne at the beginning of rush hour, needless to say we were happy to put the city behind us for the next couple of days. Anyway, it wasn't Chris's fault, we had very poor maps to work with, I did miss one sign, and 2 roads we were going to take out of the city turned out to be toll roads, which forced us to make hasty alterations that were incredibly hard to plan for. Anyway driving in Melbourne, as an Australian experience, 0.5/10. Anyway, enough ranting let me hit some highlights. I bought a surf board, used, and it is incredibly fun, the day I bought it I went out and was surfing beside a surf class, and by the end of the day I was better than anyone in that class. The funnist part for me was when me, and 3 other people went to surf a wave, but only me and the instructor caught it. I was able to ride it all the way in, which is an amazing experience, and incredibly fun. I then went surfing in a bit more turmoil water a couple of days later on Johnston beach (on the great ocean road), which had some 5-6 foot waves on it. It was way harder, as you had to paddle 10 minutes to get out to where they were capping, and even then it was a crap shoot. I was able to ride a couple in, but I got cold, the wind picked up and my camera man got chased back to the car due to a rather large amount of flys. After getting pounded by the waves 4 times in a row I called it a day. Today we hit a much tamer beach near Portsmouth, where I went surfing for about an hour, and then lent my board and wet suit to my camera man. He loved it, and I liked watching him get pounded for a change, as it had taken me 2 days to get the sand out of my hair from Johnstons beach, anyway, he wasn't that bad, but he started to understand what I was talking about when it comes to judging waves. Surfing, 10/10 as an Aussie experience, I think Chris even likes it better than his guitar, though he won't admit it, there is nothing like catching a wave and riding it, as he said. I should probably mention the great ocean road. It is a very neat drive, especially when you stop to see the coalla bears, the 12 apostals, and the bay of islands, but honestly I enjoyed the inland scenery just as much. We drove through different types of farmland that reminded me of home all the way up to the Grampian mountains, all the farms in the area remind me of home, I even saw a canola crop. I like this area a lot, much better than the city's at least.. Great ocean road cool scenery, but only 6/10. Oh ya, should mention this also, we came across a cheese factory and milk plant in Warnenbool (apply named Cheese World). There we tested 12 types of cheeses from herb and garlic, to a Chili flavoured, bought milkshake after do to very powerful, and spicy after taste, they make a very wonderful milkshake as well. Anyway, that is all for now, surf safe.
P.S. Still can't upload pictures, will do so later.
It has been 5 days since my last update.......whoops..5 days, really? Well, lets get cracking.
Well we drove into Melbourne with little to no trouble, avoiding the toll roads (will cost you 13 Aussie dollars if you don't) and made it all the way into the ferry depot where we parked and inquired about getting over to Tasmania. That is where the bombshell broke, the ferry was booked solid for about a full week. I just about collapsed when I heard that, but we booked our tickets for the 26, and decided how we were going to kill 7 days. After some discussion we decided to head out of Melbourne and hit the great ocean road, which is when the worst part of our trip started, we had to get out of Melbourne on a different route than when we came in, still avoiding the toll roads, and as we discovered with no good maps of the city. Well with Christian navigating and I driving we attempted this task. If you could have plotted our route out of the city, I am sure you would have believed it to be an excellent impression of a screwed up artist, or maybe it looked like a crushed snail shell, or maybe it is best compared to what you would get if you asked a drunk Irishman to spell his name in Cantonese. Anyway, our eventual course came out so, starting from the ferry depot we went East, then South, then East, then South, followed by a very quick U turn (as I discovered we were heading up an off ramp onto a freeway, heading into one way traffic) North, East, North, West, South, west, North....and somehow we emerged on the North end of Melbourne at the beginning of rush hour, needless to say we were happy to put the city behind us for the next couple of days. Anyway, it wasn't Chris's fault, we had very poor maps to work with, I did miss one sign, and 2 roads we were going to take out of the city turned out to be toll roads, which forced us to make hasty alterations that were incredibly hard to plan for. Anyway driving in Melbourne, as an Australian experience, 0.5/10. Anyway, enough ranting let me hit some highlights. I bought a surf board, used, and it is incredibly fun, the day I bought it I went out and was surfing beside a surf class, and by the end of the day I was better than anyone in that class. The funnist part