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Published: November 8th 2009
The Three Sisters
The Three Sisters rock formation in The Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia.NOTE: Unfortunately my camera was stolen a few weeks ago, so any pictures in this blog have been nicked from the internet!!
For many reasons - the climate, the wildlife, the beaches, the culture and many other things, I've always wanted to visit Australia. Therefore I was very excited last week when I knew I was finally going to go there. However before all that, the first night of my trip was going to be in New Zealand still. To save money, I was doing a stopover in Wellington (on the North Island) before heading off to Sydney the next day. I was perfectly happy with this as Wellington is probably my favourite out of the New Zealand cities I've visited so far. It's a very colourful, exciting town with a fantastic music and arts scene; for example this is where one of New Zealand's best known reggae bands - Fat Freddy's Drop come from and also where Bret and Jermaine of Flight of The Conchords started out. I imagine it's a bit of a capital for fashion in New Zealand too, there's so many people with their own individual styles here. Therefore as I was arriving there on
Halloween, I knew it would be an exciting night!!
It didn't dissapoint - in only an hour there I'd seen a huge 8ft cardboard robot walking down the street, and I'd been eyed up threateningly by an equally large Grim Reaper figure - complete with a big scythe. Even my roommates in the hostel were dressing up and getting ready for a big night too. I walked into my room and was greeted very cheerily by two Canadian girls who were rushing around the room putting on makeup and getting into costume. After introducing ourselves and discussing where we were from, one of them, Sandra, asked, "Are you getting dressed up?", "Ah I don't think so... I've got a flight tommorrow to get ready for so might be a bit tricky.." I said, feeling a bit boring. "How about you?" I asked, "Nah, I just dress like this every day" she replied playfully and sarcastically.
To be fair she could have dressed like that every day, as she was only wearing slightly torn up clothes! However her friend was much more dressed up... "Can you guess what she is?" "Hmmm.. I don't know, box-woman? Is that a thing?" I answered. She was wearing a kind of table around her waist made out of cardboard which had an alarm clock, a framed photo and loose change stuck on top of it. "She's a one night stand!" Sandra said. They were off to a big party on the other side of Wellington for the night and so after a bit more chatting to me, and rushing about they were on their way. I decided to go out myself that night and went to ask at the hostel desk what good bands were playing that night. The lady behind the counter told me to go check out an "awesome" rock band that were playing called 'So So Modern' at half ten pm.
So as I had some time to kill, I went for a wander to one of the prettiest parts of Wellington - the harbour. It was a great evening for it, no clouds in the sky and not too chilly either. On the way there I passed a group of Samoans spray painting on a large wall a very moving tribute to the victims of the recent tsunami in Samoa. I wish I had my camera still as it was a very expertly painted picture well worth seeing, and is hard for me to describe. It covered the whole wall, maybe twenty feet across and ten feet high. There was the sun in the top and centre of the image surrounded by a beautiful white bay infront of it with people walking along the beach and with canoes in the sea. The rays of sunlight spread out to each corner of the wall and had highly intricate golden patterns painted inside them. The man standing on the step ladder infront of the image was spray painting the final touches to it with the words,
"We are Samoa
People of the sun,
We are Samoa,
And our heritage lives on"
To the left of these words in the corner of the image there was a dedication to the victims of the tsunami. Maybe there's an image of this somewhere on the internet, as it looked pretty amazing and my words wouldn't do it justice here!
I didn't spend too long at the harbour as the quiet and stillness of the place only reminded me how much was going on in the city that night. Instead I headed to town and to one of Wellington's premier music venues - The San Fransisco Boathouse. When 'So So Modern' finally did come out (took ages) I was very impressed. Unlike most of the laid back, chilled out New Zealand bands I'm used to, these guys were nuts. The lead singer was dressed as the Incredible Hulk and was throwing himself on and off the stage like some massive, angry duracell bunny. Their music was pretty good too!
