The Rainforest and Port Tribulation

Cairns isn't the coolest city, but it does have the coolest stuff around it, as I discovered yesterday upon traipsing to the rain forest and various ports of call. Jan organized a tour trip van style (coulda done with a little less van though) up through some more rainforest and to Port Tribulation, complete with a croc swim. George, a hillarious, storytelling, sarcastic jokester was our guide and regaled us with Aboriginal stories the entire time, which i quite enjoyed, even if i just wanted outa the van. We went to Mossman Gorge and saw tall tall trees glistening with fresh rain with vines wrapped all around them, enormous , poisonous, colorful spiders and the coolest spiderwebs I've ever seen. Leaves, leaves, leaves so many varieties and bright bright greens and intricate bubbles and designs and derivations. It rained most of the day which was okay with me, rain in the rainforest. Our final destination was Cape Tribulation a rather sketchy place with stingray warnings and croc warnings and lizard warnings, but the sand crabs made the most beautiful designs in the sand you've ever seen. They suck the nutrients out of the sand and in the process ball them up with saliva and then thrown them out their little holes in the sand, and are constantly scurrying about. So if you stare across the beach you can see tiny movement everywhere. Really cool. And it smelled like wet tree bark and salty sand and foliage, mmmm i wanted to eat it. Now i get all those rainforest perfumes(not that they smell anything like it). Anyways, I. have. to. stop. blogging. it has stopped raining here so i'm out! love to all!

Cairns and The Great Barrier Reef

For all the rumours that we heard that Cairns was the hottest place on earth, it actually pales in comparison to ol' Maggie or Rockhampton. I'm not complaining, I quite like a little tropical rain, it's quite refreshing after sweating with no cloud in sight. Mom, Jack and I arrived in Cairns on Christmas Eve Eve via plane and arrived at our apartment suprised to find out that the pool was, cold? still salty, but the first semi cool water I'd felt in a while, which was glorious, probably due to the shade around it but whatevah it was grand. We wasted no time in going to the mall? not much else was open and to our dismay it was an insane nightmare. But we pushed through, got a couple choice items and some groceries and got the fuck outa there! That evening we traipsed down to the waterfront area where another urban pool/beach situation was going on, lagoon style pool open at night too and tons of restaurants and activities going on down there as well. We ate some delicious food and called it a night. The Greenwalds arrived that night and the next day we hopped on the uber touristy train to Kurunda, up in the Rainforest.

The trainride was sweaty but nice and Kurunda was a super cute touristy settlement filled with digeredoos and boomerangs and opals, sarongs, bikinis, bracelets, candy, all kinds of crap beckoning you to buy it. We did succeed in picking up a coupla opals, one for Jack's girlfriend and a very beautiful and shimmery ring for mammasita. For lunch Jack went with the Ossie special= roo meat, croc meat and a Fosters. Good idea but bad in practice as the roo meat was so chewy jack took 2 hours to eat it all, and was still chewing when we walked out. We saw some candy making and walked through some markets and then took a gondola over the rainforest back down to Cairns which was only scary when it made a huge thump thump thump at certain parts. Then we went to .... brace yourselves. A drive through BottleShop to pick up some Bundaberg for me and some Pure Blonde for Greenie and Jack and of course some Chardonnay for the mammas.

