19. March 2009

Time to continue. Tho I’m not in much of a better condition than before, but I’ll try to finish it today. I just finished one book that I have been reading now for quite a while and been really enjoying it, have learned quite a lot from it. I totally recommend it to everyone. Name of the book is “The Art of Happiness – A Handbook for Living” and has a nice picture of Dalai Lama on it :P. But I’m not gonna talk about the book here, maybe some other time, because it is probably something that creates different feelings in different people. But I will write here something from Dalai Lamas daily spiritual practices, which should help approaching problems rationally and learning to view our troubles or our enemies from alternative perspective.

“ Whenever I associate with someone, may I think myself the lowest among all and hold the other supreme in the depth of my heart!...
When I see beings of wicked nature, pressed by violent sin and affliction, may I hold these rare ones dear as if I had found a precious treasure!...
When others, out of envy treat me bad with abuse, slander and the like, may I suffer the defeat and offer the victory to others!...
When the one, whom I have benefited with great hope, hurts me very badly, may I behold him as my supreme Guru!
In short may I, directly and indirectly, offer benefit and happiness to all beings, may I secretly take upon myself the harm and suffering of all beings!...”

It’s not something that could be always used in today’s world, but in general I think that is something that will benefit all mankind.

Anyways last time I left off when we decided to do the Kepler track. We booked camping grounds for the track, which was weird, because we were only going to camp there. Camping cost 15 dollars and staying in a hut cost 45, which was stupid, but about that later on. Before leaving to the track we left a note on the notice board, that we are looking for someone for Dusky track and repacked our stuff so we could leave stuff that we didn’t need on the track to the backpackers storage. That night we were sharing a room with two Israeli girls and one guy from Netherlands. Just wanted to mention that, because in the evening we had all room full of Israelis and we had seen so far only 1 guy from there.

Next morning we left backpackers quite late, because our first camping site was quite close, so we had time to get some breakfast from town and get our things together. First day was actually quite boring, just walking in the forest, which reminded more European forests than Australian. But for me it still left kind of amazing feeling, it felt kind of ancient, like it would be the place where dinosaurs used to live. There was at one point, when we were just chilling near the Control Gates, which was a dam in the beginning of the Kepler track, where I felt kind of like home. Not because it looked like home, but because it felt like it, it felt like spring in Estonia, even though it is basically autumn here.

We were camping near the Te Anau lake, which wasn’t nothing special, just toilets and few tables. That is for what we paid 15 bucks and nobody actually checked if we had paid for it. Night was quite cold as I had suspected, but I had prepared quite well enough for it.

Next morning wasn’t really good for me, didn’t have the right energy, so getting up the mountain took quite some time. But as I got over the forest line I felt much better and the view was just amazing, something that is indescribable, something that you need to experience yourself. Soon I reached to the first hut on the track, there I had my lunch and spent some time. There was a cave near by and I decided to go discover that. Left my bag in the hut and took my flashlights with me, because it was told, though I thought at that moment that it was going to be boring. But I was wrong; I actually got one of the best experiences in New Zealand so far. I spent around 1,5 to 2 hours just exploring the cave, squeezing through small tunnels, making my way down the small river in the cave. It got quite scary sometimes, because I was alone there and I was afraid of damaging the caves too. I had a chance to try something we were told in Jenolan, that if you turn out the lights you start hallucinating, in there it didn’t work, probably because feeling secure, but in there I actually did that, even after only 5 minutes in dark. I started seeing that from the way I came, comes the light and I can see the cave walls, but it was actually all my imagination. After long period of time I would really imagine going crazy, which has actually happened to some people. When the cave became too muddy and tight I turned back, but on my way back I managed to get a bit lost, but luckily I realized it soon enough. Amazing!

After returning from the cave I soon started moving again and I was still going up. I passed the Mount Luxmore summit, which I actually visited too, it should be around 1500 m high, great view. I kept moving on, the track kept going on the top of the mountain, so you had to watch your step too. Most of the day I spent high in the mountains, I think that was the time I realized that I’m in love with mountains and that was the time I knew the answer to Martins question.

I arrived to the campsite in the evening and Kaupo was already waiting there. That was the first and the last time when someone asked us a booking. And that only because there was a hut next to the camping site, but still we weren’t allowed to use huts kitchen, toilets or anything.

Next day was easy walk, but just took quite some time. We were following the river, so that gave some quite interesting views at times. And it was quite interesting eating lunch sitting on a rock in the middle of the wild river under nice sunshine. Next place to spend a night was also next to one lake, Lake Manapouri, which is the second deepest lake in New Zealand, with a highest dept of around 447 meters and 37 islands if I remember right. It is also home for the New Zealand’s second biggest power station, hydroelectric one. This takes me to the point that I should mention that I like what I learn by doing all this travelling. But as I have been moving around already for half a year, it is becoming quite boring I a way.

Next day was the last day on the track and day when we arrived back to Te Anau. It wasn’t nothing special; I just kept going to get a warm shower, nice big lunch and cold beer in the evening.

Spent a night in the same backpackers, first we had, then nice big lunch, got food for dinner and beers for evening. Later we used internet, which I hadn’t used for ages and started making dinner. I think I haven’t eaten so much for, I don’t even know since when, but it was good. We also found out that the price for the plane to Dusky track was per person, so we thought that maybe its not so good idea, because I am running quite low on money now too. Gotta get back to Australia and do some work again.

Next day I couldn’t find anything that I would like to do anymore, just nothing. We just packed our stuff and checked out. And then we started thinking what to do. We went to the information centre and told them that we wanted to go somewhere, but don’t know where. After small discussion we decided to go more north, to see the glaciers and then later go on the north island. Because there wasn’t a bus going straight to Franz Joseph, we had to come to Queenstown again and spend one night here. And now when we are last day in Queenstown we found this cheap and nice place to stay, weird. But anyways to anyone coming here, stay at Thomas’s Hotel.

So tomorrow we are getting on a bus at 8 am and head north, maybe it will be little warmer there too :P.
So long…

12. March 2009

Don’t know where to start :P. Probably wisest is with starting from the beginning or where I left off last time. But not much actually happened while we were in Christchurch, tried to find someone to travel with, who wanted to share some expenses and would have drivers license, but with no luck. On Monday we checked out from our backpackers and started our 8 hour or something like that trip to Queenstown. We saw a bit of New Zealand nature and mountains and it all gave real positive feeling. Had few stops on our way and one of them was in one small town, where we had lunch, but don’t remember the name of it. It was next to one quite beautiful lake and mountains all around. After that we started thinking about maybe going back there, but we will see about that.

Anyways, we got to Queenstown around 4 pm and then started looking for backpackers. Because we didn’t have anything booked and hadn’t done any research about them, then pretty much took the first one we found. We actually went to the information centre, but it was packed and we didn’t find any useful fliers there either. So we booked our first night in X base, which was 27 dollars a night, which is quiet expensive, 25 dollars a night is OK, and less than that is awesome. When we got to our room it was full of POME’s, making noise, but good for them, they were having fun.

We pretty much went out straight away, to look around the town. Nothing special actually, except the fact that you can book bungee jumping and other stuff like that almost everywhere. And we actually did book the bungee, the NZ highest and I think second highest in the world. We were also checking other backpackers, to find cheaper one. After visiting couple of them, which all were full for few days, we found one place which was actually 27 per night, but in reception they told that if we book 2 nights then we can get it for 25 a night. So we decided that we will come back next day, before going to do the bungee and gonna stay here. While we were chilling around one of those English guys came to us and said that it’s gonna be party tonight in our room, that we should get some drinks and they will get the girls.

