May 24, 2005

G'Day Mates!

Well, well, well...it's been quite some time since I last wrote and, after receiving threatening emails from some of you about the lack updates on my part, I figured I needed to jump back on the horse and get one out to those who are wondering if I am still alive.

I have just experienced one of the greatest months in the life of all backpackers on earth.  As I mentioned in my previous email, I was looking forward to good towels, good food, and good beds.  Well, I got all three things plus a whole lot more. 

I flew to Melbourne from Adelaide and met my parents at the airport just minutes after I landed.  All is took was two hugs (one extremely long one from my mother) and I was in heaven. Melbourne was nice, food wise, but other than that we didn't get to see or do much other than take a quick, non-successful trip to the casino downtown.  One day we took the car we had rented down to the coast and drove along the Great Ocean Road, which is supposed to be one of the best drives in all of Australia.  I think after a wonderful day full of a fabulous lunch in Apollo Bay, seeing the twelve apostles (which are big rock formations jutting up out of the ocean near the coast), and a really neat natural arch, we all agreed with the rumor.

We flew out of Melbourne to Tasmania and spent about three days there.  We basically drove in a circle around the entire countryside, attempting to see countless National Parks. But, to no avail, the weather just would not let up and the clouds just fought with us every step of the way.  Unfortunately, the only Tasmanian devils that we came across in our travels were lying dead as road kill on the side of the road. We slept in the neat little town of Launceston one night and Hobart for the second night.  Overall, Tasmania was a lot of driving and not such nice weather but we did get to see every inch of the place, gray or not.

After our driving expedition in Tassie we flew to Sydney which was FABULOUS.  I think it ranked the highest on all of our lists.  Let me tell you, going back to visit Sydney (not working and living there) was absolute magic.  I really liked it the second time around.  Could that have had something to do with the fact that I was doing it first class?  Hmmmm...don't quite know.  We had some more great meals on the harbour, complete with drinks under the Opera house one night.  We walked through the botanical gardens to look for bats, and had breaky (what they call breakfast over here) at Bondi Beach one morning. 

My favorite part of Sydney, I must say, was the bridge climb that my Dad and I did over the Sydney Harbour bridge.  We went up half way, across the middle, and then down the other side. It was kind of scary at points when we felt the bridge moving in the wind and when we looked down at 6-8 lanes of moving traffic under our feet.  We looked at the 360 degree view and were in awe.  It really is a gorgeous city. 

After our few wonderful days in Sydney, we all made the journey to New Zealand.  It was good to get back to my current favorite country of the world.  We stuck to the North Island and hit up some of the spots I really liked when visiting previously.  We went to Rotorua, where we saw the Maori tribe perform, and went to the glow worm caves in Waitomo. We ended our visit in Auckland, the city of sails.  We had a great breaky on top of the rotating sky tower restaurant, went to the Auckland Museum, hit up the casino a few times and had some of the best meals of the whole trip on the harbour. 

A personal favorite of my second stop in New Zealand was ZORBING!  I got prepared to Zorb down a hill while my parents were at the bottom waiting to see what kind of weird and crazy thing I was doing to myself this time.  Zorbing is done in a huge plastic ball with a smaller ball suspended inside of it. They fill the inside ball with warm water and you have to run and dive into a small hole in order to get inside the thing.  They zipper you in and you start running toward the hills descent.  You basically look and feel like you are in a human hamster ball.  It was the best water ride I have ever been on!  When I got to the bottom they unzipped me and tipped the ball over so that I fell out of the hole.  I was all smiles.  I could have done it ten more times. 

It was a teary goodbye as they put me on a shuttle to the airport for my flight back to Sydney.  What a wonderful two weeks it had been.  It was so nice to have familiarity once again.  The best part of the bitter sweet sadness was, I had two more great weeks to look forward to with Dominic!

So there I was, back in Sydney late at night, in my FABULOUS hotel room (no lie) overlooking the opera house and harbour. I was counting the hours until Dominic arrived.  I got up early so that I could meet him at the airport around 6am.  He finally arrived and we made our way back to the harbour side view of our hotel room.  It was simply amazing to see him again. 

We took Sydney by storm and visited the aquarium, the opera house, the gardens, the IMAX theater, and then headed to Camden for three days to visit our friends David and Sara.  Dom went out golfing with David one day and the rest of the time we just relaxed and took it all in.

We flew up to Airlie Beach for a few days after that to do some snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, which was really fun.  We got to visit Whitehaven beach which is apparently one of the best beaches in the world with the whitest and cleanest sand I have ever seen.

Next, we took a bus down to Mackay where we boarded a helicopter and flew to a secluded island called Brampton for five nights.  It was quite the adventure island where we got to do all sorts of hiking and water sports.  We jet skied (he managed to throw me off-the jerk!) and fished.  We snorkeled and walked out to a sandbar in the middle of the ocean, which was pretty neat.  They also had a chip and putt golf course so we partook in that as well, along with our daily basketball competition with each other. One night we went for a walk and saw some kangaroos on the golf course!  It was a really neat place and it was nice and relaxing.  Best of all, we ate and drank our little butts off at our fabulous all inclusive resort. 

We took a boat back to Mackay for Dom's last night and went into town for our "last supper."  It was more or less my last supper considering my month of heaven was coming to a close in less than 24 hours.  We didn't sleep much that night because he needed to be at the airport very early to catch his flight.  I went with him and watched him walk up the stairs onto the plane.  It was so sad to think that the month I was looking forward to since the day I left Allentown, PA was over, right then and right there. 

So now, as my Dad would put it, I am done with vacation in dreamland and need to get back to my reality of my dream world.  It's a though life, but somebody has to live it.  I have probably gained 50 pounds over the past month.  But it was worth it for every bite of yummy goodness. 

I am officially back to the backpacking way of life.  My diet consists of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and my bedroom is once again shared with 6-10 other people.  The bathrooms I use are nothing short of gross and disgusting.  I wake up to, not only my own alarm in the morning, but to 2500 other in the room going off 20 different times because people press snooze. Here I go, down the East Coast for my last four weeks in Australia.   

Lauren P. Coker