Christmas Eve we got even deeper into the tourist circut and got on a massive tour boat out to the Great Barrier Reef. Cheesy as it could've been with the scheduled activities and the cheeky staff w/no shoes to go with their laid back attitude and crisp white shorts and blue and white striped shirts, all super tan with bleached hair from all their diving and sailing escapades, it was actually pretty fun. Some seasickness occurred, not for me, but they did have biodegradable bads to puke in and then we were told to throw them overboard because the fish will feast on them. So lets just say Jack did his part in feeding the marine life of the Great Barrier Reef that day. We got to snorkel around this area called Nicholas Quay where billions of birds were nesting and squalking and stinking. But the reef was AMAZING!
Bright rainbow fish the size of my head, wavy pink 80s prom dress colored coral, sharp dark teal tree branch lookin coral, curvy twisting vines of purple bubbly coral, huge bubbling expanses of brain coral, schools of spindly skinny silver fish floatin in front of me. (say that 10x fast)Enormous shell looking things the size of a bathtub with teal insides and weird mouths and purple outsides that open and close like the jaws of life. Colors, colors, colors. I fell so deep into my snorkeling trance that when i surfaced I had gone waay out of where i should've been. That may account for all the cool shit i saw but whatevah! Later on I was given the scuba diving instructions from a guy named, for serious, Fabian. Picture if you can the movie along came polly and the scuba instructor, complete with the long hair, weird unplaceable accent and cutoffs and that's pretty much what he was. Hillarious. Two people left to puke during his talk due to a bit o boozin the night before, and he kindly informed us that you CAN puke into the scuba gear, and for the rest of us to make sure and watch because it will be a feeding frenzy of fish to eat up the puke. Great.
So I got all the directions, but on my stinger suit, got some weights around my hips, sat on the edge and put on my flippers and spit cleaned mask, they loaded me up with the air tank, told me to grab the mouthpiece, put it in and lean forward into the water and begin to breathe under water. HOLY SHIT. Now I love water. but i have never done this before and it definitely takes a bit of unexistential capabilities in order to avoid a panic attack. Okay I'm underwater. Okay i'm breathing. Okay do NOT breathe out your nose, okay do not stop chomping down on this mouthpiece. Or you will probably die. After some drills, some saltwater swallowing and mask clearing i was set. I linked arms with the very nice dutch girl next to me who was linked to our French diving guy and we delved into the depths of the ocean.
It was so Darth Vader it's not even funny, and so dense, I had to clear my ears about every meter or so, we saw schools and schools of the brightest shiniest fish ever, we say a stingray struggle out from its sandy hiding spot and float away, we saw little clownfish nemos in their coral, and we got all the way down to the ocean floor and were permitted to touch one of those big purple and teal shells, it's velvety tongue like rim was inSANITY! and when it moved i totally freaked! but it was really cool, and throughout the hour i have never been so at peace, so afraid, and so out of my element all at once.
I feel like I could do anything now that i've done this and to Michael--- Holy crap I applaud you, it must be insane to do that times a million every day as your job.

Christmas was nice, Jack and I gave mom her shell jewelry and some collage cards and we went to the lagoon and read in the shade and swam, then ate fruit salad, mashed yams and potatoes, green beans, green salad, wine, champagne, beer, and for them shrimp for dinner.

Happy belated Christmas to all! And to all a goodnight!

Magnetic Island aka Lost

Maggie as the locals call her, couldn't be more perfect. Deemed Magnetic Island after Captain Cook's compass went awry nearby, it's the perfect island to play "Lost" on. We arrived by ferry after a long overnight busride, to which Jack slept none, hopped the bus and rode up and down and round the twisty roads of the island and finally to Horseshoe Bay and to our Hostel Bungalow Bay and Koala Reserve. Lagoon like pool surrounded by palms, a koala sanctuary next door, filled with chirpy green rainbow tropical birds and crazy beetles. We all traipsed to the beach early and were disgusted in swimming within the stinger net as it is basically a trap for muck and slime. After brekkie and a check in to a sweaty cabin, we donned our bathies and hiked Yelapa style to another bay where the swimming might be better. The sad was so hot that it burned the tips of my toes and scaled my flip flops. We were all so sweaty from hiking and heat that our backs were fully wet and our feet slipping around in our shoes, only eh, one water bottle because we didn't know how far away it was. And finally after a while there it is, Balding Bay, (also a nude beach) and there he is, token naked guy standing by his boat. Just hangin out. Jack and I ran full speed to the glorious looking water. Only to discover that in a shallow bay with little mixage with the main ocean that the water was hot. Like tea. We had to swim down to the bottom to feel a little chill in the water at all. Insane. How can ocean water be sooo warm? But it was.