for me was when me, and 3 other people went to surf a wave, but only me and the instructor caught it. I was able to ride it all the way in, which is an amazing experience, and incredibly fun. I then went surfing in a bit more turmoil water a couple of days later on Johnston beach (on the great ocean road), which had some 5-6 foot waves on it. It was way harder, as you had to paddle 10 minutes to get out to where they were capping, and even then it was a crap shoot. I was able to ride a couple in, but I got cold, the wind picked up and my camera man got chased back to the car due to a rather large amount of flys. After getting pounded by the waves 4 times in a row I called it a day. Today we hit a much tamer beach near Portsmouth, where I went surfing for about an hour, and then lent my board and wet suit to my camera man. He loved it, and I liked watching him get pounded for a change, as it had taken me 2 days to get the sand out of my hair from Johnstons beach, anyway, he wasn't that bad, but he started to understand what I was talking about when it comes to judging waves. Surfing, 10/10 as an Aussie experience, I think Chris even likes it better than his guitar, though he won't admit it, there is nothing like catching a wave and riding it, as he said. I should probably mention the great ocean road. It is a very neat drive, especially when you stop to see the coalla bears, the 12 apostals, and the bay of islands, but honestly I enjoyed the inland scenery just as much. We drove through different types of farmland that reminded me of home all the way up to the Grampian mountains, all the farms in the area remind me of home, I even saw a canola crop. I like this area a lot, much better than the city's at least.. Great ocean road cool scenery, but only 6/10. Oh ya, should mention this also, we came across a cheese factory and milk plant in Warnenbool (apply named Cheese World). There we tested 12 types of cheeses from herb and garlic, to a Chili flavoured, bought milkshake after do to very powerful, and spicy after taste, they make a very wonderful milkshake as well. Anyway, that is all for now, surf safe.
P.S. Still can't upload pictures, will do so later.
Wave 1 Adam 0
November 18, 2009
We are currently at 90 mile beach, and if you are wondering what it so significant, you should know that this goes on for 90 miles. Very cool. We went for a swim yesterday, and the waves are really powerful here, I got taken out several times, but the funniest episode was by far my cavalry charge into the oncoming surf. Unfortunately for me, several things happened at once that I should have foreseen. First my timing may be considered poor, very poor, secondly I was going full tilt when I hit the wave, thirdly the wave I chose to attack grew from a meager 3 feet to full 7 feet upon my point of impact, fourthly, due to a strong rip tide I was on solid sand, with no water to cushion my fall, fifthly at the point of contact the wave capped and crashed down upon me with the force of a 6 ton baseball bat. When I stood up, all I could hear was Christian laughing, which was the most unfortunate part, as there was a witness to my stupidity, especially since I chastised him for not joining me in my cavalry charge. He later explained to me that my defeat went like so. Adam ran full speed at a 7 foot wave, the wave hit Adam, at point of contact Adam stopped dead for an instant, a very short instant, wave takes Adam out and throws him 25 feet back on to beach, and before he is able to let the dancing stars settle, another similar size wave crashes in and hits him, knocking him over a second time. In boxing terms, it was a one shot knock out for the other guy. Ocean 1, Adam 0.
In other news we finished our mountain drive today, for a major road it looked a lot like a very narrow one lane dirt path, but it was fun all the same. Way up on this road we stumbled across this old school house built in 1860, the only remaining building from a historic town, that was mostly destroyed in a forest fire 5 years ago. We signed the registrar and I asked Chris who the last Canadian was, there were a lot of people in the book, Czech, German, Irish, and a recent Canadian, which sent Chris into fits of laughter, it was my sister's name in the log book. Irony, how you sting. We then spent the next 20 minutes while driving up the road trying to figure out how she would have gotten up here, considering you would have to be mental to take a bus up these roads, which is when we ran into the Oz Experience bus coming the other way, on a blind corner. This both answered our question, and sent the adrenalin pumping all at the same time. We then pulled out our video recorder to tape the extreme road, when we ran into a greyhound bus, just after we mentioned on film, that there is no way a full size bus could get up here, we decided not to make any more comments, as irony seemed to be hard at work. Anyway, off to Melbourne tomorrow, will hopefully catch the ferry to Taz in the next couple of days.
P.S. sorry, can't upload pictures or blog about Canberra, issue with computer, will try later.
