Blogs from Oceania - page 7821

Traralgon 2004

Oceania » Australia » Victoria April 25th 2004

Sunday, 25 April Anzac Day March. Every year the company I work for, send half a dozen photographers to document the event. I always make myself available to join them. This year I had asked and was granted the same area as I had worked last year, between Bourke and Collins Street at the Spring Street end of Melbourne. My job is to ask the marchers if they want a photograph to remember the event. When they say "Yes" I take the shot then hand them a reference card. The company make the shots available to buy at a later stage. The first person I asked, declined and that response made me feel uneasy. Others were different and I soon had one spool exposed. The diggers you meet and talk to at this event are friendly ... read more

going south!

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Abel Tasman National Park April 22nd 2004

Milford sound

traveljob

what a brilliant country this is! Tramping New Zealand, going everywhere to see everything! from Abel Tasman national park with its golden beaches To the mud holes at Stewart Island with its Kiwi's (birds) and in between you'll swim with dolfins and pinguins! you tramp the routeburn and kepler or milford and much more tracks, see Milford sound (not doubtfull robbie) windswept trees and albatrosses with sealions, just a few meters away! Don't forget about the yellow eyed pinguin (this can only be seen here, blablablabla) climb some glaciers and work on a farm to cut some oat! and in between you live with a familie and you'll walk the dog for them or chop some wood for the fire place to get a free meal! Isn't live just brilliant!... read more

Hopetoun to Wodonga 2004

Oceania » Australia » Victoria April 19th 2004

Salt Lake

Colin

Monday, 19 April The Caulder Highway takes you from Melbourne towards the town of Hopetoun in the northwest of Victoria. I decided to stay at the Hopetoun Hotel/Motel. The rooms are pretty basic but the meals are the good old country style which suits me down to the ground. After a short walk around town I found the Kindergarten I was to work in the next day. For the life of me I could not remember being there before but there wasn't another centre in town so it must have been the same one I had visited two years earlier. On the outskirts of town I took a long walk around Lake Lascelles. It has been more then a couple of years since it has seen any water. This drought is evident in many places I ... read more

Melbourne

Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Melbourne » St Kilda April 19th 2004

My ambition completed

Well, what can I tell you about Melbourne? I loved it! I went for 6 weeks and ended up staying about 4 months! It was time to get a job, money was running out and in turn so was the fun. Melbourne was going to be the place to build up the funds again. If only it was that easy! I was a bit naïve and thought I would just pick up work in a couple of days, well you can if you want to work on commission only. I did an evening cleaning job for around a week, which was heaps of fun but then landed a telesales job. I didn’t expect to enjoy it or be able to do it, but when you really need the money and put your mind to something the ... read more

The Big Trip to Oz

Oceania » Australia April 15th 2004

Laurenr20

The big first time - Oz (April 2005 - April 2006) The plane over was the first time I’d properly thought about what it meant being away for a year...I mean, I’d kind of thought about it, but I just knew I wanted to do it....I hadn’t actually considered the logistics of it! While on the plane, I also worked out local time in Singapore (my brief overnight stopover) would be about 1am and I had nowhere to stay. Maybe I should have thought about it all a bit more. I got chatting to the fella next to me, a Manchester guy turned Adelaide local (if there was any ingredients for a comedy accent this was one) and this was a welcome diversion. I still couldn’t really switch off enough to sleep.......Everyone else on the plane ... read more

Mountain People

Oceania » Papua New Guinea April 7th 2004

Boy taking lice out of brothers head

Global Adventuress

PNG- News # 12 (April 7, 2004) Have you ever woken up in a beautiful lodge in the mountains in a foreign tropical rainforest, with large cinnamon trees and found that you were surrounded by people half your age? And you wonder to yourself, why do I feel so culturally maladjusted? That was Saturday. By dinnertime I felt myself up until I ate the turtle egg. Soft boiled the eggshell felt like a soft ping pong ball and tasted like it had dry specs of shell already formed! I do not recommend the diet here of kaukau mixed with a can of corned beef over rice with sweet potatoes. Sunday the eight of us descended this cultivated land in the middle of nowhere. The 27 kilometre road into the mountains through rivers and small passageways ... read more

Canberra 2004

Oceania » Australia » Australian Capital Territory » Canberra April 4th 2004

Bridges at Bonnie Doon

Colin

Sunday, 4 April It was a cool start to the day. I put the last of the gear into the car and followed my usual route towards the Hume Freeway via Yea. Along the way I passed through countryside still brown from the summer heat and Lake Eldon at Bonnie Doon still had no water. As I crossed the bridge I remembered in my youth spending time on a power boat under this very bridge. At Benalla you join the Hume Freeway and don't leave it until Goulbourn where the road branches south to the Barten Highway which in turn leads all the way into the nations capital city of Canberra. The weather was fine, in fact by time I arrived at the Rex Hotel I was down to my T-Shirt. At the reception they gave ... read more

Berri.

Oceania » Australia » South Australia April 1st 2004

Backpackers! What a bunch of arseholes.

Leebee

Not a destination on everybodies itinery. It was planned to be a 5 day pit stop enroute to Ayers Rock but was elongated into 2 months!!!!... All the guide books say that you should see everything in Australia before coming here as you wont want to leave, i just thought that was a devious marketing scheme aimed at squeezing more $ out of tight arse backpackers! but i was pleasently surprised to see that their write-up was spot on! This Hostel is slap-bang in the middle of nowhere, and is like an oasis!. Where every night is a saturday night. It has tree houses, hammocks a swimming pool, outdoor bbq area for the saturday night bbq's and free wine!, a gym, sauna, tennis and beach volleyball court, football pitch, Tv/Video Lounge, Games room for the alcoholics, ... read more

Dress $5 Salvation army shop. Blue Steel: Priceless.

"Great" Ocean Road

Oceania » Australia » South Australia March 28th 2004

After a couple of nights in Adelaide to recuperate, it was time to hit the road again, leaving Adelaide behind for good. We boarded the big green bus at silly o’clock in the morning and headed for Great Ocean Road. In all it took us 3 days to get to Melbourne, we went through Halls Gap, (killing a poor Wallaby that dared to run in front of the bus) the Grampians where we saw McKenzie Falls – damn steps again. I was starting to see a pattern emerging in this holiday and wasn’t too impressed. I saw my first real Australian kookaburra when we returned to the top of the steps, maybe a reward from above for persevering, who knows. We stayed in Warrnambool, visited Torquay and the famous Bells Beach. The beach is where some ... read more