So we hiked back down and had Margaritas to cool down. And swam in the lagoon the rest of the afternoon and napped in hammocks and had insane rainbow mini parrots land all over us during their feeding, and drank some beers and had some dinner and sweated my body weight during the restless and hot as hell night in the cabin.

The next day mom braved the Oz and rented a little buggy and drove an automatic on the left side of the road and we grabbed some snorkel gear and traipsed all over Jurassic Park, I mean Maggie to various bays and snorkeled and slept and swam, and hiked and saw Koalas in the wild. That night we got back and found a band playing at the hostel and presumed to get totally shit faced. Me on Bundaberg and cola (in. a can) and jack and mom the usual chardonnay and beer, and as the night got on drunker and drunker and the music kept playing and playing and jack and I at one point arm wrestled, and mom and i shook it and i looked at my watch and it was... eh. 7:30pm.... Maggie was a beautiful, hot, tropical paradise and it was the best time i've had yet in Australia.

The next morning early we were off on a plane to Cairns. And that's all i have to say about that.

Rockhampton, Capricorn Caves and Yeppoon Beach

Rockhampton. was. hot.
Hot, sticky, sweaty, salty little small town with a little bit of Carson City to it, a failed mining town with a muddy river running through and proud to be the Beef Capital of Australia. Rockhampton was our launching point for the Capricorn Caves and was nearly on the Tropic of Capricorn. Hella cool. Although mom thinks the town was a letdown for us, I quite enjoyed sweating bullets and playing the hot game by the pool only to jump in and find the water equally hot and ... salty? The awesome thrift stores full of musky books and weird bric a brac, the long wait at the patio for delicious pesto pasta and lots of beer drinking. I had fun, although I was a bit miserable in the heat from time to time, but it's just a build up for India eh?
After a long day in the sun we slept well and got up early to go to the Capricorn Caves. Sweet dirty smelling caves, nothing I love more that a good smell of soil, and these had it. Perfect smell. Discovered by some guy who used to muck around(literally) through the caves knee deep in bat shit, snakes, caterpillars, spiders, etc, with only a candle to lead him through. The caves even come fully equipped with a chapel for choir singing(with it's near perfect acoustics) and weddings. And our cute Australian Lawrence doppelganger gave us a pitch black music listening session of Enya in order to understand the caves capacity for listening. Quite beautiful if I do say so myself. Then to the big treat. The summer solstice, only for about two weeks out of the year presents a unique opportunity where the sun is directly above a hole in the caves and can produce and incredibly bright light shaft penetrating to the very bottom. And with the correct props, the entire cave may be lit. Using everything from disco balls and silver pans to colored fabrics our guide gave us a really cool experience of the solstice. My pix can hardly do it justice.
And when you place a piece of paper below the light and above a silver bowl with a hole in it, you can burn through paper magnifying glass to ant style. And Jack is convinced that the whole looks like the shape of Australia, which is pretty rad too.

After the caves, Little Johnny, our hilarious tour guide guy dropped us off in his hometown of Yeppoon, with the most glorious beach ever and it was so tempting i went swimming with all my clothes on because i couldn't stand it any longer. Also really brilliant sea shells everywhere lining the beach which Jack and I collected millions of and made mom some jewelry for xmas with them!

Fun filled adventures and then we showered and prepared for a ridiculous greyhound bus ride from Rockhampton to Townsville where Jack and I were lucky enough to get to watch Kangaroo Jack and some crazy movie with the best line in it ever. Three guys get out of a car all wearing white and a guy sitting down says to them "Are you guys from the Looney Bin?" "Nooo nooo of course not" they all reply, then add "How'd you like to try this on" (It's a straight jacket)
Guess you had to be there. But it is a great movie and I'll search for it forever now.