We are currently at 90 mile beach, and if you are wondering what it so significant, you should know that this goes on for 90 miles. Very cool. We went for a swim yesterday, and the waves are really powerful here, I got taken out several times, but the funniest episode was by far my cavalry charge into the oncoming surf. Unfortunately for me, several things happened at once that I should have foreseen. First my timing may be considered poor, very poor, secondly I was going full tilt when I hit the wave, thirdly the wave I chose to attack grew from a meager 3 feet to full 7 feet upon my point of impact, fourthly, due to a strong rip tide I was on solid sand, with no water to cushion my fall, fifthly at the point of contact the wave capped and crashed down upon me with the force of a 6 ton baseball bat. When I stood up, all I could hear was Christian laughing, which was the most unfortunate part, as there was a witness to my stupidity, especially since I chastised him for not joining me in my cavalry charge. He later explained to me that my defeat went like so. Adam ran full speed at a 7 foot wave, the wave hit Adam, at point of contact Adam stopped dead for an instant, a very short instant, wave takes Adam out and throws him 25 feet back on to beach, and before he is able to let the dancing stars settle, another similar size wave crashes in and hits him, knocking him over a second time. In boxing terms, it was a one shot knock out for the other guy. Ocean 1, Adam 0.
In other news we finished our mountain drive today, for a major road it looked a lot like a very narrow one lane dirt path, but it was fun all the same. Way up on this road we stumbled across this old school house built in 1860, the only remaining building from a historic town, that was mostly destroyed in a forest fire 5 years ago. We signed the registrar and I asked Chris who the last Canadian was, there were a lot of people in the book, Czech, German, Irish, and a recent Canadian, which sent Chris into fits of laughter, it was my sister's name in the log book. Irony, how you sting. We then spent the next 20 minutes while driving up the road trying to figure out how she would have gotten up here, considering you would have to be mental to take a bus up these roads, which is when we ran into the Oz Experience bus coming the other way, on a blind corner. This both answered our question, and sent the adrenalin pumping all at the same time. We then pulled out our video recorder to tape the extreme road, when we ran into a greyhound bus, just after we mentioned on film, that there is no way a full size bus could get up here, we decided not to make any more comments, as irony seemed to be hard at work. Anyway, off to Melbourne tomorrow, will hopefully catch the ferry to Taz in the next couple of days.
P.S. sorry, can't upload pictures or blog about Canberra, issue with computer, will try later.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Short And Sweet
Am currently in the capital of Australia (Canberra) right now in the national library, with free Internet. We have spent the last couple of days camping and moving from place to place. We decided to abandon the coast for a short time due to a need to head inland. I am glad to say it was a good decision, especially since i couldn't find a cheap surf board. We came along this road that was half gravel half pavement, 
really fun drive through the middle of know where, literally. 
We did come across this really cool town that looked like it was pulled right out of the 1920's, the main street looked so cool. 
Anyway we have some cool pictures of the drive. Oh, camped cheap 2 night ago on Jarvus bay, within the bomb testing range, and no I am not joking. There is actually a camp ground withing the military training grounds, 
but they do give cheap camping, as long as you don't mind some navel exercises going on. Anyway, spending the day in Canberra, they have really cool museums, the ones that remind you that a country's history isn't just about the country, but rather about the people who make it their country. Hope everyone is well.
really fun drive through the middle of know where, literally. We did come across this really cool town that looked like it was pulled right out of the 1920's, the main street looked so cool. Anyway we have some cool pictures of the drive. Oh, camped cheap 2 night ago on Jarvus bay, within the bomb testing range, and no I am not joking. There is actually a camp ground withing the military training grounds, but they do give cheap camping, as long as you don't mind some navel exercises going on. Anyway, spending the day in Canberra, they have really cool museums, the ones that remind you that a country's history isn't just about the country, but rather about the people who make it their country. Hope everyone is well.P.S. did anyone at home hear about a lost hiker on green mountain last week, because I ran into one of their friends here, apparently this individual was not one with an over abundance of brain matter.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Out Of Sydney
Since you are probably really tired of hearing me blog, I will let Christian tell you about the beach, the sun and our last 2 days outside of Sydney (http://christian-travel.blogspot.com/). By the way Gary beach better than any part of Sydney we were in. 
Now, I must go, must buy a surf board, if only to counter Chris's guitar.
Now, I must go, must buy a surf board, if only to counter Chris's guitar.
J-Walkers
November 10, 2009
Well today I did as Sydneyers do, I J-walked. Literally, the one notable thing that Sydneyers are very good at is J-walking. They do it every time, right in front of cops sitting in police car, but they didn’t seem to mind, that or they were on their lunch break. Of course, the first time I tried to do it, I made the mistake of looking the wrong direction as I nearly walked in front of a bus. You kind of forget that these people drive on the wrong side of the road, thus you look the wrong way, and get up close and personal with several different kinds of vehicles. I am happy to report though, that both Christian and I have successfully concurred the art of Australian J-walking, and can now do it as well as any native Sydneyer, with the exception that we are wearing t-shirts.
