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Published: February 2nd 2013
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I am in Australia! Sorry I've been bad at remembering to write this lately!
I don't think there's too much to report on as I'm working two jobs already so the last few days have been a bit samey.
I flew into Melbourne and got there at around
1 am. I didn't want to pay for a room cos i was catching a train and a bus to another town at 7 and I got the taxi at 6 so instead I slept in the airport on a metal bench. I got about an hours sleep cos I was sooo cold! The seat being metal didn't help but it was freezing in the airport and I've since discovered that down the south it's cold at night time anyway even though its hot in the day. I got the taxi and was well pissed off that it was 55 dollars even though it was only 15 minutes in the taxi. That was my first shock at how expensive things are here. Luckily
Tim (hostel manager) warned me that the place I'm staying at has one of the most expensive supermarkets in Oz so I brought some food before I got on the train.
The place im staying is called Halls Gap in the Grampians National Park. It is such a beautiful place with loads of mountains and nice scenery. It's about 4 hours from Melbourne. My hostel is pretty cool as I have a double bed and there's only another single bed in my room and there's a kitchen and lounge which is way more than they had in Thailand.
My first day I was tired so chilled by the outdoor pool, I havnt been back though cos I kinda realised it was mainly for kids and loads of chlorine. The second day I did a walk to the Pinnacle. It is a view point on the top of a mountain and it was a seriously hard trek but when We got there the view was amazing so it made it all worth it 😊. I met a cool group of people to walk with too so made it better.
My job that I have been doing is with
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This was on the walk to the pinnacle and we walked through a forest and you could see there was a bush fire because all the trees were black :( a family with a 26 year old daughter with learning disabilities and epilepsy. I help the family 4 hours a day (although I've been doing more!) and in return instead of paying me they pay for my accommodation and all my meals. The first day I went to their house I cycled past it and went 16k too far on top of the 2.4 I was meant to do. Cos it's a mountainous area it was so hard and at one point I just started crying thinking I can't do this twice a day! I've rode further in bournemouth and i was fine but this was uphill! Did I mention that it also rained the whole way from about 10 minutes after I left and all I had on was shorts, t shirt and luckily a cardi. A tour bus driver kindly took me back and dropped me off with the family who found it hilarious! There were no seats on the bus so I had my bike in the aisle and i sat on the floor and everyone was fussing over me cos I was wet and cold. When I got to work They said I could have a
shower to warm up and gave me dry clothes which was nice. It's been a good talking point when I've met their friends. Lol.
Other than that I have been cleaning my hostel for 2-3 hours a day for $20 an hour. I have only spent $10 since being in halls gap though, 5 on the swimming pool and 5 on an IceCream after the pinnacle walk so even though I'm only working a few hours its helping.
I was given some meat by the family I'm working with so I could have a BBQ and I cooked up a steak, some sausages and another bit of meat that I didn't recognise, but I Cooked it and ate it anyway and the whole meal was delicious. I also dug up a potato from tims garden and made some chips. That was my first meal in Australia and it was so so so so yummy! The next day Norelle told me that the mystery meat was kangaroo. It was really nice so I will proberly have another one soon 😊
I'm going camping with the family next week to the great ocean road which I am
really looking forward to. It's around 250km of road that goes along the coast and its supposed to be an amazing drive and amazing views. Although its a short drive people tend to do it in a few days cos there's so much to see and do along the way. It will be really nice.
They have so many different animals here than at home. The hedgehogs are well weird and are called arkidneys or something, they have parrots and canarys and other beautiful birds every where. The canarys are noisy buggers though and they keep destroying tims bike seats just for the LOLs it seems as it just chews it and spits it on the floor! They have inch ants here too and they are ants that are an inch long! One bit me and it hurt sooo bad! It was like a bee sting but only half as bad as that I guess. Then there's the kangaroos and the wallabees and then just annoying flys that always sit on your face! Stupid things.
The only other thing to tell you is that the stars here are so amazing. When you look at the sky you
can see so many more stars than you can at home. It's soo beautiful. Weird thing is they have the same ones at home like Orion's Belt. I thought u wouldn't be able to see them from the Southern Hemisphere but you can.
Much love to everyone at home. I miss you all, but you should get your butts out here, Australia is Amazing!
XOXO Zo
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