In the evening after looking around the town when we got back to our room it was full of people, mostly English guys and Swedish girls, hmm, yeah. We were hanging there for awhile and then everyone went to the bar. They asked us to come with us too and as we had 2 fliers for 2 for 1 beers, we thought why not. We had our beers and listened how people sang karaoke real good or real bad. Well, beginning was good, but it got worse every time, I think it means that alcohol doesn’t make you a better singer. So before it got unbearably painful we left and went to bed. But well the night didn’t end with that. I mean, I already fell a sleep and were in the dream world when some English guys with Swedish girls came in and started screaming, yelling and later on fucking and woke me up. And after that it took awhile to get back to sleep. And we had to be up before 10 am in the morning, fun.

Anyways we actually got up before 10, packed our stuff and then changed the backpackers. And the new backpackers is heaps better, only 4 people in the room and more quiet + it’s cheaper :P. Dropped our stuff there and went to get some breakfast and then headed to the place where we had to check in for the bungee jump. Around 1 pm we got to the place where the bungee jump was going to happen, got our gear and instructions. Oh and btw I am now around 73 kg heavy :P which is real positive. And I thought that I have lost weight. Then we were taken in the middle of the canyon to a kind of small house. We were put things around our legs and had to wait for our turn. Kaupo had to jump before me, because he was heavier :D, when he got back up and talked about it was the point I started getting real nervous. My turn wasn’t so far away after that either.

There was one thing with the jump, after you got down you had to pull from one rope to release your legs. It seems to be real easy thing, but after you have fallen 100 m and are hanging in the middle of the freaking canyon, it’s not that easy anymore, you are scared shitless and don’t wanna fall down. Couple of guys came up hanging down, legs still strapped. Kaupo also warned me about it.

Soon it was my turn, I had to sit down to the chair and wait till I get strapped to the bungee rope. I started getting more and more nervous. I got my picture taken on that chair and then had to go on the ledge. Before I got there that guy told me to jump hard and that’s pretty much last thing I remember clear. By the time I got on the ledge I was scared shitless already and after looking down the fear got even stronger. I was advised to look in front the mountains, so I did. Because the wind was quite strong at that moment, I had to marinate in my fear for a bit. And then it happened. 3…, 2…, 1…, go… and adios, didn’t have any thoughts anymore, couldn’t do anything anymore. Middle part was the scariest I think, I felt like my heart was going to pop out. I’d like to quote something I read that someone had told about that bungee jump “Even my shit was scared”. I think that’s the right thing to say. Last part was real blurry, don’t know if it was the part where million thought went through my mind or just because of the wind. Guess only way to know is doing it again :P, but not so soon yet.

I didn’t have problems with releasing my legs, by pulling that rope, but I was scared as hell doing that still. When I got up I was still shaking all over my body and it didn’t stop for some time. We had to keep looking people jumping and after awhile it got boring and it took time before we could go back to the safe ground. But when we got there we were just doing nothing, waiting for others. We could check our videos and pictures that were taken. For quite some time I was in a dilemma whether to buy the video or not, so that I would have something to remember. Just before leaving I decided to get it. It was expensive, but I think it was worth it.

When we got back we were thinking what to do next and decided to go bike riding next day. We were checking bike rental prices and places to go. But we didn’t make any decisions yet. I was real tired that day when we got back, so I went to bed early, wanted to be rested for next day.

In the morning we got up, had breakfast, bought cloves and I got a warm hat too and decided to which rental place we were going. We chose the one that cost 1 dollar more, but the store was opened 2 hours longer than the other one. We got there and asked about bike rental. She asked straight away where we wanted to go and we had to make quick decision. One place what we had been looking before already was the highest mountain around here, around 2400 m high and has snow on top. It had a road going up there too, because there’s ski resort during winter. The lady there didn’t want to give us the cheaper bikes for that tho. So we had to rent 25 dollars more expensive bikes.

But as we wanted to do it we were ok with that. And I think it has been so far one of the best spent money in Queenstown. The trip up there was real hard, but the view, the feeling of accomplishment and the workout was defiantly awesome. It took us around 4 hours to get up there and it was too hard to ride all the way up with bikes and we didn’t get all the way up because the snow got quite deep and we weren’t clothed properly for winter weather, so it was real cold. While we were going up there were times that wind got real strong, even that strong that we were struggling moving forward not back, but when the wind was from behind us it was quite good to move on. Because we were so high it was quite hard just physically move on, because the higher you get the less oxygen there is in the air. So there was one time, that I just couldn’t go on, only thing I could do was lying down and resting.

Coming down was easy, as we went up around 4 hours we came down around 1 hour, funny eh. We were riding around Queenstown for awhile more and then returned the bikes. We went back to the backpackers to have shower and rest a bit. Later on we went to get something to eat, as we wanted steak, it’s not easy to find cheap place. We went to the world bar which had steaks with OK price, had a 2 litres of beer for two of us and later on tried the famous teapot cocktail. I think we had quite good night.

Now we are doing basically nothing here at the moment. Thinking where to go and do next. We should put up ads to the internet that we are looking for travel mates. Last day we are going to stay here is Saturday, so till then we still have time till then to do something here. But what!?

18. March 2009

I would like to start this time, not with what I have done, but with something I didn’t have a good answer first time, not even second time, but came up to my mind while I was around 1500 m high walking on the top of the mountain. This answer is more directed towards Herr Martin, but I think it is something for everyone.

Question was why to save old buildings and why are they so important? I would go little bit beyond this question a bit. I would ask why were these did humans create those buildings anyways!? Probably most of these old buildings were built either to live in them, to defend people in and around them or for religious purposes.

If you look at it like that everything seems to be alright. And then there they are now after few hundred years trying to make us think about our history and show us the cultural values (some of them only). The buildings are just made from stone, wood and some other construction materials, which the time has given it’s mark, some buildings show it more, some less. All these materials that people are using are creation of nature and it has taken decades, sometimes millions and billions of years to be like they are now. But human mind doesn’t go much beyond their own lifetime or those few hundred years that we have learned from history books. And then comes some guy and tears up that creation, destroying millions and billions of years and for what, to make something of it and tear it down again, so that all the “history” is going to be thrown out like garbage.

And the same thing goes about everything that humans use to create useless junk and destroy the nature. Starting from everything that has become so natural for us electricity, gas, cars, pots, pans, watches, jewellery and even the same computer we are using.

But as a human being I couldn’t imagine my life without some or many of these things. Being able to travel, cook food, know what time it is, without using sun to do the calculations and to communicate with people through internet, without destroying the millions and billions of years. And of course I appreciate the cultural values that some things give us, but what are my cultural values anyways? As an Estonian I don’t have many of these traditions or values left as even my grandparents had at their time. We don’t have those old Estonian Christmas left, now we have Christmas with Coca-Cola Santa, our dancing has become pretty much kids school and once an a year event, tho here far away from home, the food is the thing I miss.

Going too far from the my primary thought now :P. What I’m trying to say is that we should use as much as we can things that can be recreated and always use wisely what we have, avoiding pointlessness.

Here is a story. It is a story about one cave or one cave system. Billions of years ago nature created a limestone. Many, many times later than the length of human history water started caving down, at first small holes, later on already big tunnels, through which whole rivers could pass. Then within short period of time (comparing caves history to human history), man came to explore the caves and of course everyone had to leave a sign that they have been there and take a piece of the cave with them. Now those marks, they call it graffiti, are part of history, but the ones that people make now are called destroying the caves. I call it stupidity of human kind, making their history more valuable than saving the nature. This is the story about Jenolan Caves, which now every year thousands of people visit, where they have made walking paths so that people could walk around easily and other constructions. The natural way the caves should develop is destroyed.

