July 25, 2014 Sydney

When I said goodbye to Jordan in the Sydney airport, I greeted another partner-in-crime, my then-boyfriend, James. (We’re still in touch, and still friends!) He had been to Sydney before but didn't get to see much of the city the first go-around, so because he was eager to see numerous things and I had spent most of my trip-planning on Jordan's time, I agreed to follow his lead on the itinerary.

I’m admittedly a history nerd, so skip to the next red bit if you find history boring.

However, before we jumped into the tours that James begged to do, we spent an afternoon with my pal Gina during her layover between Auckland and Perth. We three wandered around the harbor and made our way to the Maritime Museum, where we climbed aboard a sub, a battle ship (HMS Vampire), and a replica of the HMS Endeavor. Endeavor was the ship that Captain James Cook sailed while exploring Australia and NZ during the eighteenth century, and its small size shocked me. After seeing the living conditions—even though it was one of the best during that time—I have a lot more respect for those sailors.

The next day, James and I did a hop-on/hop-off bus tour that wove through the city and also went out to the nearby beaches. I enjoyed hearing some of the stories, I liked the freedom of the bus service to determine our own schedule, and I loved getting to visit Bondi Beach, but I much prefer exploring on foot. We did this as part of a tour one night (through the Rocks), but mostly did so on our own. During the Rocks tour, our guide told us about the shady past of The Hero of Waterloo, one of Sydney's oldest pubs: in the nineteenth century, young men were shanghaied by transporting them directly to the docks through a tunnel in the basement. After that tour, we stopped in and asked the bartender if he'd show us the passageway, and because it was a slow night, he agreed! We descended a narrow wooden staircase and went through a musty storage room, and there was the opening to the now-bricked-in tunnel. An old chain on the wall added to the eerie effect.

 

Other places we saw included Hyde Parkand the Hyde Park Barracks. The latter saw many uses during its 200 year history: a prison, an immigrant processing center, a women’s home, and a government administration office. Now it exists as a museum in various phases of restoration to recognize each of those phases and the many lives that passed through it.

Non-cultured readers pick up reading here:

 

We also went to Chinatown and wound through the maze of stalls in a market; we went to an underwhelming history museum; we stood slack-jawed in the Queen Victoria Building, a nineteenth-century shopping mall; and we walked along the Circular Quay numerous times. We also went to the top of the SydneyTower, which does provide aerial views of the city, but Auckland’s Sky Tower easily wins in comparison.

            

I enjoyed Sydney not only because it's a nice place, but also because I got to calmly absorb and enjoy it. After a jam-packed two weeks with a relentlessly side-splitting cough (ask me sometime about “gees linctus”), I finally recovered and got to meander through a vibrant city with good friends. I even went for a relaxing swim—but in an indoor pool since every horrible sea creature known to man lives in Australian waters. “But we don’t know about every marine animal yet, and in fact more are constantly being discovered,” I hear you thinking. The worst ones will always be in Australia. Always.

When my time in Australia came to an end, I flew on to the next leg of my adventure: Samoa.

July 19, 2014 A Bit of Australia

Our week in Australia started in Gold Coast, which is about in the middle of the continent’s eastern coast, and we stayed in two areas while there.

First was Surfer’s Paradise, which gave the impression of being an Australian version of Florida’s Panama City Beach: superficial and touristy, but instead of an unnecessary number of shops selling airbrush T-shirts, they sold UGG boots. Since it was winter, there weren’t really any crowds, but there also weren't the warmest conditions. We did spend some time on the beach, and even though the calm, tepid waves were inviting, a fierce wind constantly blew sand into my eyes and mouth and kept us from jumping in. I may enjoy a trip to Surfers under different circumstances, but I wasn't that impressed.

After two days we shifted to Coolangatta, which was still a bit touristy, but not nearly as bad, and I saw past its faults because it had the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. This is where I fulfilled my one dream of Australia: I fed kangaroos! Yes, I understand that Aussies regard them as pests (even if they're a national symbol); yes, I understand that I was only just eschewing “touristy" places and activities in the above paragraph; yes, I know that souvenir shops capitalize on foreigners' fascination with these critters and sell kangaroo pelts, dried paws (as backscratchers, seriously), and a few other parts you wouldn't believe. However, I defy you to care about all that after having a kangaroo place its tiny little paw on your palm while it eats out of your hand. Even though I was a little uneasy about standing in a crowd of weighty marsupials, I really enjoyed the experience.

 

Currumbin also had a few mournful-sounding dingoes, a drowsy Tasmanian devil, and few gorgeous native owls. A large enclosure of koalas made me squeal with delight, and I was tempted to pay the $30 fee to hold one, but I thought better of it after watching them for a bit and noticing how often and how nonchalantly they dropped their bodily waste. The park also had a rope course, which was a challenge at times but mostly a blast, due in no small part to the fact that Jordan and I were wearing matching jumpsuits required and provided by the park. Really I spent a great deal of time doubled over laughing at Jordan's flailing limbs as he tackled some of the difficult parts of the course. Don't worry, I made a fool of myself, too.

