jeremy.id.au

Well okay, I didn’t actually get lost. However, Canberra’s bus network is not at all visitor friendly; perhaps not even all that friendly to its regular users. I was originally going to cycle though the bike provided to me by my host was not quite up to scratch. Couldn’t get the saddle up so wouldn’t have been much fun when it came time to climb back up the hills of Belconnen. No problem though, I was happy to experiment with the buses.

So my first morning there, having arrived the previous afternoon (and had a bit of a look around the city without actually going into any attractions). Having failed with the bike, I found I had just missed the hourly bus servicing the suburb of Aranda. Knowing that the frequent buses run along Belconnen Way, I thought I’d walk up that way. Though it wasn’t another 300 metres around the corner that I actually found a bus stop outside a hospital. However, I then made the mistake of not transferring to another bus at the city interchange to get to Parliament House. Although there is a stop within walkable distance, I was hoping for another stop that was closer. Instead, the bus took me all the way out to Woden out in the suburbs of Canberra. I finally took a bus back to the city and then out to Parliament House (both old and new).

Day three and I finally had everything under control. I figured out that bus stops are indicated as white dots on the bus maps, of which knowing this made quite a difference (though didn’t make up for bus stops being quite sparse in some areas). I managed to get out to the High Court and the National Gallery of Australia before taking a bus back to the other side of the lake to get a ferry. Timing was all good until I decided I wanted to go to the War Memorial, only that I had just missed the early bus to there. Constitutional Ave goes close enough though the buses for this are dispersed all over the city interchange. Finally I asked the information people who gave me the time and bus bay for the next bus along this road fairly quickly. Visited the war memorial then when it was time to get back, it was not clear where the closer bus stopped. Missed the bus before I realised which stop it was leaving from, so had to walk the 10 minutes back down to Constitutional Ave again.

The final day I didn’t use any buses. Instead I walked up Black Mountain to the Telecom Tower, passing a wallaby on the way up. While at the top of the tower, I fielded a phone call from a journalist at a local paper back home about our own public transport woes. I gave Canberra one last look over, before making the descent back down to Aranda, where I saw an Echidna when I was almost near the bottom.

Left Canberra by train, headed for Sydney. The trip was actually far more scenic than I had expected with plenty of bush and deep cuttings through the rock. Takes a bit longer than by bus, though trains tend to be far more comfortable with more leg room, etc.

Photos of Canberra to come.

It’s been over a week, though things are slow in the land of Jeremy’s blog at the moment. Last Thursday, while I still had the luxury of being on holidays from TAFE, me and my mate Chris took the train down to Warrnambool for the day. Mainly because I had a free V/Line voucher to use.

So first is first, I had to get up at 7am, which is remarkably early for me these days, probably the earliest I’ve been up since I had to leave for Sydney earlier this year. Though I was able to repeat this effort one day for TAFE and actually get there on time, but not for the other day of TAFE this week. None the less, I got down to yee ol’ Spencer Street station (now officially known as Southern Cross… Southern where?) at 8:30 and the train left on time at 8:49.

Was good to sit back and enjoy the trip, until we got closer to Warrnambool and found the rain was starting to set in. Just over three hours later and we were in Warrnambool at midday. So we walked around looking for lunch, dismissing various pubs and cafés until we found a pub we liked. After lunch (which for me consisted of a steak sandwich with chips and a few drinks along side it), we walked up to the visitor information centre, located conveniently a good walk out of town at the Flagstaff Hill maritime museum. We decided we’d head down and have a shot at minigolf, only to find the place submerged in water and subsequently closed. So after photographing some geese, we took a bus back into town (it just happens that we turned up at a bus stop just in time for the hourly bus).

With two and a half hours to spare we just walked around town for a while and kicked back to some pancakes which turned out to be rather good amidst all the rain and cold weather. We got back to the station well in time for the 17:40 train back to Melbourne, kicking back for another 3 and a half hours. It was mostly too dark to see anything by that stage though we had a little for dinner from the buffet car.

Got back into Spencer Street in time for the 9:38pm train to Box Hill. I was truly knackered by the time I got home though it’s good to get out of Melbourne every once in a while.

Photos online in my gallery as well as flickr.

I’ve gone a whole month since my last blogging. Yes it’s the new year and we’ve had Christmas too. It’s been a busy time too, with a trip down to Ocean Grove though most exciting of all, to Sydney.

First of in Sydney, I did the usual. I walked down through the Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens to the Opera House, also where I could see the Harbour Bridge. I then took a ferry under the Harbour Bridge to Darling Harbour, though via Balmain. I got some great shots on my digital camera, only to realise that I had it set to the lowest resolution! On Saturday night I caught up with a friend and her friends to see the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Domain. On Sunday I checked out Bondi Beach with a few other people.