Argue with me if you want, but that’s how I feel and if you give me good enough reason to believe otherwise, do so, but till then I see humans as a cancer to nature.

Now I should talk with few words what we have done :P. I left off where we were trying to figure out what to do in the Queenstown before leaving and where to go next. We decided to come more down south to Fiordland to do some hiking. But in Queenstown we actually didn’t think of anything so we were pretty much just spending time. Of course we were trying to get ready for our hiking, getting warmer gear, because we only had stuff good for Australian climate.

One evening new girl came in our room in our backpackers, gorgeous girl. We started talking to her and got along with her quite well, later on decided to go out to have few drinks. We went to the world bar and introduced those famous teapot cocktails to her. Evening ended actually quite early. She was talking about friend coming to Queenstown next day and she had to go to other backpackers, next day that friend turned out to be her boyfriend :P. Anyways I don’t know why I am talking about this, maybe because there was something about her, don’t know what, besides her look :P. Her name was Julie, she is from Austria, she likes to snowboard and she wants to become kindergarten teacher, but not for a long time, but for a while, same time she wants to travel. Amazing girl, too bad that she was taken and our time was so short.

Next day his boyfriend, who actually didn’t know that we knew Julie started randomly talking to us and one thing led to another, he gave us his number if we were going to do one of the hardest tracks here in Fiordland, Dusky track. We didn’t tell him anything. The world works mysterious ways.

From Queensland we came to Te Anau, small town in Fiordland, nothing special about it, maybe thing that it is in the middle of the most wet part of New Zealand and it is on the shore of one beautiful mountain lake and surrounded by amazing mountains. Here we went to the Department Of Conservation, which is the place where all hikers have to go if they want to hike somewhere and enquired about the Dusky track. The guy there warned us about the track, that it is really hard one, sometimes it gets really flooded, so that people get stuck in there and if we go we have to bring plenty of extra food with us and so on, and on. After thinking about it awhile we decided to do the Kepler track first, which is easier, can get there without problems and cheaper. And then look for people who would like to come with us and share the plane cost flying there, which turned out to be a bad idea. But I am too tired right now, so about that next time :P.

7. March 2009

Everything has gone so good lately, with small issues, but all solved quickly. I’m writing this already in New Zealand, but first things first.

We spent few days in Shepparton, went out in a bar and had some fun. In the bar we went we met the guy that was working in the orchard too, the orchard owners son. And turned out that he was working in that bar too, as a sound technician and besides that he plays in a bad too, awesome guy. Bought us few drinks too, we got to know what is Jägerbomb.

After Shepparton we went back to Melbourne, didn’t do much there, just chilling around, spending some time. We went to see a movie “Slumdog millionaire”, which was much better than I expected, worth of going to see it. It wasn’t very regular Hollywood movie, so defiantly interesting, at least how it showed Indian life. With few days we decided to go to New Zealand and bought our tickets.

On the day we had our flight, we didn’t have much to do in the morning and we had lots of time till we had to leave. Because of that we decided to go to airport early and spend time in there. Waited awhile till the check in opened. When it was our turn, they told us that we had to have a ticket back, otherwise we can’t get through passport control in New Zealand. So we quickly bought Jetstar’s flexible ticket what we could get a refund on and get our money back, except administration fees.

We got to Christchurch, New Zealand without any problems after that and arrived here late at night. Kaupo had written to one backpacker and told them that we were coming, now only thing we had to do was finding it, but luckily it wasn’t that hard. Also we have been just chilling here basically all that time, thinking what to do in New Zealand and have been trying to find some travel partner, who would have a drivers license, but haven’t had that much of a luck so far. So if nothings gonna happen, then we are leaving to Queenstown on Monday.

Yesterday we went climbing on inside walls here in Christchurch and it was actually quite fun. I liked it at least, but Kaupo didn’t that much, maybe because he wasn’t just that good in it :P. Anyways it was good workout and fun. Today we spent time in library and went to the local park here, which is huge and awesome. It wasn’t as fancy and exotic as Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens, but I think I actually liked it better, gave me more kind of home feeling. New Zealand anyways reminds more Europe than Australia, so it’s more kind of home feeling here. Weather is also cloudy, but when it’s sunny it’s quite hot, kind of like Estonia. So far I like it and I feel more and more happy every day, but something is still missing, like there’s something I need to do. Hmm, still figuring it out.

Didn’t got much into the details, guess I’m getting a bit lazy writing this thing, gotta find some motivation or maybe I’m just getting better :P.

PS! I think I’m addicted to sushi :P

18. Feb 2009

Well it’s been 10 days since I last wrote something. All that time we have been in Melbourne, where actually nothing interesting happened. But I can still talk about it a bit.

First thing when we arrived to Melbourne was of course finding place to stay. Didn’t know any places there, so we just went to the city centre and tried to find something there. First place we went to were full, but they recommended one other place, so that was where we headed and that’s where we stayed till leaving from Melbourne. That place was huge, expensive and not so nice.

In the backpackers we met 3 Estonians all together, so quite a lot compared to previous encounters, only 3 in 3 months. What was even more surprising was that we went in the same high school with one girl, Annika. She went in the class higher than me. So the world is real small. Also one thing I noticed when talking to the Estonians was that it was really weird talking in Estonian again. And Annika had 2 more Estonian friends who we also met. So 5 Estonians in Melbourne. Too many Estonians already.

So what good did we do in Melbourne? We watched 2 new movies: “Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans” and “The curious case of Benjamin Button”. Underworld wasn’t anything special actually, but defiantly better than second one, but first is the best. The Benjamin Buttons story was pretty good, I recommend watching it. They put something that is really hard to picture into a movie and not so bad actually. We watched it in the Moonlight Cinema in Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens, not in the real cinema, so I’m guessing in the real cinema it would have more affect.

What else? Hmm, we listened to Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, we didn’t see it, but we heard it when we were sitting in the park drinking beer :P. Spent quite a lot time in internet, doing nothing or looking for a job, well Kaupo did mostly last one :P. We ate lot of different food in there, because we didn’t make any food ourselves we ate out all the time, so we tried to eat different things. There is lot of Greek and Chinese food. Saw pretty much all Melbourne from one high building. And we drowned in smoke from all the fires. Because the wind turned it blew all the smoke on Melbourne.

Because it started to get quite depressing in Melbourne, too many people, all the smoke, expensive, no work and nothing, well not much, to do. We found a place called Sheperton from the internet and got information, that there should be some work around there we came here. But it wasn’t really easy to find a place to stay for night, because there are quite a lot of people, which isn’t good thing for us. Also we registered in local government job agency, but they didn’t promise us much. That is where we sit and wait at the moment. Because there is so many people and too little work we have to wait here, when any farmer calls they pick people who are waiting here. Things with farms aren’t good at the moment, because of the heat and other stuff, so it will be long wait probably. There are 7 other Estonians waiting for a job here.

Anyways yesterday when we arrived here, something really interesting happened, that is rare to see, especially in Estonia. While we started walking from train station to information centre one guy stopped his car next to us and asked if we wanted a lift. We were really surprised didn’t know what to say, but in the end we accepted and he dropped us off to information centre, so we could ask about accommodation in here. And they guy said that after we find something and start walking towards the city he could pick us up and give us a lift where ever we need. And he actually did. I actually haven’t seen anything like this ever before and I think this is something awesome, something I want to do someday; I want to be like that one day.

