October 27th and 28th – Cairns to Christchurch

I returned to the hostel in Cairns from the boat quite exhausted and water logged from diving. The dry land below my feet still swayed like a boat on the ocean and I felt like I was in a daze. I handled some business on the computer and chatted with a German couple staying in my room. The poor guys bought a car for 5000 Aussie dollars only to have it crap out in the middle of the outback and they ended up back where they started, out a car and all that cash. Their spirits were surprisingly high, an emotional state that can only be maintained during a state of perma-travel. I envy their smiles and embrace of the “no worries” attitude of Australasia and traveling in general. I am working my way there, I still tend to look for my non-existent watch/phone and have temporary panic attacks about what I should be doing until I realize I have nothing to do and should also have no worries.

I headed out to the bar to meet my diving companions and met a few others along the way. I met a set of American college student at my friend’s hostel. Americans are amazing creatures. This group of a dozen or so was on an organized trip from universities all over doing research and such. This is the main travel outlet for most Americans as it is rare to find Americans this far from home just traveling around. They were amazed to bump into me as I was the first traveling American they had met since arriving in September. They listened in attentive amazement as I told them my story and my plans for the coming months. It was fun and I hope they gained some perspective, I think they did. It was also fun chatting Tarheel sports with a guy from the group studying at Chapel Hill. The beers went down easy and I was quickly feeling the effects due to my exhausted condition. I headed back to my hostel to sleep.

My flight to New Zealand was around noon-time and travel and the time change would eat the whole day. I still felt exhausted and a little hung over from the night before so the hours passed in a blur of sleeping and dazed airport wanderings. I was finally feeling better when I landed in Christchurch around midnight local time. I was entering a new country with no plan and no reservations. I went through customs with a familiar face, it turns out the man next to me going through the stringent New Zealand customs security was none other than Stevie Wonder. I didn’t bother him, but it was a bit surreal and pretty cool.I managed a public bus to the city center and walked over to a hostel I had heard was near. Luckily they had a bed. The city was quiet, I wasn’t so tired due to sleeping most of the day, but with little other choice I went bed.

I awoke the next morning feeling refreshed and ready to tackle as much New Zealand as possible over the next two weeks. I scrounged up so New Zealand reading materials and headed off for a coffee and bagel in the center Cathedral Square; for those that know me that was very relaxing and I felt the plan slowly coming together in my head and had a chat with a travel desk in my hostel and got some ideas for the best plan of attack.I then headed out to explore the city and to sort out in my head the information gathered. I had head there is very little to see in Christchurch which is the 3^rd largest city in New Zealand, but i needed to check it out for myself. Looking around you quickly realize that if this is the 3^rd largest city, there must not be many people here. The streets of the city center are quiet and quaint. It is quite beautiful, Victorian architecture abounds and you really get a strong UK feeling.

I wandered towards the botanical gardens to have a walk. I stopped by the regional museum that showed some of the artifacts of the original inhabitants of New Zealand, the Maori. It was a pretty cool little museum and I was glad to have stumbled upon it. I continued into the gardens. It is devastatingly gorgeous and spring has brought about the perfect bloom of the sprawling flowering plants. The smell was intoxicating, the kind of smell that you can feel in your gut and makes your whole body relax. Botanical gardens are the focal point of so many cities in Australia and New Zealand and I wonder why this is not a more common practice around the world.

The uplifting feeling of the nature allowed me to process my plan. I have decided to stay in Christchurch tomorrow to do a white-water rafting trip that will last the whole day. I have been told it is the best rafting trip in the whole of New Zealand. I also purchased a hop on – hop off bus tour of the south island that will take me on a loop around the island and back to Christchurch. It seems excursions here are really going to add up in terms of cost, but I think it is the only way to really experience the place. The NZ dollar exchange rate is also very favorable now which is helpful. It is also cheaper for daily items than is Australia so I will just have to pinch pennies where I can.

I will spend the rest of today taking care of thinks I must do online for South America and Antarctica as well as do some laundry. Tomorrow I will get on with the getting outdoors.

October 25th and 26th – Another Day at Sea and Return to Terra Firma

A gentle rapping on the door at 5:50 AM and the call to dive was anything but welcomed. I managed to crawl out of bed and to the deck to throw on the wetsuit. I slept walked through pre-dive prep, but as soon as I hit the brisk water I felt alive and energized. The dive was great, an amazing way to start the day.