Anyway so this blog doesn't become a novel, I shall cut ahead a little...
The next day after a very nice tasting turkish kebab I was on the plane to Sydney. Unfortunately it didn't take long to realise that this nice tasting kebab was actually a real bastard in disguise. The Turkish Restaurant man had poisoned me!! How could he!! I felt dreadful! My stomach hurt so bad on the flight over and I felt so nauseous that I glanced over at the sick bag infront of me countless times in readiness. Luckily the pain and sickness was subsiding for the most part when I finally arrived.
Finally stepping out of Sydney airport into the town was an exciting feeling. It was 5pm and very warm. It's hard to describe but some of the smallest differences were very noticeable to me. For instance the colour of the ground was different to England - it was almost orange in colour and just looked like it belonged to a dry and hot country. Besides that the trees and bushes all looked different, as was the intensity of the sun which forced me to immediately put on my sun glasses. My taxi driver to my hostel in Sydney was clearly in a bad mood and was pretty rude to me. Still I didn't care too much, I was excited to have finally arrived in Australia! The man who signed me into the hostel was much nicer, but could see I wasn't feeling too well still, "You need a few beers Tom, you're looking a bit out of sorts!!". I didn't have much time for anything other than meeting up with my friend Andrew and his girlfriend for a drink before going to bed that night. The next day however was much more exciting...
I started the day by going for a wander down to Darling Harbour in central Sydney. This is a very thriving and exciting part of Sydney where besides the beautiful harbour, you can visit Aquariums, Zoos, the worlds biggest Imax theatre, cafes and much more. As many of these were expensive however I decided to go for a cheaper option until after the Blue Mountains when I'd know how much money I had to spend. And so I went to the Chinese Gardens, which turned out to be more exciting than it sounds! I was quite excited to see some of Australia's unique wildlife and so thought this might be a good place to do so. The first strange (to my eyes) creature I saw was a dead huntsman spider hanging from a peace Pagoda in the center of the gardens. This particular spider was definitely at peace, and I was very happy for that. It was furry and tarantula sized and was the kind of thing I was hoping wouldn't wander on to my bed in the night at my hostel.
I carried on through the gardens and began noticing lots of little lizards running around the place. Some of them let me get really close to them and I was pretty fascinated by them to be honest. I never knew there were so many different types in Australia. One had a frilled neck that it, well, 'frilled' if that's a word, whenever it felt threatened. More fascinating to me though was a massive lizard I'd noticed in the distance that was bullying all the other lizards. It was a beast, easily a metre long, or maybe even longer. It sent all the other lizards scattering as it strolled about the place like some opressive reptile dictator. It moved in the craziest way. It ran on it's hindlegs with its mouth wide open and juddered in such a strange way that it looked like it was being animated; poorly. I assumed it would move out of my way when I passed across the bridge, but I caught it by surprise and it turned suddenly with it's mouth wide open and ran across the bridge at me full speed. I wasn't sure if it was one of Australia's many creatures of death so I didn't risk a bite from it. As I carried on through the gardens there were plenty more big lizards too and they kept me entertained for a good few minutes more.
After this fun ended, I met up with Andrew again and we took the train two hours out of sydney to The Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains is described in my travel guide as "Australia's answer to the Grand Canyon". I can't know how true that is but it certainly is a very popular and beautiful bushwalking destination in Australia, and has very important religious meanings for the Aboriginal people of Australia. We set off for our first tramp there that afternoon. We were very excited at what we were about to see, but we made sure to be prepared too, as some of Australia' bushwalking dangers are different to those found in New Zealand tramping.