Now we keep waiting in here and hoping that we will get some work soon.

I hope next time I write here I can talk about our fruit picking stories.

All the best!

PS! I am thinking everyone who are back home and not so far away from there and hope to see you all soon.

26. February 2009

Ok, here I am again. Still alive after 1 week of picking pears :P. Not much has happened otherwise tho.

We got the farm job by the noon after waiting in the government agency office. They just came in and said names who were picked for fruit picking, we had to come back in few hours and they explained all. In the evening we already headed there. We were chosen together with one English couple, James and Annie, who also gave us a ride there.

In the evening we were already setting up our tent in the place we were going to stay. It wasn’t nothing special, we had some shitty toilet, showers and kitchen. Nothing luxurious, in kitchen we didn’t even have a stove so we had to use our own gas one.

Next day we already headed off to work, woke up at 6 am and were ready by 6:30, when we got our bags, jumped on our tractor and headed on the field. By the noon it got quite hot, so had to drink quite a lot of water. Worked till like 2 or 3 pm and by that time we had 2 bins each. Btw we got paid around 35 dollars a bin, anyways that was told to us, but still gotta check if we got that money. I didn’t like this job much so I am not gonna talk about it much, I think farm jobs are more kind of for ripping off foreigners, who want to get second year visa. But Kaupo liked it so you might read more about it from his blog. The only cool thing was our tractor I think :P and got to do physical work a bit.

Now we are back in Sheparton in the same hotel and in the same room too, weird, at least we can leave blanket and pillow what we “loaned” back here.

Don’t know exactly what next. Maybe we are going to visit Kaupo’s relatives or already head off to New Zealand, we will see about that. I’ll keep you updated.

So long, take care and live your dream.

03. Feb 2009

Alright here I am again. I’m trying to write here more often, so that I wouldn’t forget important stuff and so that people who are reading this wouldn’t die in boredom when reading.

So what have we done so long? We spend some time in Hobart and tried to figure out what are we going to do. Spent some time in visitor information centre and walked out with bookings to Bruny Island tour for next day, bus tickets to Launceston for day after that and also backpackers booking for that. We bought the tickets for Tasmanian Spirit, the boat from Devonport to Melbourne, so we are leaving Tasmania on 8th of February.

The tour was quite awesome, but it was also quite expensive, like 160 per person, tho positive thing in that was that breakfast (tea and a muffin) and lunch (soup, sandwich and piece of chocolate) was in that price, at least for me :D. We heard that tour to Port Arthur cost almost same much, but without any food. But I’m quite happy that we did that, tho yeah it was actually quite a lot of money.

But about the tour, we started early in the morning like 8 am heading to Kettering, where the ferry headed on the island. But on our way we also grabbed some stuff for our lunch, because all the food we were eating was got/ made in Bruny Island or in its surroundings. The bus trip itself was boring, but sometimes our tour guide talked something about places we drove by. He talked real interesting stuff and made a lot of jokes, so it was real fun too, sometimes maybe too fast, but otherwise it was good.

On Bruny Island we drove to Adventure Bay, where we got our tea and muffin. On our way there we passed cherry farm, cheese factory, oyster farms, lamb farm and other stuff. Like the tour guide said that island has quite lot natural resources, especially the sea, which is the reason why aborigines were driven out/ killed there. After that we were all put on boats, which took us around the island, showing its coast, which was awesome, big cliffs, which were suppose to be Tasmania’s (maybe Australia’s, don’t remember :P) second highest, 260 m high. Also saw different kind of birds, but the thing that I will remember most are the dolphins and there were heaps of them. Just seeing them swimming next to the boat, time to time jumping out, gives so big positive feeling, that can’t be described. We also saw lots of Australian fur seals, which were quite cool too, scared of boats a bit, not like dolphins, but otherwise quite playful creatures. And they stink too, like the tour guide said like anchovies.

After the boat tour we had our lunch, which was quite good, maybe should have had more food, but I am with quite big appetite too :P and headed back to Hobart. We chilled there for a while and today some more. Today I wanted to go get tattoo, but the tattoo shop was busy till 1.30 pm and our bus left 3 pm, which might not be enough time for that. So we went to post office, Kaupo posted some things to send to Estonia and I posted Danielle’s book that I had finished and needed to get rid of to get some more room in my bag. After that we got some games, foot bag, cards and one cool ball that bounces on the water. I also bought myself hiking boots, because the boots that I had used so far are giving me blisters.

So now we are in Lanceston in the backpackers here and tomorrow we are trying to head to Bay of Fires. Lanceston is quite small city and Kaupo seems to like it a lot, I don’t care much, for me it is still a city :P. But for a city it is nice, I don’t argue with that.

When we get back I guess I can tell how the Bay of Fires was, so till next time. Btw we now understand we don’t have enough time. We would like to spend some time in Launceston and go to the Cradle Mountain tour, but I guess we won’t make it now, because we are leaving already on this Sunday to Melbourne.

Lately I have been waking up real early, like around 8 or even earlier without any alarm, so I am surprised, that’s really early for me. I am waking up before Kaupo which is even stranger, but then again I am usually going to bed earlier too I think :P. The reason for this might be that there is quite a lot to do and I wake up with no feeling that I don’t want to do that, rather with joy. Also there is no reason for me to be up real late, because usually I am really tired after everything we have done that day and anyways I’m not feeling like partying.

Cya, catch ya later.

06. Feb 2009

Right now I am sitting in the bus which is heading to Devonport not many hours of sleep last night. The reason for that isn’t that we were partying or something, but today we had to wake up quite early to catch a bus from St. Helens to Launceston. And all this after quite busy day before that.

So what has happened? The day we headed to Bay of Fires we had to get up quite early again, because check-out form the backpackers were 10 am and we had to pack all our stuff again, so that things that we would leave there and things we take with us separately. Once again I was up way before Kaupo, don’t know what’s going on with me. So when I woke up, I had a shower and then waited for Kaupo to wake up by reading and chilling in the computer. Our bus didn’t leave before 3 pm, so after packing we were looking around the city and trying to figure out what are we going to do after we are back from Bay of Fires. Also I wanted to get a tattoo, but turned out that the guy in Launceston doesn’t do white ink tattoos, so next time.

Because we got quite bored we went back to backpackers, grabbed our stuff and were hanging in the park, playing with foot bag. Before park had lunch too, first time we had sushi, which wasn’t actually that good, so next time we will try to find real Japanese or something restaurant to eat that.

The trip to St Helens took 2 hours, so I tried to sleep in the bus, but didn’t have much luck, slept maybe only 1 hour :P. When we got there we didn’t actually know which way we had to go, but after a bit we found the road. Because there isn’t public transportation all the way to the Bay of Fires we had to walk there, around 10 km there, to the centre of the bay even more, like 20 km. But we wanted to go so we started walking. We had already walked heaps when one car stopped and asked where are we going, so we told Bay of Fires and they said that they can drop us off to one of the campsites near there. Turned out that we actually didn’t have much to walk anymore, but it was quite a lot of help still and it was really nice of them.

We also talked a bit with them, turned out that they are travellers also, girl was from England and guy from France. They said that they had been in Australia already since April. They came to Tasmania to do some cherry picking, but turned out that there wasn’t much cherry’s this year, so actually they didn’t do much work. The English girl said that she did some fruit picking up in the north Australia too, well, not exactly fruit picking, her work was more like packing and stuff like that. They both said that north Australia was real great, but the French guy said that East Coast was overrated, I kind of understand and bit thought so too, like he said, not his cup of tea.