Probably the most exciting thing I did was on Monday when I took a train up to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. I did a walk down the Furber Stairs from the Katoomba Cascades then took the Scenic Railway back up. I then did a walk from Honeymoon Lookout to Echo Point where the Three Sisters are. I was a little disappointed by the over development around Katoomba since the last time I was there 14 years ago. For example, Echo Point is more or less a bus terminal now. The train trip up there was interesting in its own right as well, especially where the train enters the mountains. You see some very nice bush and the train goes through these deep yet narrow cuttings. You also see Glenbrook station which happens to be the station used in Spellbinder. Once up in the mountains you get some spectacular valley views though it does seem fairly suburbanised again after this point though not necessarily all bad.

On the last day I took the ferry over to Manly, though the weather wasn’t that great. Still it was a fairly nice trip to make before heading home to Melbourne.

On returning home I discovered that the storms had killed the hard disk in my mail/www/jabber server. I wasn’t too keen to fix it for the first day or so, however, after a few days I did a new install and miraculously the hard disk started working for long enough to recover my data.

Whoops cut out there and haven’t updated my jogger ever since. Probably because I’ve been putting it off because there’s a lot of the NZ trip that I didn’t cover. Hell, I only covered 7 days and I was there for 23. Also going to retire jogger soon and hopefully replace it with some better piece of technology. Preferably something that supports comments but still allows updating via jabber.

Was great to catch up with Richard, his wife Paula and their Kids, Joshua and Saskia in Christchurch where I stayed for a week. First day I went to the Antarctic centre. Rode the tram, climbed the spire of the cathedral, went on the gondola, did just about every touristy thing in Christchurch (perhaps not in that order). One night we went for a drive, me, Richard and the kids up to the Port Hills and down to Sumner, so that was quite awesome to see some of Christchurch by night. On the weekend I was there I was challenged to minigolf by Josh and somehow he beat me, probably because I haven’t played much of the stuff lately! Well I’ll know to practise before I go there next time, eh? We also went for a drive down to Tayloy’s Mistake, an interesting place where I saw one of the many beaches with black/grey sand.

However, after a week of being in Christchurch it was time to go down south. Took a bus to Queenstown via Mount Cook. It was another great day as I was leaving Christchurch, clear views of the mountains as we made our way out of Christchurch and over the Canterbury Plains. Unfortunately further down the weather wasn’t so great and we were met with a bit of cloud cover. Lake Tekapo was a bit grey, while Lake Pukaki wasn’t much better, still at least we got a glimpse of Mount Cook as when we got to the base, it was completely hidden by cloud cover! Surprising on our way back out of the National Park, the sun had come out over Lake Pukaki and it was the most amazing turquoise colour. We were met by many more views of snow capped mountains before arrving into Queenstown.

Queenstown had a true alpine feel and the air was brisky. Could really see my breath has I walked along the street. I quite liked it. Was hardly there by day though as I had a bus to get the next morning at 6:30am, almost missed breakfast because nothing was open and luckily I had been able to get to the supermarket the night before. Well off to Doubtful Sound I was, in Fiordlands National park. Overnight there had been some fresh snowfall so the trip out to Te Anau was also quite nice. I didn’t speak to anyone on the trip though which was kind of depressing. But the scenary was really spectacular. I really liked the trip over Wilmot Pass because it was snowing a little, almost like the lower parts as we drove up to Mount Hotham (Vic). The Sound was a really mysterious place with many waterfalls. It’s also amazing to know you’re at sea level yet see snow on the mountains above. On the way back we also went down into the Manapouri Underground power station. It’s a couple hundred metres beneath the ground and the bus goes down a 2km spiral tunnel to get there.

Was glad to speak to some people on the trip to Fox Glacier. Saw some more glacial lakes, some of them as blue as the ocean. As well as that, I saw some very pretty beach tree forest. Though over on the west coast the weather was really miserable. I really thought that it’d never stop raining! Though it did eventually. Was a little disapointed with Fox Glacier village and I was stuck there for two nights. Franz Josef would have been a better place to stay, not so dead. There was no mobile coverage or anything. Well I walked down to see this lake. It must have been 6km out of down, what a crazy thing to do. Well once you get to the park entrance it’s still more ks to the lake so I gave up and went back. Was all soaked but still there wouldn’t have been anything better to do. At dinner time I got stuck talking to a very opinionative pom. Okay, some of it was interesting and I didn’t mind it because I was only going to be alone otherwise, but ah well never mind. Had a nice breakfast the nextday, it was pancakes with blueberries (must have been good if I remember after all this time). The glacier hike the next day was well worth it in the end though, still it was only the half day hike for various reasons.

Was glad to get out of Fox, was the only one on the little bus. When I first boarded it, I couldn’t see out the window because it was covered in frost. Amazingly the rain had stopped and not only that, but the sky was completely clear! The country side was covered in frost, so white, it was like snow. Some people got on at Franz and eventually I did speak a little to this kiwi dude and a few other people on the bus.