Firstly, and most obviously, dehydration and sunstroke is a serious risk in Australia and the Blue Mountains. As the national park is in a mountain range, the temperature cools down as the altitude increases of course, but it still sits high enough up in the New South Wales state of Australia to be considered sub-tropical, and it definitely felt warm!! Another danger was the vastness of the place and how easily you could get lost on the longer tramps. Finally, the last danger was the snakes. However it was difficult to gauge how much of a problem snakes really are there. I had been getting the impression whilst reading up on Australia, that many Australians think the media makes too much of the countrys dangerous animals and that the risks are are not quite as bad as you hear. However there are still plenty of warnings about them, and as Australia has two thirds of the world's species of snakes, many of them dangerous, we knew to leave them alone if we saw them!
Luckily for us we didn't see any, but instead saw more lizards, and also some colourful birds and parrots. The humidity was intense and I was happy that I had brought a LOT of water with me. The evenings tramp was only a few hours in length but we still managed to see one of the most famous Australian natural sights: the rock formation known as 'The Three Sisters'. The three sisters were three massive rocks/cliffs lined up next to each other off of the edge of a mountainside. It was a very impressive sight, but more exciting for me was the backdrop to The three Sisters which was vast. You could really get a sense of how absolutely massive the park was when you stood that high in the mountains and saw how far it all stretched out into the distance.
The tramping itself through the mountains was not too strenuous but definitely made us feel like we were getting a good workout. There was also the added focus needed for watching where you step and place your hands because of the spiders and snakes. As England has so few dangerous animals I wouldn't normally hesitate to stick my hands in any crevases when climbing over rocks, or to walk through long grass without any worries. Here I was a little more cautious about it!
We finished the tramp just in time for sunset and as we were tired, headed straight back to the hostel for a nights rest. I slept very well and so felt nicely refreshed for another day of tramping the next morning. We got up very early at around 6am; hoping that we could catch The Three Sisters during sunrise. Amazingly it was still easily T shirt weather and felt very warm as we walked to the start of our tramp at 6:30am. The tramp that day was uneventful, but still great fun. We took a different track from the one the previous day, but of the same length of around a few hours. Again we saw more lizards and birds, and some huge spiderwebs too.
By the time we had finished our tramping the weather was heating up quite dramatically. It was already moving to around 30C in the Blue Mountains and we read a weather forecast that said Sydney would get to around 40C. Seeing as our two hour train trip back to Sydney that day left at 11am, it meant we would be arriving in the heat of the day! Now, because I've gone back and forth from New Zealand to England over the last year or two, I've experienced four winters in a row so far. Therefore I knew 40C would feel like quite a shock!! When we finally got out of the train at Sydney station I felt like I was stepping into an oven and we quickly moved into the shade. I said goodbye to Andrew for the day, and as I made my way back to the hostel, I saw that the effect the heat had on people was crazy. There were plenty of people running around with umbrellas over their heads to shade themselves, and some seriously angry people waiting in traffic jams desperate to get out of their hot cars. The UV rays of the sun in Australia and New Zealand is known for feeling extremely fierce (apparently something to do with where the hole in the ozone layer is), and I could definitely feel myself burning in the twenty minutes or so it took me to walk back to the hostel.
I spent the next few hours indoors waiting out the heat, before deciding to make the trip down to see the Sydney Opera House. It was an hour or so of walking to get there, and it was still boiling weather. I took plenty of 'pitstops' to drink and reapply suncream. When I finally arrived I was very impressed. I've always thought the Opera House was a cool design, but to see it up close I saw what an amazing piece of art it really is. Each sail-like segment to the structure was made up of thousands of smaller pieces that reflected the sun brilliantly. Opposite it was the massive Sydney Harbour Bridge. The whole area was great to see, as it was such a familiar image in my head from films, pictures, TV shows etc. It lived up to my expectations, and surprisingly it wasn't too expensive to grab a meal nearby either. I felt strangely at home too as there were so many UK tourists about. Plenty of English and Scottish people and also a very proud group of ten or so Irish people. The Irish mother made all her children line up infront of the Sydney Opera House for a picture. "Where are you from?!" she bellowed. "Ireland!!" They replied. "Louder, louder!!!" She yelled. "IRELAND!!!!" They shouted back.