Anyways after we got to the campsite, we set up our tent, ate and went to bed. Next day we headed to the Bay of Fires. After we had walked a bit, we passed couple of houses and one guy who was out there stopped us and recommended us to go there by the beach. And I think it was very nice of him, because on our way we saw beautiful red rocks, nice beaches and cool waves.

In there I had quite interesting situation. I almost lost my hat, well, wind blew my hat off and it headed to the sea. When I followed it we found real awesome place, where there was a kind of like a pool of seawater between rocks. It wasn’t big, but it was actually quite deep and we could jump in there from rocks. There should be more this kind of places. But at that moment I lost my hat there were some chicks sunbathing, so we had to come back later, I mean to swim there, of course I got my hat while I was there.

Anyways we walked all the way to the big beach there, had our lunch, swam a bit and started coming back. In the end we actually walked quite a lot, it was pretty good workout climbing on those rocks. And our way back we swam in that pool.

This evening we went to bed real early, because we had to wake up 4.30 in the morning. Which was quite interesting, but we made it. It took like 1 hr to pack all the stuff and have breakfast, but when we started walking it was still dark, so bit scary. But everything went alright, on the road we saw few dead animals and one not so dead kangaroo, but it was injured badly and bleeding, quite terrible sight. After walking quite some time, one car stopped again and asked where we were going. He dropped us off to the St. Helens.

From there we got on the bus to Launceston, tho we couldn’t get much sleep there, because soon lot of chicks came on the bus and were screaming and laughing, so not much luck. When we got in Launceston, we wanted to book a backpacker in Devonport, but they said that they don’t do bookings, so they only gave us their numbers. Kaupos phone was almost dead too, so we were thinking what to do. So first thing was that we went and had some lunch. We went to the first place we had seen that sold pancakes, which was awesome, tho bit expensive, but quite good too :P.

After that we thought that we will try to get on the earlier bus to Devonport, so we could go to information centre there and see if there’s any tours going to Cradle Mountain. Got our stuff from backpackers and headed to bus station. We actually made it and here we are heading to Devonport.

More to come…

08. Feb 2009

Made it to Devonport and we are still alive. Not much to tell about because only few days passed since the last time.

When we got to Devonport we went to the visitor centre, which has helped us a lot since we started using their services. Anyways, we booked ourselves a tour to Cradle Mountain next day and asked about accommodation in Devonport. There was only one tour that’s going to Cradle Mountain and again the tour cost quite a lot, but as we wanted to see it we accepted. If we would have had more time to go there by ourselves, then we defiantly would have done that, but since we were already leaving on Sunday we didn’t have much choice.

The place where we stayed at was so far defiantly the best and for that price cheapest we have been so far. We only paid 25 dollars a night and we were staying in the room where only 2 of us were staying. Laundry was totally free and anyways really nice place. So when going to Devonport Alexander Hotel is the place to stay in.

Once again we had to wake up early next day, because the tour left 8 am. Our tour guide was real interesting guy, who was doing 100 different things. Besides doing tours on school holidays he was a teacher, did sailing, kayaking and all different stuff in town and elsewhere. Tho he was a bit weird too, don’t know how to explain it but, you gotta trust me on that :P.

The Cradle Mountains were really beautiful. The day we went there it was raining at it was cloudy, so we missed some of it and couldn’t do the lookouts, but it was still amazing. There was on town we passed by that was quite interesting, it was known for it’s murels. Also we learned about one guy that saved the nature in Cradle Mountains, an Austrian, Gustav or something like that. He used to live in the mountains, with only animals as company, got his food and everything from the nature. So if I have time I’ll try to learn more about him and see maybe he wrote a book or something too.

After driving around, the tour guide showed us his home town and let us use his kayak a bit. Nothing really special, just a bit on regular river, no rapids.

When we got back to Devonport we tried to get some information about Melbourne accommodation from visitor centre, but they only had stuff about Tasmania. So we didn’t know what to do because we are going to arrive to Melbourne quite late, so don’t know if any places are open. But I remembered there’s some written down in Lonely Planet, but later we still didn’t book one, because Kaupo dialled the number wrong :P, gotta dial 0 in front of numbers here and today morning we didn’t call either. So we will see what is gonna happen.

Later on we went to the Cinema to watch a movie “Gran Torino”, which turned out to be a lot better movie than I thought it would be. And in the evening had few beers and chatted with some people in the hotel.

Morning we had to be on the boat 9 am, but had to be there earlier, 45 min- 1,5 hr. What I like about the system here with a boat is that you don’t have to carry all your luggage with you, instead you leave it behind when you show your ticket, kind of like in the airport and you get it when you leave the boat.

Boat itself is quite cool, but still not much to do and pretty much have to pay everything. Only good thing is the cinema room, where they show quite new movies, on pretty good screen. So we have been watching movies all day.

Anyways we are arriving to Melbourne at the moment, so I’ll write more after more things have happened.

…

Tasmaania

17. Jan 2009

Welcomes from Tasmania! There has few things happened in these few days. Like we went shooting, we spent few days in Sydney and we came to Tasmania.

Because I don’t remember what I wrote last time, I have to check if I already wrote about some stuff, if I didn’t I’ll add some more stuff later.

Anyways…

Before going to Sydney we went shooting with Sam, Adam, Chris and Kaupo. We had quite fun day. Because kangaroos are mostly nocturnal animals, then we had to leave in the evening, Chris and Adam were working anyways, so we waited for them to finish. Left Jenolan after 5 pm and headed out, the place we went was like 100 km away from Jenolan. When we turned off from main road Sam showed us how to shoot and let us try. We had two guns with us, Magnum and 303, if I remember right and if it says anything to anybody. Magnum had optical zoom and didn’t have basically any kickback, but it was also quite weak. 303 had a kickback, but it also punched quite a hole in things too.

When we arrived there it was actually too light still, so we just walked around and went to see, if there’s any roos around the area, in the forest hiding from the sun. We were really bushwalking, guess it wasn’t real wise to put shorts on, but luckily I wasn’t the dumbest, Chris came with shorts and thongs :P, after we had walked a while he was scared shitless, because Sam was talking about snakes. We saw only few roos there, but missed them all.

We got back to the car and went too see if there’s any on Sam’s dads property and there actually were, first kangaroo’s blood was shed on our way there, first Sam got one, next by my hand followed by Adam. I didn’t kill the roo straight away, so I feel kind of bad, it jumped in the forest and we didn’t go to chase it, so it probably bled to death.

We reached to place where we got out of the car and went to see if there’s any around. And there actually was some just around the corner. Kaupo tried his hand, but missed that one, it was quite far actually. But right after that we saw another ones, Chris got that one, but he only shot it in its leg, so he had to finish it up, but got scared, which was quite stupid, because why did he even shoot it. So Adam finished it up. Moving on we saw one bigger group and because Kaupo hadn’t got any he could try again, this time he didn’t miss and dropped the roo right away, clean shot in the chest. Because it was getting dark we got back in the car and did some off-road driving and looking for roos, we found one, I shot it, but again it ran in the bush and we couldn’t find it, so it actually made me feel bad.

Moving on we started getting back to first place, shooting roos on our way, but because it was quite dark already we had to use the torch/spot light, looking for roos around and shooting them from the car, there we got quite a few of them, don’t even remember how many. We reached to the place where we suppose to be shooting at first place, but didn’t see any kangaroos, saw one wombat, but we missed that one.