Brisbane

Brisbane is a rad city! An enormous river flows through the middle and we took advantage of the City Cat water bus service from New Farm where we were staying to the Center and around. By we I mean me and mom and Jack who showed up in Sydney to hang out with me a little bit for Christmas Holiday. Mom also brought with her a trusty new video camera and the footage is utterly priceless i tell you! After showing them around a little bit in Sydney, from the markets and the red light district (where our hotel happened to be), to the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and the crazy center of it all where Holiday shoppers were quick to load up on crazy prezzies... we hopped an early flight and ended up in cosmopolitan Brisbane. Tired but hungry we indulged in some delicious brekkie nearby the aptmt we rented for a few nights and then power napped it and then hopped the City Cat to explore. Brisbane has an urban beach alongside the south bank that is super awesome. Sand and pools and grass and kids playing and splashing, across from huge buildings and roads and citywide bustling. A great Australian oddity I won't be soon to forget. For our second day we partook in many a form of transit as we walked to the City Cat, took that to the bank, walked to the train station, took the train for an hour or so, then hopped a bus and ended up at the Australia Zoo.

Yes, I went to the Zoo. Yes Sean you are not hallucinating. The Australia Zoo prides itself on education through interactive and amazing demonstrations of their amazing animals, with extremely humane conditions and great staff walking animals around all the time and letting them loose in vast acres upon acres to roam and traipse upriver and hunt and nap at their own leisure. I saw crocodiles chomp at large pieces of flesh, and jump high into the air to devour even more scraps of meat. Large birds flying overhead so quickly I thought I might take one to the face. Enormous, old, slow tortoises puttering about. Alligators soaking up sun and smiling as only large dinosaur reptiles can do. Elephants getting daily baths and pedicures, and I fed an elephant! twice! Its rubbery hose of a trunk groped around my hand for the corn on the cob slobbily and ticklishly! Tigers swimming and jumping after their buddy(trainer) into large pools of water and playing with their garbage bag on a stick so reminiscent of piff it's not even funny how cats are all the same eh? Koalas snoozin it up in the Eucalyptus trees with their cute ass little babies! Got to pet a Koala too! The softest, cuddliest sweet little guys ever! Roos lounging on the grass in Kangaroo heaven, also pet a few of these, and they are also magically soft! Butterflies bright blue and purple and iridescent, echindas like larger versions of melissa's hog chillin and eating with the Zoo trainers, fat ass wombats walking on a leash like a rat with a weight problem had a baby with an R.O.U.S. Snakes devouring whole mice with such ferocity that no doubt in my mind was i terrified, even from behind glass. Dingos napping around and walking on leashes like pet dogs, otters swimming and playing together like little kids, phat ass komodo dragons(uh hello dinosaur), and did i mention Crocs Rule??

We hopped the bus/train/city water bus back and ate some delicious food and drank some delicious mojitos/beer/Chardonnay and called it a day and quite a nice visit to Brisbane. Two days= not enough, but we made the most of it and had a badass time!