Well, as I bet you will be finding out soon enough, I bought a car today, no not this one,
or this one, 
but this one 
and tomorrow we will be leaving Sydney, which will be nice. Sydney is a nice city, but we are ready to get out of here, it is just too busy, I want to discover the other side of Australia, that and we are going to be back here at the end of our trip, so I am ready to leave. I admit, that tomorrow will be a very weird and hectic drive and a story all on its own. We plan on heading to a city of 250,000 south of Sydney, I forget what it is called, but we need to pick up some more gear, in a city that is a little more car friendly. Well, we will update you when we get back to internet. Talk to you later, I have to finish packing and doing some other stuff. By the way you have no clue how weird it is to hear Christmas music in 32 degree weather? Don’t worry, I won’t brag.
Well today I did as Sydneyers do, I J-walked. Literally, the one notable thing that Sydneyers are very good at is J-walking. They do it every time, right in front of cops sitting in police car, but they didn’t seem to mind, that or they were on their lunch break. Of course, the first time I tried to do it, I made the mistake of looking the wrong direction as I nearly walked in front of a bus. You kind of forget that these people drive on the wrong side of the road, thus you look the wrong way, and get up close and personal with several different kinds of vehicles. I am happy to report though, that both Christian and I have successfully concurred the art of Australian J-walking, and can now do it as well as any native Sydneyer, with the exception that we are wearing t-shirts.
Well, as I bet you will be finding out soon enough, I bought a car today, no not this one,
or this one, but this one and tomorrow we will be leaving Sydney, which will be nice. Sydney is a nice city, but we are ready to get out of here, it is just too busy, I want to discover the other side of Australia, that and we are going to be back here at the end of our trip, so I am ready to leave. I admit, that tomorrow will be a very weird and hectic drive and a story all on its own. We plan on heading to a city of 250,000 south of Sydney, I forget what it is called, but we need to pick up some more gear, in a city that is a little more car friendly. Well, we will update you when we get back to internet. Talk to you later, I have to finish packing and doing some other stuff. By the way you have no clue how weird it is to hear Christmas music in 32 degree weather? Don’t worry, I won’t brag.
Boring Day
November 9, 2009
Well today we went looking at cars again. Started off by taking a bus to Malubrau junction costing 3.80 per person, per direction. It was nice though, the suburb was really cool, not as much traffic, or congestion as in the city center. Most of the houses were made of brick and more of the style you would find in LA. We still haven’t hit Bondi beach, and yes I know that is very embarrassing considering it was like 32 degrees today. Any way, we found a station wagon for 5500 including full maintenance, year warranty, and road side assistance. Only 169,000 km on it, so not bad. Well on the way back to the hostel we hit the notice boards and found a posting for a van with new engine and transmission, as well as a bunch of camping gear. We walked over to have a look, but discovered that it only had a 2nd hand gear box and engine. After a little discussion we decided it wasn’t worth the risk, we don’t know the millage on either of them, though Chris didn’t seem all too concerned about that. On the way back we stopped by Central YHA in Sydney for supper and saw on the notice board a brand new posting for a 1992 4WD with 200,000 km for only 4500. We will look at that tomorrow, and if we don’t like it, we will buy the station wagon tomorrow afternoon. We went to a bar called Scuba tonight, it was packed, so much that I have a strange feeling that we were majorly over fire code. We left after a drink each, to loud, and to chaotic. Well, this is it for today, still working on trying to fix my blog, will talk later.
Well today we went looking at cars again. Started off by taking a bus to Malubrau junction costing 3.80 per person, per direction. It was nice though, the suburb was really cool, not as much traffic, or congestion as in the city center. Most of the houses were made of brick and more of the style you would find in LA. We still haven’t hit Bondi beach, and yes I know that is very embarrassing considering it was like 32 degrees today. Any way, we found a station wagon for 5500 including full maintenance, year warranty, and road side assistance. Only 169,000 km on it, so not bad. Well on the way back to the hostel we hit the notice boards and found a posting for a van with new engine and transmission, as well as a bunch of camping gear. We walked over to have a look, but discovered that it only had a 2nd hand gear box and engine. After a little discussion we decided it wasn’t worth the risk, we don’t know the millage on either of them, though Chris didn’t seem all too concerned about that. On the way back we stopped by Central YHA in Sydney for supper and saw on the notice board a brand new posting for a 1992 4WD with 200,000 km for only 4500. We will look at that tomorrow, and if we don’t like it, we will buy the station wagon tomorrow afternoon. We went to a bar called Scuba tonight, it was packed, so much that I have a strange feeling that we were majorly over fire code. We left after a drink each, to loud, and to chaotic. Well, this is it for today, still working on trying to fix my blog, will talk later.
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