I don't know for certain if it was because of the intense heat, but I saw several ambulances racing around on my walk back to the hostel. I passed a girl unconscious in a stretcher being lifted into an ambulance. It was quite a nasty sight, but her friend next to her didn't look too worried so I assumed she'd just fainted, possibly from the heat. Tempers were boiling over on the walk back too, I passed a few confrontations in the street that reminded me I was in a big city. One guy stormed out of an office and quit his job infront of a large group of his fellow workers. The boss came running out and yelled and cursed angrily at him. He grabbed him as he walked away, but the guy had had enough and carried on down the street. There were a couple other aggressive people spilling out of the pubs and onto the street and more than a few drunk people. It was a special day for Australians today, The Melbourne Cup Race day, and so the city was full of people looking for a night out. It wasn't too threatening an atmosphere though, and nothing you wouldn't find in parts of London on occassion.
That night I checked the temperature just before midnight and it was still 35C. Sleeping in the (already a bit uncomfortable) hostel beds was a challenge! And I was quite relieved when the next few days turned out to be much milder. I spend my last couple of days just visiting the nearby beaches, including the world famous Bondi beach. The waves here were huge and double the height of the surfers riding them on ocassion too. Me, Andrew and his girlfriend Anita spend most of our time watching the surfing here and enjoying the delicious dessert shops and cafes that lined the beach.
I met some interesting people in my last couple of days too. Including one very nice, but in his words: "absolutely fucked" guy from England. He had come to Australia to work as a primary school teacher but because of a long line of bad luck had managed to find nothing. Over the four months he'd been in Australia he'd racked up four thousand pounds in debt. "Unless my old University send me a transcript that I need to help me get a job by tommorrow, I'm just totally fucked" he told me. He was a cool guy and I wished him luck!!
When it was finally time to fly back to New Zealand I arrived at Sydney airport early and assumed things would go smoothly. However I could not have predicted what was going to happen! The lady who checked me in asked me to hold on for a while because there was a problem with my passport. She was gone for the longest time and when she finally returned, she gave me a surprising description of what had just happened. "There's a criminal on the run in New Zealand with the same name as you!" she said. "However this criminal is Indian, and so the Immigration staff kept asking me "are you sure that this Tom Hunt is Anglo-Saxon?" and I said, he's as Anglo-Saxon as they get!!!" she told me. I laughed a big Anglo-Saxon laugh and was relieved to be on my way again.
However it happened again!! This time as I arrived in Wellington, New Zealand. The lady in security gave me a stern and worried look and told me I needed to sit down and wait for the Immigration staff. I sat for a good half hour whilst some members of staff eyed me suspiciously. I was sure they'd made the same mistake and were wondering if I was this other Tom Hunt. However I decided going up to the desk and saying "Just so you know, I know what you're thinking, and I'm not a criminal" would be like strolling up and saying "Just to let you know, there's DEFINITELY no bombs in my suitcase"; and so I decided not to raise anymore suspicions. Unsurprisngly it was the same thing again! a member of staff sat next to me and explained that they had mistaken me for a criminal and that infact the appearance of my name on the computer had put the airport on a type of alert. I may well have misheard him, but I think he called it a "B-Batch Alert". "I can't guarantee this won't happen to you again" he told me. If it happens too many more times, I will personally catch this other Tom Hunt myself!!
Anyway it was smooth sailing after that and was nice to finally make it home after the long journey. However 'home' now is a very transient concept, and I'm away again in a week or so back to England!!! Therefore lots of packing and cleaning up to do... and then I look forward to seeing everyone again soon!! I hope you're all well and good!!
Much love, Tom x x x
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Noelle
non-member comment
Amazing trip!
This is a great read, Tom. You have captured the bigger picture by describing lots of smaller incidents - really enjoyed it! xxx