Cloudscape Vineyards

Okay, for some reason it's really easy to upload photos from this comp which is why i went a little picture happy but oh well eh?
Ahhh where to begin, well I'll begin with Melbourne vol. 2
Juli and I went back to Melbourne for 2 days prior to WWOOFing and I got to catch 2 days of the homeless world cup. And i saw the U.S. lose unfortunately, the Colombian women's team kick some major arse, and a couple of great games such as the Argentinean Brazil game where unfortunately to my utter dismay, Argentina got it's ass handed to it like 10-3 Brazil. And these are 7 minute halves, that's a lot of goals missed (ARG. KEEPER!) Anyways, as I was shouting things in spanish at them i happened to meet a nice Colombian guy and get to habla a little espanol for a change, he was rooting for Brazil, however so we could never truly meet eye to eye.
Anywho it was great fun and then Juli and I took a train to Kyneton, where Jan picked us up to do some WWOOFing that the Adventure of the Vineyard began.
Careening out of control, the car pulls up the the train station and a very lively woman with short curly bustles out and greets us. As Jan drove us (on the left side, still weird) up to the house we discovered that along with the vineyard Andre(her partner) and her also work part time, Jan with a local organisation to find homes for the homeless amongst other things, and Andre as a dentist.
They live in an amazing house atop a hill overlooking their vineyard of 5,000 trees. One half is their room, separated by the living/dining/kitchen area and the other wing is the guest quarters/living space where juli and i were lucky enough to stumble into and try not to drool at the enormous sumptuous bed, bright purple walls, cerulean bathroom tiles and squeaky clean shower/bath. Complete with a sliding glass door onto the deck and our own sitting area overlooking the amazing view where we can sit and read,perhaps a delicious novel from their enormously awesome book library? or paint if I so wish, as they have canvases and paint, or watch a movie from Andre's extensive cinematic library.
Juli and I tried to contain our utter astonishment and glee and kinda like when you meet a cute guy and he calls you for the first time, and you try not to scream like a 13 yr old all alone in your room after he hangs up.
A day by day would just rub it in, so first I'll just give a synopsis of the culinary delights I had the opportunity of partaking in at Cloudscape.
Pesto Pasta, Fresh Salad with goat cheese and avocado, Vanilla Slice, Cocoa Espresso, Red Wine, White Wine, Green Tea, Homemade pizza with potato, mozzarella cheese, basil, pumpkin and capsicum, mushroom risotto, vegetarian lasagna, homemade raisin fruit bread toasted with hot melty butter for breakfast, crispy vegetarian sandwiches for lunch with sliced tomato, sharp cheddar, fresh ground pepper and avocado, Moroccan stir fry and vegetables, Vietnamese noodle salad with tofu, Vegetarian Stir Fry, Homemade vegetarian nachos with kidney beans and fresh guacamole and salsa and melty crunchy heaven! Crunchy, salty, fragrant fried mushrooms and freshly baked potato wedges, tim tams(by the plenty), freshly cut crispy apples, and if I'm forgetting anything forgive me Andre because I loved every bite of food I ate in the house.
Five hours a day is the suggested work amount in Australian WWOOF standard, which means a leisurely breakfast and then down to the Vines to re-arrange and put back in between the wires for better upward growth and to pick out a few leaves here and there to let the wind flow through for pollination. Just pop on the ipod and away we go! And Juli and I finished the whole vineyard in about 9 days or so, which I think is pretty good, considering we were almost rained out one day and had to book it the next. And then perhaps an afternoon run before the drizzle erupts to water the hot red earth?
One day I departed from the Vineyard and was running away, along the fast paced road just for a bit and then my breath got back to normal and I found a nice quiet ochre red country dirt path to run upon and just listened to the beat of my tie rd tigers and my breath and all of a sudden, Hop, Hop, Hop a KANGAROO! and i stop dead in my tracks, and then three more hop after it, and my mouth agape I just stand and stare. It was like seeing a dinosaur, I felt like Jurassic Park when they see the Brontosaurus. And they even look like valasa raptors a little bit with their tiny t-rex arms and long dino tails. It was amazing and I just smiled and ran on. After standing in that spot for a while just waiting for more. And another day when I went running, sadly no roos, but an interesting symphony of noises. Along with my ever panting breath which calms after the horror of the first bit of physical exertion subsides, a number of animal and nature noises. Dogs barked feverishly when I ran by their pen and I wondered for a minute if I was so tempting that they would break free and attack, but no, safe. And then a little further I must've awoken the birds who began monkey like chattering(no doubt about me, my running style, and my jiggly ass)
Monkey Bird # 1: OOOH OOOH OOHHH EHHH EHHH OOOH OHH
translation: " GIIIRRL, check out this tourist!"
Bird #2 :OOH OOOHH EEEH EEHH
translation:" She's definitely not from round here- just check out that ass!"
"OOOH OOOH OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOHHHHH OHH HEEEHHH EEEHHHH"
("she must've just come from argentina and eaten too many bon bons and empanadas!")
"ohhhh OHHH OH OH OH EH EH EHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EH EHE OOOOH OH OHOHOOOH"
("HA! NO DOUBT fellow weird bird, she's strugglin, sista needs a cuppa")
And then the snap crackle pop of the close by bushes and trees, and the hilarity of the birds followed me all the way home for the rest of my run.
I also painted a bit at the Vineyard, on the last day, a little landscape of the beautiful view I was so blessed to view every night. Andre and Jan are a hilarious, intelligent and fun couple to be around and I enjoyed fully every minute of it, from the interesting discussions and wine drinking film watching and especially the eating of the delicious food Andre made every night. I was sad to go, but everything must come to an end, and if our fam wasn't coming and their other WWOOFer wasn't as well, I might never left. I just want to lay down a fervent prayer to the travel gods for throwing us that bone. It was revitalizing work, especially the bio dynamic spray, which i happened to love stirring and spraying for that matter, good reading and eating and lovely sleeping.
I'm in Syndey now yet again and my mom and Jack arrive tomorrow, Jan tonight, and a while different type of travellin is about to commence, but I'm excited to see my family and to see more of Australia.