We finished shooting and others wanted to go to Maccas, quite strange I know, in the middle of the night and like 150 km away. But half way there the tire went flat and we had to get some help. When we stopped I had to put the guns away and get all the ammo. Magnum was easy, but 303 wasn’t that easy, yeah well, at least I got the last shot :P. No, I didn’t shoot anything or anybody, just emptiness, tho scared me shitless :P. Here’s something to remember, if you don’t know the guns, don’t empty them in the darkness. After the incident Sam and Adam went to find some help, to get the tire fixed, didn’t take much time and we were on our way, but not anymore to Maccas, but we headed back to Jenolan now.

Because it was our last night at Jenolan everybody wanted to have a drink with us, but we got to Jenolan quite late, then like Lynett had already left. But Owen and other younger people were at his place and that’s where we headed too. Everyone were quite tired, so we had a drink and headed to bed.

Next day we finished packing our stuff, said good-byes and not good-byes (means we said that we hope to see some people someday again) to everybody. Owen took us to Katoomba, we got on the train and headed to Sydney. In Sydney we wanted to find one backpackers, that people in Jenolan were talking about, but we didn’t and we had to too heavy bags to keep looking, so we headed to Kings Cross, but not to the same place, but found one other. Wasn’t real nice, but anyways it was for one day.

In the morning had our breakfast, left our bags there and went to the city centre to find thongs and I needed new charger for my computer. The electronics store said that they need to know the voltage and stuff like that to get one for me. So I decided to try again next day. Looked around in Sydney to find thongs, which turned out to be not so easy, all stuff was either really expensive or shitty, mostly really expensive. But I needed thongs real badly, so I found ones that seemed to pretty good and so far I think they are alright.

I had contacted with Danielle also last day, when we arrived to Sydney, so she called us when we had had our lunch and wanted to meet up and take us to the beach. She picked us up and we headed to Bronte beach. It was awesome, doing nothing, just laying on the beach. I actually fell a sleep on there and now I’m bit burned, so its gonna be like 10th time I’m gonna lose my skin in Australia, defiantly not the last time either.

After that we grabbed our bags from the backpackers and went to Danielle’s place for a while, ate there and came back to the city with a train to go to new backpackers, the one that people were talking about, Onn was going to lead us there, when we got to the city. This backpackers was quite awesome actually, somehow cooler, maybe because of the weather, but it was also bigger and looked nicer. Turned out that Raphael, the one French guy that got fired was also staying there.

After moving in there we contacted Joe, who had just arrived from Tasmania and we wanted to meet up with him. We got to his place, chatted for a bit, had a drink and then people decided to go out partying. Took some taxis to Kings Cross, went into one club called Yu or smthing like that, danced for awhile, everyone were drinking, but I didn’t feel much like partying, so I was just chilling and checking out the girls.

Next stop was The Gaff, some people wanted to take a taxi again, but it was actually like 10-15 min walk, so we thought it was pointless and started walking there, everyone followed :P. There wasn’t much going on there, but in front of The Gaff there were people in latex and leather, turned out that there was S & M party next door. It was quite funny, haven’t seen quite anything like that anywhere. Joe and some others somehow got in there and said that it was crazy in there, but also heaps funny. Anyways, Onn got real drunk in there, so that she couldn’t stand up anymore and Raphael took her back to the backpackers. We headed to some other club, which was quite pointless and soon headed back home. That night we saw some crazy shit, S & M party, gays, transvestites, prostitutes and other weird king of looking people.

Today morning we woke up quite early, repacked our stuff, took shower and wanted to check out, but noone was there, so we left a message that we will come back later, we couldn’t wait because we had to meet up with Joe, so he could give us some of his videos he had made of us and his stuff about Tasmania. Did that, then headed back to the backpackers, to check out, we left our bags there for a while, to Raphael’s room, so he could give ‘em to us when we’re ready. We looked around the city for a while, Kaupo was trying to find a jumper and I got the charger. We headed to airport earlier, because we didn’t know how to get it and just in case.

I thought that our flight was leaving 5 pm and Kaupo didn’t check it also, so when we were there we saw, that we have 1 h till our flight, because the 5 pm time was arrival to Melbourne, so we were actually lucky. And instead of waiting hours in the airport we got almost right away on the plane. I spent my time sleeping on the plane, so I think it was well spent. In Melbourne we had dinner and I bought a book, because the one that I’m reading at the moment is almost finished. The book I got is made by Dalai Lama and some American psychologist, talks about happiness, haven’t read it much at the moment, but seems to be good book.

At the moment we are in Hobart, in some backpackers, but we were too late here, so reception was close and we couldn’t check in and all the other places we called were full. So today we are sleeping on a couch in the backpackers here and tomorrow we will see what we are going to do.

Later…

“Genius produces great ideas and concepts. Hard work produces the results.”
“Great things are accomplished with slow movement. Nothing is accomplished by standing still”
“Our words reveal our thoughts- manners mirror our self-esteem. Our actions reflect our character, our habits predict the future.” William Arthur Ward
“Success is determined not by what you get for reaching your destination, but by what you become reaching it.”
“Deal as gently with the faults of others as you do with your own.”
“Intelligently selfish people are completely unselfish because they know that it’s the best way to win big-time”
“Doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way will assure you of an extraordinary future.”
“Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.”

19. Jan 2009

Here I am, still in Tasmania, tho couple of things have happened in these few days that are worth talking about. As I was saying last time that we didn’t get a room to sleep in and we had to sleep on the lounge of the backpackers. That we did, but it didn’t end so good as we thought, at least not for me, because I put my phone charging before going to sleep, but when I woke up in the morning it was gone. At first I was panicking, but soon I got to the understanding that I can’t do anything about it anymore, because I didn’t know who took it, so only chance to get it back was to go to the police.

But in the morning we still had to find a place where we could sleep next upcoming nights. We walked around awhile, looking for other backpackers, where they might have room for us. Found one where they had room, but still we said that we will look around a bit more, because we saw one next to this one. But when we reached there they said that they don’t have any room for us. So we got back to the last one and got room for 2 days, because we wanted to sleep long next day, we hadn’t slept well for ages. After moving in we decided to look around, find the police station. We got there, I told them all I knew, but they told me that the chance to get my phone back is quite slim. What ever, worth of try anyways. I am still bit mad what happened to my phone, but it only a phone, I can buy a new one, tho that was quite new. Trying to cheer up now.

Anyways on happier topic, we kind of booked the test to make our license, kind of, we wanted them to contact us, because we didn’t want to pay with credit card. Don’t remember the date, but it was in the beginning of February, so we have over 2 weeks time till then.

At first didn’t know what to do, but now we have found lot of things we actually wanna do. We visited the visitor information centre here in Hobart and saw lot of cool things to do. There are lot of tours around here to see different places, but I don’t like doing tours that much, rather explore by myself. Because there are lot of cool trails all around Tasmania, we are going to visit them, or at least some. At the moment the first place we are going is Maria Island, which is pretty much inhabited island, where backpackers and hikers go. Next one is the Wineglass bay and areas around there. At first we thought about going on trails near Port Arthur, but Kaupo wanted to go to Maria Island, so I agreed with him, maybe some other time then. Besides these three there are 2 more bigger trails, one is in South Tasmania, not very popular one, and people have to fly in or out there with plane, depends where you start. But there’s one real popular one in north, but I read that you have to pay to do that and there are limits how many people can get on it a day, so we have to book it. Maybe we will do it after we have our licenses. So we will try to spend our 2 weeks on the Maria Island and Wineglass Bay, we are heading out on Wednesday this week.