Not much in Greymouth, though not a problem as I wasn’t there long. Took a train over the alps, again some nice snow. Weather was fine on both side of the divide which is also amazing. But to be honest I was quite disappointed with this train trip. Why? I’m not entirely sure but maybe because I’d speak a day and a half total previously on trains and had spent a week of seeing snow capped mountains. So after all that, this train trip was nothing special. Maybe if there was snow on the ground, but not as it was. Still it was very nice scenary.

Spent another day in Christchurch before driving back to the Greymouth with Richard. Was slightly different by road, for example there was this amazing concrete aquaduct diverting a water fall out over the road and this ledge supported by concrete pilons with hillside just above it. I did have some appreciation for the white snow above us and the alpine feel across Arthur’s pass. Down in Greymouth though, there was again not much to do, so I climbed this big hill overlooking the township. Caught up with Richard again for dinner which was great. Next day, not much better but this time got on a tour that went up the coast north a bit. The blowholes were kinda cool. Had some pizza for dinner once Richard had finished work and went back to the hotel to watch some tv. That was my last night in NZ.

The next morning I was in for a big suprise. Richard wasn’t sure what time he’d be finishing so I had to leave early on a bus. What was the stuff falling from the sky? Was it rain, was it hail? No. What was the stuff on the ground, was it frost? No. You guessed right, it was snow. Was really spectacular having not seen a decent cover of snow for some five years when I went on a ski camp to Mount Buller with school in year 9. Wasn’t able to get too many decent photos but got some so that was alright.

Going home felt strange. I was glad to be going home finally, but at the same time I was sad to be leaving this awesome trip behind! Well nothing lasts for ever and there’s always the chance that I’ll be back later.

On Thursday I arrived home in Melbourne from New Zealand, an unplanned trip that I took. Well I was planning to go see my friend Richard at some stage though I suddenly took the plunge and actually went. Considering I was spending the money to get there, I thought I’d take a look at Wellington. That soon became Auckland and Rotorua as well, then before long I was off to see half the country.

I arrived in Auckland on the 1st of September, where I spent two nights. Having first arrived I walked to the city, I did feel pretty uncomfortable at first being in an unfamiliar city, not knowing where I could sit down to do a few things like set up my pre-paid mobile account (without going back to the hotel). Finding somewhere to eat seemed like another big feat, but eventually I found a food court filled with asian food stalls. After dinner, I went up to Sky Tower to ’see the lights’, before eventually settling down to the hotel room for the night.

Day two, first thing I did was to catch a bus out to Kelly Tarlton’s. The harbour coast line kind of reminded me of some of the cliffs along the Yarra River here in Melbourne, perhaps it was the way it was vegetated. Kelly Tarlton’s was reasonably good though I was mildly disappointed about not having such a good look at the penguins as I would have liked. The reason being is that they rush you through on this moving car thing. After that I took some photos across the harbour, before heading out to Mt. Eden, where I was surprised to encounter cows in what might as well have been an inner city park. Views from Mt. Eden were great as well.

Day three was were the real travelling began. I was commencing my train journey down to Wellington and so had to be at the railway station by 8:55am. Once out of Auckland, I was surprised at how green the country side was. Though it wasn’t all that long before I arrived at Hamilton where I had to transfer to a bus bound for Rotorua. Once in Rotorua, the first thing I did was to travel to the maori arts and crafts institute ‘Whakarewarewa’. There was a lot in the way of maori culture, from the traditional buildings that they carved, to the tools and clothing that they wore. As well as that, there was also a kiwi enclosure though they weren’t too active. Though perhaps the most exciting thing was the geothermal area containing boiling mud, a lot of steam and even a small geyser that was active.

Since taking my time with looking at the geothermal acitivity, I missed the bus back into town and it would have been an hour before it returned so I walked back instead. That ended up taking probably just as long. I got back just in time to arrange a hangi meal. The concert before hand was very interesting, though it did seem to go on for a bit (though still worth seeing). The food was great, I enjoyed talking to a few people including the maori guy who was running the hangi thing with his family, as well as some locals. To complete the night they took us out for a walk through the bush to see glow worms and some eels swimming around at a spring.

