Koalas and Roos and Wallabys Oh My!

I just got back from a fabulous 2 day tour this weekend of the Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island. It was a great time. We drove down along the coast seeing various sights like The Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and several wonderful beaches.

12 Apostles








Great surf beaches down along the coast








We stopped off at a kind of animal rescue zoo. So many wallabys and kangaroos. Loved it.







Sleepy Koalas! Too cute.

Me!bourne: A Gaytime

As I was waiting for my 30 minutes of free computer time at the library, I learned how to lay a timber deck and replace a brick or tile in a wall in the DIY home repair book. When I got to the chapter on building a partition wall, I remembered that I learned that back in 96 while wasting time at Colosseum Books in NYC, which I did quite often.

I have just returned from St. Kilda beach and am loving my time here in Melbourne. Meeting new friends and touring around the city. I absolutely love the Queen Victoria Market, where I've seriously lost track of hours and hours just milling about. It's amazing.
My hostel is wonderful here. Here's the sunset, viewed from the rooftop, on my first night here.

Jenna having a Golden Gaytime!









Beautiful flowers in the Botanical Garden

Enjoying the beach in St. Kilda. Amazing

I also saw a great exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria. Sculpter Ron Mueck. Check out my pics here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/Melbourne

Think of all that money spent on psychotherapy...

When all I really needed was some retail-therapy! Who am I kidding? Was I really thinking that I was going to be able to go 7 months without a little retail-therapy? I barely went one month.

I've left my beloved New Zealand and am in the metropolis of Melbourne, Australia. It feels like such a long time since I've been in a big city, that the entire day I've spent perusing around Melbourne has felt like (what I can only imagine) I've come fresh off a 30 day silent meditation retreat. Slightly painful at first but then the mecca of city life courses back into your veins and feels like home. Ah, big smile. I've snaked in and out of stores, weaving in and out of pedestrian-sidewalk traffic, gathering hand fulls of clothing to try on and decide not to buy. I don't know if men understand this feeling but for most of us women, it's wonderful. Of course, the not buying is the difficult part but I keep reminding myself that I've only a tiny little pack that is already stuffed to the gills.
OK, I'm lying, I did buy a cute little summer frock BUT it is necessary. Not like water is necessary, more like coffee is necessary. I can justify this because I'm now in an uber-trendy city where I own nothing that is even remotely acceptable. Lem might be the only one who can understand this. Every woman and man walking down the street is stylishly dressed. Its London punk meets Like a Virgin Madonna, or maybe I'm being redundant. Not quite my style but nonetheless. Hairstyles are a bit wild as well, mainly on the men. I don't even remember seeing these dos in the 80's.
Anyhow. I am perked up again and ready to explore around this city. I've only 2 photos to share from today. As I was using the ladies room, I always enjoy amusing bathroom grafitti. These I have chosen to share. One is explicitly for Alisa, and the other just made me laugh.

Long time no blog

So it's been a while and I still haven't enough time to actually write all that I'd like to on this post. Once I actually have ample time to write and post pics (maybe back in Christchurch), I will. I'm currently about 10km outside of Renwick, which is 10km out of Blenheim. I'm doing a farmstay with a lovely couple, Sharyn and Neville White. I've been romping around the past few weeks and this is the first sit down I've had. It's been a bit rough for me since I'm used to running around like a chook with his head cut off. I'm desperately missing people and wishing that town was a much closer bike ride. It's 13 miles round trip just to the closest town and twice as much to Blenheim. We'll see if I make it that far. I've a few pics from Sharyn's wares at the farmer's market today. All of which I picked this morning.

Wet and Cold....but fun!

I've been in Franz Josef for the past two days. It's on the West coast and is TINY. It consists of two streets, literally, but is super cute and has the feel of a little surf town only snuggled in the mountains. Yesterday was pissing down and today was supposed to be as well. Only, the good thing about this region is that you never know what the weather is going to be like the next day. Today was sunny and beautiful, much warmer than yesterday. I booked a half-day glacier hike which left midday. We got all geared up for the hike and made our way to the Glacier. Bee-you-tee-ful. Well, more like magnificent. We hiked a bit of the way up before we put on our crampons. Yes, they are actually called crampons. They are just the metal spikey things that you strap on the bottoms of your shoes for the ice climbing. It still makes me giggle. I made a bad joke towards the end when we'd made the majority of the decent. I asked our cutie guide, Matt, if it was time to take our cramp-offs. Only the Canadians laughed.

We hiked about half way up and got to chill out there for a while. Bits were definitely a bit sketchy. The ice is beautiful blue and the waterfalls all around were fantastic. I think I got some nice shots. It was a bit shorter than I thought it would be but it was a nice experience.

On my way to the sauna now and then to polish off that bottle of red. Oh yeah, and dinner.

Pics of the day

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/FranzJosefGlacierAndMonteithsBrewery

Photos in abundance and redundance

These pics are from a week and a half ago but I'm finally uploading them. Of course, there are a ton of them taken of the same thing, but without enough editing equipment and time, that'll all have to be sorted out at a later date. I hope you enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/LakeTaupo

http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/WellingtonAndFerryRideToSIsland