We have been looking around in Hobart now past few days, also doing some shopping, for the hike. Kaupo is trying to keep his bag as light as he can and spend as less money as he can, but I’m not on the same opinion. Tho I agree that keeping bag light is wise, because it’s easier to move around, but still I think there are things that are needed, like Kaupo wanted to go on a hike at first without gas stove (making fire is not allowed in many national parks) and pot. I also got myself a mat, because last time we did the Six Foot Track we slept on real hard ground, so I think it’s wise to have something like this. But I am getting worried about things not fitting in my bag. Oh, I also got one waterproof bag, which can be compressed, to get the air out and make everything more compact, use less room, maybe this will help, we’ll see, but maybe I just have to throw few things out.

We still have to figure out where can we leave some of the stuff we don’t need next few weeks, to keep our bags as light as we can, because there’s gonna be lots of food that we will be carrying with us, also I think we need to get one more gas for our gas stove and get food for our trip.

Over and out…

31.Jan 2009

It’s been quite some time again since I have wrote anything, but it is not because I haven’t had any time, well maybe a bit that too, but I couldn’t have anyways because my computer haven’t been with me. What I am trying to say that we have been kind of out of civilization for almost 2 weeks. Now I have few things to write about, not so much, because we have been doing lot of walking and looking around, it is a bit hard to put views and sights into words.

So we left Hobart on 21st of January, got on the bus and headed to Triabunna, which is the place where the ferry goes to Maria Island. Had to leave quite early and the bus ride took couple of hours. We couldn’t of made it on the morning ferry no way, so we got there after that one had left and had to wait for the evening one for 4 or 5 hours, so we were just chilling there getting some sun.

The ferry we got onto was quite small actually, but I think for this purpose it is enough, because there isn’t that much people using it anyways. Ride was quite scary because when we got onto the sea the waves were huge, tho good thing is that anyone didn’t get seasick and we even managed to see one dolphin jumping out of the water next to the boat. It doesn’t seem to be much, but it gave me much energy and made me calmer, made me feel that everything is going to be real good (not that I have had any doubts :P)

When we got on the island it turned out to be smaller than we thought and we already had booked the return ticked out of the island for the next Tuesday, so we had to spend 6 days on there. Didn’t bother me much, we had enough food for that and we weren’t in no hurry to anywhere either. We spent the first night in Darlington, which is the place where usually people go and from where they usually don’t make much further. There was few houses there, rangers cottage, BBQ area and was possible to take hot showers, so it was actually still quite civilized.

Next day we headed up the island to campsites away from Darlington. On our way we passed the Painted Cliffs, which was actually quite interesting, cliffs made of sandstone. And there were waves on the cliffs, which looked like they would have been painted, from there the name too. We reached to the first campsite, which seemed to be quite boring so we headed to the next one, after we filled our bottles with water. Next campsite wasn’t that far of it, so it was a easy hike and it was more interesting too than the first one.

That was the place where we stayed for like 3 days. There was awesome beach near by, so we spent one day just chilling there, getting some sun, swimming in the sea (tho the water was freaking cold), doing nothing. Next day was just a lazy day, Kaupo got little too much sun last day, so he didn’t want to get much sun. He was just chilling in the tent and later he went for a run too. I was walking around and just enjoying life. Later that day went to the very end of this side of the island, to see the Haunted Bay, which was actually further than I thought, so when coming back ran little low on water, then I decided I never go anywhere without enough water and right now I’m thinking it was wise decision.

Since we didn’t have much need to know the dates and days I have already forgotten, what did we do when. But anyways, when we started coming back we used different way, so that we could climb up to one mountain, the Mt. Maria, which is over 700 m high. We left our bags in the bottom, in the bush and climbed up. It was quite a climb, but the view was awesome and also the feeling, after you have done it, something you have to experience yourself. We got to Darlington in the evening, set up our tent, ate and got to bed. Next day we climbed one other mountain, the second biggest, The Bishop and Clerk, which was over 600 m. It was just amazing, made me feel real good and happy. Tho this day was the Australian Day, the day when everyone goes to parties and gets drunk, but I think we spent it in much better way.

On 27th of January we got once again on the ferry, but this way heading the other way, back. I think the Maria Island was quite good when wanting to save money, but also real good experience. I think the money part is important for Kaupo, because when he is going to school, then he can use it for that or just buy the stuff he wants in Estonia, but for me the money is the way to get experience here, tho still gotta choose wisely on what experience to spend it on.

Since the bus to Freycinet only went once a day and that one quite early, then we couldn’t get on it and we had to spend a night in Triabunna, in the local caravan park. In there we met this cool Australian guy, who told that Melbourne is the best city and spoke a bit about his travels in Vietnam and other places. It was really interesting. Later on we taught him a card game, but he had little hard time understanding, because he had already had quite a few beers. One Dutch girl also joined us to play cards and we had really good time. The Dutch girls were heading to Maria Island for a day and then to Freycinet too. The Australian guy was coming on the same bus with us.

So next day we got on the bus and headed to Coles Bay. Had to switch buses at one point, but otherwise everything went smoothly. Got off in front of the Coles Bay visitor centre and then headed towards the walking track. And so it begun. Since there was everywhere written that the water is hard to find in the park, so I got 3 litres of water and 2x600 ml Gatorade and hoped that there will be enough water somewhere to make food, but turned out that I was wrong. The first camping place had some water, but there were some things living in it, but we didn’t know what, so we kept away from it just in case.

The next day we had hard day ahead of us had to climb a mountain with our bags, about 600 m, which was quite challenging, but I was comforting myself that it gets me fit, if I am going to go to Tibet. The next campsite in the Wineglass Bay didn’t have any water, so we had to rely on our own water, save as much as we could.

We were so low on water that we didn’t cook any food in the morning, because there wasn’t any water to spare. Good thing was that next day was the last day in the bush and the water was basically behind just one more mountain. Night was really hot, I didn’t sleep well because of it and the morning was terrible too, didn’t feel like doing anything, but as we were low on water we had to keep going. Positive thing was that we had sea next to us, so we could cool us off in there, plus the little cooler breeze from the sea.

While walking up the Wineglass Bay beach I saw dolphins swimming right there, just incredible feeling, this time there were 3 of them, I just stopped for a bit and enjoyed just being near these fabulous creatures. In the end of the beach we had a swim before heading up the big mountain, the last challenge. Wasn’t actually that hard anymore, because the bags were heaps lighter, but still with every step it got harder and harder, and the water was just like vaporizing. On our way up we made a stop by the Wineglass Bay lookout, before heading to the car park where we could get fresh water and just relax for a moment. We talked with one of the tour guides also there and he said that the creatures in the water in Cooks Bay were mosquito larvae’s, nothing dangerous.

After we had filled our bottles we headed back down the mountain, to the town. As soon as we got out of the car park one car stopped by us and asked if we wanted a lift to town. It was pretty awesome of them, so we didn’t have to walk down there in all that heat. They told us that last two days it has been the craziest heat in ages, that usually it is not that hot, they said it has been around 40 degrees, which was surprising, because it actually didn’t seem to be that hot.

We got to town and were thinking what to do, actually were going to make some lunch, when that Dutch girl, that we met in Triabunna walked past us. We had a little chat and she said that she is staying in the backpackers in here and there should be some room left in there. So we decided to go check, because no buses were going anywhere at that moment anymore. In the reception they said that there are no backpacker rooms available, but we can stay in the tent, so we did. While we were setting up our tent, we saw that the guy from Triabunna was also there, what a coincidence.

We had our lunch after we had set up the tent, then headed down to the beach, chilled there for awhile, had a shower, had dinner, got some beers and chilled on the beach again.