Next, we flew to Melbourne, the second-largest city in Australia. Its gridded streets consist of large boulevards and smaller avenues, which are joined together with alleys and lanes brimming with coffee shops and boutiques that draw in residents and visitors alike. Jordan and I did a walking tour our first morning there, and I enjoyed winding through the city at a casual pace that allowed me to soak in the life and history there. Melbourne has impressive Victorian structures and modern buildings in its CBD, as well as smaller, charming edifices in its nearby neighborhoods. Another nice way to see the city was by riding the old trolley that encircles the downtown. We spent a good bit of time walking through the city and one of its nearby neighborhoods, Fitzroy, where we found a home-cooked Greek meal and a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop. Although I was exhausted from all the walking, I wish we could have stayed longer, and I hope to visit again.

After less than 48 hours in Melbourne, we flew to Sydney, and our first night there we navigated the subway system to attend a show at the Opera House. Beforehand, we got dinner at one of the many restaurants on the Circular Quay around the harbor; I can’t remember what I ate, because all I recall is the brilliant scenery of the harbor, the enormous bridge spanning it, and the Opera House. Then we made our way to The Man in Black, which was a tribute to Johnny Cash that narrated his life and of course included many of his songs. Jordan and I enjoyed the show, and getting to see a performance at the Sydney Opera House—even though we were just in one of its small performance spaces—is something that I never imagined I'd be able to do. 

The following day we wandered around parts of the city, including its large Botanical Garden, an old part of town called The Rocks, and the Circular Quay again. It’s a big city, but even with its huge buildings, it still felt welcoming. The harbor is certainly an impressive sight; I agree with Jordan that the Opera House is something that lives up to the hype. At least, it did for us.

My two weeks with Jordan zoomed by. After visiting six cities (and practically memorizing the airlines’ magazines), he flew home and left me to continue the next part of my travels.

July 12, 2014 End of NZ

My final month living in NZ seemed like a whirlwind. I spent that time traveling through parts of NZ, Australia, and Samoa, and my trip was spent at different times with three of my dearest friends.

Jordan, one of my best friends since high school, was the only one from home who loved me enough to come visit me this year (are you reading this, Mom and Dad?). We combined my travel experience and his reading travel books to cobble together a two-week itinerary split between NZ and Australia.

Most of the time in NZ was spent in Auckland (flooding in Northland forced us to cancel going there), but we did make it to Queenstown and Milford Sound for a couple of days. Queenstown sits by a lake among mountains of the Southern Alps; it was chilly even in the summer, so being there in the winter was just plain cold. While there, we rode the gondola up a steep mountainside to ride on luges and to see the spectacular views made even more astonishing by a sunset electrifying the snowcapped mountains and casting shadows on the dark lake below. We also took a day-long excursion to Milford Sound (including stops at Mirror Lakes and a raging river), which was stunning on a rainy day when I visited last December, and it was still incredible on the clear summer day when I returned there with Jordan. I was so glad that Jordan got to see the South Island; it is truly stunning, and I hope the fjord lived up to his expectations since it was the only sight his heart was set on. 

Our time in Auckland included excursions to some of my favorite places, and I really enjoyed showing my new life and home to someone who knew me long before I came here. Waiheke Island, where we wandered around a winery above a small bay, was gorgeous (pictures). When I took Jordan to many spots, I loved sharing them and got an opportunity to bid my farewells: Takapuna Beach was the setting for many of my swim practices and races; Mt. Eden, one of the city’s extinct volcanoes, has some of the best views of the city and surrounding waters; The Harbour Bridge, which links the city to the North Shore, is a sight in itself and also has my favorite vantage points of Rangitoto and the city.

Our final night was spent out with my pals at our favorite haunt in the CBD, and the next morning, we flew to Australia.

December 27, 2014 NZ Epilogue

I beg my audience’s forgiveness for my long break from posting. Once again, so much happened in my journeying that putting pen to paper to convey it all just overwhelmed me—in addition to the emotional surge inherent in the reverse culture shock that hits many expats who return home. Perhaps I felt that concluding my writings about my life in NZ would potentially signal the end of my world travels. Not that, actually—rather, I guess I was worried that it would all just become some story and feel like it didn’t really happen. Once something ends, and the more time passes, the experience becomes a rote story and less the living moments that made it.

The sentiment that has shaped my thoughts and plans since arriving home has been a tremendous fear of getting stuck here again. However, today I began another chapter in my global travels: I’ve left for Lima, Peru. Before I even returned home from NZ, I set my sights on moving to South America, and even though I loved many things about living in my hometown again, I spent much of the last four-and-a-half months trying to find a way to leave again.

Now that I have finally taken the leap to prevent that fate, I feel ready to tell my final tales from my first year abroad.