Australia Part 3

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Road trip to AND Our time in Melbourne

15 December 2009

With just one more day left in our Australia trip I start this blog. Though I have appreciated some pampering here, it feels pleasant to know that we’ll be going back to Maewo. I need a bit more time to figure out just how to preserve that slow pace of island life amidst all the pressure and distractions. Another year should do it.

Before leaving Sydney, we had a super breakfast at Pancakes on the Rocks. Any kind of pancakes, from chocolate to apricot, served with ice cream on top if you wanted! A side of bacon (which, in my experience in this hemisphere, is cut a more like ham with the “bacon” along one edge) and we were fueled and ready to pick up our rental car and head out of town.

It was liberating to have no plans for the next five days, we just needed to be in Melbourne by the end. Our newbies to the world of driving on the left side of the road set back and had Justin drive for the first bit as they adjusted to the feeling of having traffic rush past on the right side instead of the left and being able to turn “left on red.” The first stop was Katoomba, a town in the Blue Mountains a bit to the west of Sydney.

Katoomba felt familiar, must have been the smell of the mountain air. We found a fun café for lunch and headed to the popular lookout called Echo Point. Here the misty calm of the Blue Mountains was interrupted with dramatic slashes of reds and oranges of the canyon. I have never seen the Grand Canyon, but pictures tell me it is all dry. Here we had the dramatics of a canyon, but vegetated. Apart from the sheer drops which exposed the reds in the soil, all other parts were green.

Echo Point is a very accessible place to view the Blue Mountains, especially so probably because of the view of the Three Sisters. This unique rock formation with three distinct columns is a heritage site of the aboriginal people of Australia. As natives of Australia were originally nomads, they used remarkable points like this to help them map their way to water and other resources, as well as distinguish lands amongst themselves.

At night, we stayed in an even smaller town about six miles down the road called Blackheath. Our hotel was a bed and breakfast style number. After dinner at the pub in town, it was off to bed. Justin, Brandon, and I had plans to be up early for a hike at 6:00 in the morning before we hit the road again.

The main access point to the Blue Mountains from Blackheath is called Govett’s Leap. From here, we chose to go down into the canyon instead of hike along the ridge. So down we went, descending the steep ridges we had been gawking at the day before. There were steps cut into the stone and handrails most of the way, but Brandon was still anxious. At one point, when the path seemed to fork, in his nonchalant way, he said, “Looks like the path goes two ways here guys. We’ve got dangerous or dangerous dangerous.” I’m not sure what he named the path we took, but we’re all around to tell stories about it now.

At the base of the cliff, we enjoyed views of a waterfall. Though it was rather dry, the falls had an exceptional drop. Any bit of wind spread the sparse water out along the ridge, like a thin veil. We hiked on into the canyon along the stream created by the falls, pausing along the way, of course, to check out smaller waterfalls and interesting lizards. But, much to our dismay, even though we were at the base of the cliff, we were still going down steps further into the canyon. The hike back was going to be totally uphill.

After a snack break at our turnaround point, it was time to go back up. I couldn’t get over how backwards it felt to be going up at the end of a hike instead of first thing. Lots of rest breaks for photo ops minimized the harshness of the climb. We spotted some hikers starting the descent at the top of the cliff. The boys hollered up and tried to deter them from continuing; I guess they figured no one should want to climb all these steps if they really knew what they were in for. Until then, we had been alone on the trail.

We were back by 10:30 and met up with Mike and Denise in an antique shop. After some perusing in there, it was on the road again. Our stop for the night was a town called Goulbourn. Once we checked in and got a load of laundry started, it didn’t take Mike long to sniff out the local club. Here was something unique to us Kansans. There was a membership fee for locals, but we got in free. Inside, there was a restaurant, bar, game room, and gambling. The money went back into the community, for example, to the schools or parks. I still can’t get over how nifty of a set up that is.

Gouldbourn is only one hour from the capital city, Canberra. So the next day we spent at the National Gallery and the National Zoo and Aquarium. We had especially set time aside to visit the gallery because of an impressionist exhibit that had just come from Paris. My art history class was coming back as we checked out the Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Degas, and others. It was positively fantastic to see a Van Gogh, globby paint and turbulent strokes and all, in real life.

The zoo satisfied Justin’s need to see a koala. I must admit, the native animal portion was my favorite as well. There was a bush setting where you can walk around with the emus, kangaroos, wallabies, and birds. We also spent time in the aquarium and saw what the locals on Maewo call “namari” the humongous fresh water eels that live in the streams there. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to swim again, they are rather mutant looking.