The next day I had to be up even earlier to be on a bus by 8:20am. I enjoyed the last of the country side of the region surrounding Rotorua, before I arrived back in Hamilton. I had about about an hour to spare, so where I walked along the Waikato River and had a look around this very pretty town. Not before long, I was off again and the train trip resumed. I was continually surprised by the picturesque country side. Some of it would appear to have been out of a fairy tale, in other places there was mile apon mile of hedges that bordered the paddocks. Unfortunately it was not easy to get photos as the double glazed windows on the train didn’t fair too well with reflection. I did manage to get outside on the viewing platform for some pictures. However, it wasn’t until we arrived at the Raurimu Spiral that I was really impressed. The spiral consisted of three horseshoe bends and one complete 360 degree circle. As the train slowly made it way around the spiral, it climbed a total of 210 metres over 11 kilometres. Here we reached a total altitude of 835 metres. The next town from the spiral, National Park had a quite an alpine look and before long we were greeted with awesome views of Mt Ruapehu. Finally that day I was impressed by the Rangitikei River gorge which the train crosses five times in only half an hour. I arrived in Auckland 30 minuets late at 9pm, having been on the train since 12pm (though the train had left Auckland at 8:15am). It was a long trip but well worth it.

On the first day in Wellington (5th of September), I took a quick look at Te Papa,, the natural disasters exhibit was really great. After which, I took the cable tram to the top of the hill where the botanical gardens are. I had lunch at the top while enjoying the harbour views before walking down the side of the hill through the gardens and back into the city. I pretty much stumbled across the ‘beehive’ and Parliament House, though before long I realised I was at the back of these buildings and not the front! Across the road was also the world’s largest wooden office block.

Day two in Wellington wasn’t so exciting. I caught up with a friend at Victoria University (which is of no association to a certain western suburban university/former TAFE, back home in Melbourne) who I’d been speaking to on the net for some time. Someone else who happened to be hanging around this same part of Vic Uni was nice enough to offer me a lift up to Mount Victoria. The views up here were great, extending across Cook Strait and all around Wellington. By the time I got down to the bottom again at Oriental Bay, I decided it was a nice day for an ice cream. There wasn’t much left to do in Wellington so I took a ride on a trolley bus for the sake of it. Nothing exciting but something that just had to be done.

The 7th of Sept, couldn’t have been a more perfect day for making the voyage across Cook Strait. There was not a cloud in sight, nor ripple in the water. If the Wellington harbour wasn’t nice enough, Marlborough Sound was even better. Having spent an hour in Picton, I was once again on another spectacular train ride, this time along the Pacific Coast. There were views of the ocean with sandy grey/black beaches on one side of the train and at times you could see the alps on the other.

More to come…

Yes, well I’ve been slow to update my Jogger lately.

A lot has happened in the 2 and a bit months since I did last update it. We are already onto the 4th week of the school term. Time is going a little too fast for my liking! I’m back at Box Hill Senior Secondary College and finally doing year 12. The subjects that I chose to do are (call me suicidal if you wish!):
English (Duh!)
Maths Methods
Specialist Maths
Physics
VET Cisco Networking

Christmas was nothing special except I do love my turkey and all the chocolate and other presents that people give me. Christmas Eve was good since we went out for a barbeque next to the Yarra with Tim and his girlfriend Effie. A few hours after we got home the dog was barking and as it turned out in the morning, Tim and Effie camped here (watch out for those tiger snakes in our back yard!).

The following Monday after Christmas I went camping with Tim and Effie. They’d just come from camping in Shepyard Flat so they met us in Lilydale and we took the backroads through the Dandenong Ranges to get out to Pakenham and then eventually onto the South Gippsland Hwy. At one point the road near Gembrook became really narrow to the point that if we were passing a car coming the other direction we had to slow right down and get halfway off the road.

Just before we arrived in Foster where we were staying, we travelled over some rolling hills before seeing an awesome view of Wilsons Promontory. I’d never expected to see the ocean with mountains behind it and it kind of disorientated me for a minute. Though it was kinda magical.

That night we setup camp and went off for dinner, hoping to have fish n chips on the beach, only to get to Port Franklin to find not a single shop and no beach! Just a little harbour. A local suggested that we try Toora so we set off there. As we approached we saw that there was a wind farm. It turned out to be on the hill behind Toora. It was pretty amazing but those 33m blades were pretty freaky. We ended up getting pizza instead of fish n chips, although the pizza place only could cook two at a time and we had to wait 40 minuets. Once we got our pizzas they ended up burnt!

The next day we went down to the Prom. It was pretty amazing the way there are all these boulders perched up on the hills. Not long after we were in the park enterance we saw a Wombat stumbling around on the side of the road. Once we got to Tidal River we decided to climb Mt Oberon. Once we were at the top we saw an echidna then we descended, had lunch and much of the day was over. On the way out we saw another wombat (or perhaps the same one).

New Years Eve was pretty quiet in Foster which wasn’t too much of a surprise since it’s only a small down with no attraction (except the fact that all the other camp grounds in the region were booked out). I’d hoped to go to Invelock but that didn’t happen.

The rest of the holidays were pretty eventless, although we did go back to the usual holiday house in Ocean Grove. I got sick of driving everyone around on the 3rd day and on the 4th day I went home while my mum stayed for the rest of the week.

Well now that school has started again (after having 2.5 months off) I’d better get back to doing some work!