Adelaide

Adelaide. Warm, sunny, beachy, Mac n'cheese.
After a week of windy, rainy, cloudy Melbourne; Adelaide, specifically Glenelg Beach was exactly what we wanted. After another ridiculously awful overnight busride we arrived at 6am and trammed it to the beach, where it was so early the hostel wasn't even open yet so I napped in front on my bags like a bum. Then not only did we get in, but we got to sleep,in gloriously non bunk beds with pillows and mattresses like BUTTAAHH. And after a 5 hour nap I explored the beachy little area and was quite delighted. I spent the first few days there just reading and running by the beach and laying on the beach, and watching bums close sit and stare at hot chicks on the beach. And watched tv. and ate mac n'cheese, and greek salad, and fruit salad, delicously prepared in a non crowded kitchen. Such a good hostel that we stayed there for 6 nights and only spent one night in acutaly Adelaide. I did tram it in one day and explore the mayhem that is everywhere now given the holidays. People shopping and bustling around, and women and men standing out front of shops with mics and amps listing the sales featured inside the shit show of a store they are promoting. I did however pick up a tibetan rune necelace to ward off negative forces(even if they're comind from within) and a cool new australia bracelet to add to my wrist journey.
One day it did rain in Adelaide and Juli and I ventured to the local cutesy theater to see the new Baz Lurhman film, Australia. Which was awesome and Hugh Jackman is all kinds of hotness, including a very obvious but nontheless essential, I think to the essence of he story and the plotline, bathing scene featuring his ripped abs and muscly back and arms. mmm mm mmm.
It was nice and relaxing and now we're back in Melbourne for a day before the farm tomorrow, and I happened to catch day two of the Homeless World Cup.
A totally awesome event featuring something like 56 countries all of street soccer teams, and the aim is to improve peoples lives through futbol and i couldn't be more for it, because they totally kicked ass. It's 4 person teams including the goalie, on the tiniest field you've ever seen, with 7 minute halves, and it is INTENSELY AWESOME! I probably spent 7 hours today going back and forth between events, however my teams never win. Highlights were the Colombian Team(womens) who were all pint sized but totally badass and have some really good moves. And there was a badass game between Brazil and Argentina, where I'm sorry to say Argentina got their asses handed to them in a shocking 13-3 loss. Also the Rwanda vs Namibia game was equally heated but filled with awesome blocks at only 3-2 Rwanda in the end. I'm convinced it was the stupid Argentinean goalie who let about a million go by but whatevah!
I even got to habla a little espanol with the colombian guy next to me as i was the only one rooting for Argentina and shouting random weird shit (that probably didn't even make sense) in spanish at them.
So onto the Finca manana and will report back in a week or so. This one is a vinyard so I think it'll be waay awesome!--Ciao