Back at the hotel we took it easy after our big day, reviewing pictures from our trip so far. The next morning, after some shopping in Goulburn, we were on the road to Wadonga. Wadonga is a town known for being a stopping point between Sydney and Melbourne, so pretty well developed as far as catering to travelers goes. Tracking down our hotel took longer than expected, and it was a relief to check in. A superb Chinese dinner took the edge off, though, and we enjoyed a chat with our waitress. She had a unique perspective on the economic situation as a foreigner living in Australia.

The next morning, while Mike, Denise, and Brandon did some shopping downtown, Justin and I hit (yet another) grocery store. This trip had a purpose: we were splurging on some goodies to send ourselves in the mail. Surprisingly enough, our basket didn’t fill up as quickly as we had anticipated. Guess we were desensitized to the initial gloriousness of it all. On our last round of the store, Justin decided to pick up something special for the cat. I sure hope our chocolate doesn’t taste like liver when it finally arrives to Maewo.

Our last day on the road and it was Melbourne or bust. Actually, it almost was bust when we had no idea how to get to our hotel (which is an even bigger deal in a big city) and we’re all worn out from being on the road so long. There was so much going on, especially as it was a Saturday night in a big city. People walking to dinner, brides (yes, plural) getting their photos taken in the middle of the road, trams, trolleys, buses, train stations, sky scrapers, parks, architecture. So much to see and at the same time filter through to find our hotel. Eventually, though, we found our lodging.

After checking in and unloading all of our stuff in the hotel (why is it that belongings always expand when on vacation?) we hit the busy streets of Melbourne for dinner. Yet another brewery was in store for the evening, this time James Squire, just a few blocks from our hotel. There an informative poster on the wall taught me how to correctly enjoy a beer: check color, swirl, smell, and swallow a whole mouthful. Tips I tucked away as I had heard talk of an upcoming wine tour. Surely that same process translates to fermented grapes as well?

The next morning we went to Sunday mass in the gorgeous church of St. Patrick’s; one of the many distractions that had caught our eye on the way into town. Then we headed to drop off the rental car. This put us right next to the Queen Victoria market. Here we spent the next few hours picking our way through neat rows of booths, most of the products familiar from our previous market ventures.

We retired early in the afternoon to rest up for our night on the tram restaurant. We cruised around town in a rustic tram with a wonderful dinner and bottomless wine glasses. The intention of the trip may have been to see the city sites, but we were enjoying what was going on inside of the tram too much to do much sightseeing. Brandon and our waiter even had an origami showdown.

Monday we spent the day touring wineries in the Yarra Valley. Our group of five joined up with eight others and a tour guide. I learned a bit about wines, at least about my own preferences, how to go about tasting them, and to get over my modesty about spitting out the ones I didn’t like. The last stop even had cheeses to sample with the wines and I found a cheese I like: a soft goats cheese that was sold soaking in olive oil and garlic. Yum.

That night was pretty low key, we were all feeling mellow from sampling wine all day. Justin and I stayed in the hotel room with a movie and our newly acquired wine and cheese.

Which brings me to today. Our last day found us sending multiple parcels, postcards, and letters in the mail. Then, we were off to the amazing Melbourne Museum. Truly an exceptional place to visit. Walking up to the museum, we enjoyed a saunter through well manicured park with a large fountain. Melbourne is known for its’ green belts that break up the redundancy of buildings and cut down on pollution. The museum is situated on one such place.

My major draw for the museum was an exhibit on the aboriginal people of Australia. Native peoples who are still close to their land and culture is something I have found myself wondering more about, especially getting to know another culture as personally as I am now in Vanuatu. Comparing the custom and tradition that has become such an engrained part of daily life with that of another is intriguing. It also inspires me to seek out more information on my roots, and to keep those that I do have strong.

This exhibit was one of about five large ones in the museum. I only made it to two more. A forest walk and science/biology one, complete with a room full of mounted animals. Cabella’s all over again. But here, there were computerized screens that you could point and read about information on the animal. It was especially cool to see some of the native animals to Australia up close, to really get a good look at the platypus’s bill and the feathers on the black cockatoo. Awesome technology, the kids in there were really eating it up.

With the last bit of the trip yet to be written, I leave you now. We head back to Vanuatu tomorrow and hope to get more blogs in the mail again soon.

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Photos

3 Sisters
from Echo Point lookout

Kookaburra
A sweet surprise before our early morning hike

waterfall
our view from the canyon

Koala
at the zoo

Oragami showdown
on the dinner tram

Gardens
in front of the museum

the "green belt"
gorgeous trees amidst the rush of the city

Comments

[Seamus]

Hooray Hollliiday
Hey guys, looks like you got a well deserved change of pace. I'm hoping to be back in Maewo nest September for some construction projects with the MOH. Sorry we missed meeting up this year around Independence. -Seamus O'Bryan, Project MARC-