Next day was Saturday so there were no buses going anywhere, so we had to hitchhike. Was kind of weird and had to wait for quite some time, but got on the car back to Hobart. Now we are back here in our hostel, where we left our stuff. We got us rooms for 2 days. After we had settled in we went to have a big nice pizza and later on went to the movies to see the “Yes man”.

Don’t have much plans at the moment, so won’t talk about that at the moment.

I know that I have already written quite a lot, but there are few things I started to think about when I was out there. One thing, which I don’t know why came up to my mind, bit weird, but at that moment felt really important was the animal that I would be (not like to be) or that I were in previous life or what ever anyone wants to think. Tho I didn’t think of any specific animal, I thought of what kind of animal. So I am guessing, that I would be a bird that is closely connected with the water or which is doubtable, fish that dreams of flying :P. I’m guessing that it is because I am quite often thinking about flying and also that I am into the water and water animals.

Another thing that I started thinking was that travelling isn’t actually so easy, it is harder than it seems to be. Maybe when you are staying in the city, having one job and spending your time and money on drinking it might be easy, but not the way we have been travelling. Just carrying your stuff all the time and trying to think one step ahead, but not planning everything ahead, is quite tiring sometimes, also because you basically don’t have anything guiding you, to base your travels on, especially if you don’t want to have another touristy trip.

Thing that has been bothering me for awhile is if I should stay in Australia for a longer period of time or just leave in the summer like Kaupo is planning to. I haven’t made any specific decision yet, but I think I will stay here for a longer, I don’t know yet how long or how I can do that, but there are different ways, but I’m not gonna talk about it yet. At the moment I have basically anything back in Estonia, other than my friends and family, but I can’t let that to stop me learning and experiencing stuff. Little selfish I know, but there was a quote little back about, so I hope that lot of good things are going to come out of it. I still haven’t forgotten anyone and I am thinking coming back to Estonia for a while, not sure exactly yet when, but I am guessing either this summer with Kaupo, or maybe if I am going to do the Tibet and/or Thailand trip then probably by next Christmas. I think staying here gives me more time to travel and learn things, but also save some money, to make my one dream come true one day, this is setting up my own company.

Real quickly about things I would like to do here in Australia and/or when going to New Zealand:
*motorbike license
*diving/ divers license
*bungee jumping
*snorkelling
*fishing
*see wild marine animals
*sky diving (maybe, but not tandem)
*learn to surf more

Quite a lot of stuff here now, but there has lot happened, so just wanted to share it, so that everyone would know that I am alive and well and happier than ever :P.

Leaving soon...

7. Jan 2009

I just have to write something about today, because it was me day off and did something different :P. Actually I had day off yesterday too, but didn’t do much, well did the usual stuff, like surfing in internet for a bit, going for a run, do some workout, watch a movie, have a beer and so on. But today Zev had a day off too, so we decided to go to Lithgow, with no specific purpose tho, just to spend some time and get off from Jenolan. On our way there Zev let me drive his car, which was pretty awesome, because I haven’t driven a car for awhile now. In Lithgow were just chilling around, went to the shopping centre, looked into one motorcycle store, went to maccas :P, that’s about it, nothing special, but better than staying in Jenolan.

Anyways after that we headed back, we wanted to check one place out, that said Black Marsh, but when we went down the road it seemed to go nowhere. On that road we almost drove off the cliff, because Zev was bit speeding and showing off :P. But all was well and he let me drive back. After this we decided to just spend some time by driving and looking around. And I could practice driving on roads that no one uses. After making one round, I had to go back on the highway to get back on the small roads and then I forgot that we are driving on the left side here and drove into wrong direction and almost crashed the car, scared me shitless. Good thing is that we are all good, car is alright and we had quite interesting day. But that’s for sure, I never ever wanna forget that we are driving on the left side here.

After all that we went to Kym’s (Owens “wife”) place for a while, hanged out there, later got back to Jenolan. Played Xbox for a while, till Huey wanted to go to Oberon to get some pizza and asked if I wanted to go with him and Chris. Didn’t have anything better to do anyways so went with him, but when we got to Oberon we saw that the pizza place is closed. Huey and Tubbsy were hungry so we went pub, where they got their dinner, I didn’t care much, because I know that there will be free food waiting in Jenolan :P. Anyways after they had eaten we got back to Jenolan, I had my dinner, after that went up to the flats and now it is bed time.

Today would have been real good to go to the beach, because it was so damn hot. No clouds, basically no wind and that sun. I almost could of gone to the Fosters beach with Sam and Tara, but then it turned out that Tara needed to go home and I couldn’t of stayed there for the night. When they would of stayed in one of their friends place, like they thought at first, I could have been in the beach.

Tomorrows gonna be work day again, so I better get some sleep.

Gn and hf!

14. Jan 2009

Well today is the last day in Jenolan, so we are doing nothing at the moment. We are going shooting today and should do some packing too, but at the moment don’t care much actually. Yesterday had last work day and day before that was the last day in the kitchen.

Last day in the kitchen was kind of as usual, tho this time I didn’t do much, because most of prep was already done and I had no point doing more for next day, because I wasn’t going to be here anyways.

But yesterday was awesome, we had to work for James, clean his “garage”, which was full of shit and we had to take all of it down the mountain. We also got these overalls, like felons have, but James didn’t find orange ones, but still it was cool. Emptying the garage was easy, but taking it down not so easy. Was pretty good workout. Also there was like really steep hill next to road down and under the hill there were the flats. We almost dropped the cupboard down the hill, but luckily the tree stopped it, but it didn’t matter because later on Adam anyways pushed it down, so now someone has to get ropes and clean the hill of all the cupboard pieces. There was one more funny situation during moving. There was one old TV, which was actually broken and which we had to take down. I was trying to throw the TV screen, the tube or how ever you call it on the lower level, but it actually started rolling down the hill and when it reached down the hill there was that big boom. Scared the shit out of me and then James were yelling at as: “What the hell was that?”. Everybody started laughing. James didn’t get mad and he said that if anyone asks we slipped :P. During cleaning the garage also there was an situation when James yelled that “Stop, don’t move”, I didn’t understand what and how he was saying that and turned out that I had that huge spider on me, bit scary, but everything turned out well.

After we got everything done James said that there’s cold beers waiting for us in the bistro, we finished all up and went down to the bistro, had some beers. After that had an shower, got something to eat and then we went for a swim. It was awesome, hadn’t swam for a long time and there was a place where we could jump too, so I could practice jumping again, tho with the last jump I hit my ass :P, but I will survive.

Few days ago I had some problems with my stomach, it was hurting a lot, didn’t have much appetite either, almost would of gone to see the doctor, but as I don’t like them a lot I decided to wait and see. Now it’s a lot better and I have my appetite back, tho it’s not the best still, I am not so worried anymore.

Tomorrow we are going to leave and I don’t know when is the next time I will update my blog, but I hope it is soon. I think I haven’t written it yet, that I broke my computers charger and so I can’t use my computer at the moment, I’m using Kaupos. When I get to Sydney I’ll try to find new one, also I need to buy new thongs (no, not the ones that girls are wearing :P).

I want to get a tattoo :P. That is kind of the reason I have been looking for different kinds of quotes for so long time. Finally I have chosen some. Oh, and the tattoo would be on top of my back and would be written with white ink, so it would look like a scar a bit. Kaupo’s computer is dieing, so time to finish it up. Here’s the quotes I’m thinking about:

Happiness is not

pleasure. It is

victory.

I love not man the less, but Nature more…

Embrace the pain and you will win this game.

The things you own end up owning you.