There would be 5 dives overall on Saturday and the next 2 morning dives went as expected. We saw a myriad of sea life including sharks, turtles and rays. The afternoon transfer for those leaving the boat saw the exit of my buddy for the previous dives. I teamed up with a few of my new boat friends for the afternoon dive, they weren’t as experienced as me and were having a bit of trouble with buoyancy and such. It was a short dive due to air consumption and I ended up coming to the surface with a flooded ear. By the time dinner came along, I was in pain; the pressure in my ear was significant. I, however, would not be denied my 2nd and last night dive. I entered the water to see if I could make it down and carefully descended and headed out into the darkness. I did have to manage it carefully, but I think it actually felt better at depth. The dive was a success and I was happy that I gutted it out.

I had a bunch of drinks on the top deck to finish off the night with a few of my travel companions and dive/boat crew.

I was again exhausted for the 5:50 wakeup on Sunday, but my great diving wakeup the day before helped me to will myself off the top bunk and to the dive deck. I paired up with a nice Australian couple, experienced divers, and I let them take the lead. We had a great relaxing tour of the reef that lasted more than one hour. After a good breakfast it was time to go again….just 2 dives remained. Both would be at the same dive site which was very pleasant; two large coral mountains nearly reaching the surface. The area abounded with coral life and a gaggle of white tip reef sharks. I enjoyed the remaining time on the boat and headed back for Cairns. Overall the Great Barrier experience was great. I did 12 dives in 3 days and left feeling satisfied. I enjoyed the company of some good people and saw some amazing life on the natural wonder of the world. I wish my father had been there to enjoy with me as I think it was exactly the type of dive environment he enjoys.

Tonight drinks with my friends from the boat and tomorrow on to the land of Kiwis...New Zealand.

October 23rd-24th – Cairns to the Great Barrier

The early morning wake up at 5AM to head to the Sydney airport was anything but pleasant. I did my best not to wake my sleeping bunkmates and boarded the shuttle bus. I managed to catch a few hours of sleep on the way to Cairns, a “beach town” in the Northeastern coast of Australia and before I new it we were wheels down.

I knew that Cairns was a couple thousand kilometers from Sydney, but I guess given the weather in Sydney the past few days I didn’t expect a drastic change. However, the blast of warm ocean air and the warmth of the hot sun beating down on my weary face was a pleasant surprise. I was back on vacation in the tropics. As I strolled across the tarmac quickly peeling off my jacket and breathing in deeply the sweet smelling salty air that only a nearby ocean can muster, the familiarity was calming and welcoming.

I boarded the airport shuttle and headed towards an arbitrarily selected hostel for which I had no reservation. I arrived, got a bed and dropped my bag. The room was quiet and two new roommates were still fast asleep. I headed off to explore the city and found it to be a typical ocean side town with the feeling of Myrtle or Daytona Beach, minus the redneck edge. Pubs, restaurants, dive shops lined the grid of streets and it wasn’t more than 3-4 streets wide and 5-6 streets deep; quaint but touristy. I wandered alone, grabbing a bite to eat and checking the internet. I headed towards the beach and to my surprise found that there in fact was not one to be found. I would later find out that a real beach would not be so useful as swimming in these waters is not advisable due to deadly box jelly fish and saltwater crocodile. It did, however, have a public swimming pool and a few acres of green grass covered with families and young groups of sunbathers. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and their company…I felt a tinge of loneliness and headed back towards the hostel thinking I would just sleep a bit and prepare for the next day’s trip to go scuba diving.

When I returned the hostel, the previously sleeping bunkmates were starting to stir. We had the standard introductory travel conversation consisting of “where are you from?,” and “how long have you been in X city/traveling?,” but the conversation felt easy and quickly expanded with these two; an Irish lad and a German girl. They were friendly, down to earth and likeminded. We proceeded to spend the afternoon chilling out at the hostel and down by the waterfront, the conversation flowed and the silences were comfortable; I felt the most at ease and relaxed I felt the whole trip. In the evening, I headed out to dinner with the Irish guy for a cheap steak dinner and a few pints and had some fun having a drink with a real hodgepodge table of girls from all over. I had to get up early and we didn’t want to spend too much money, so we headed back in short time to the hostel and hung out with our other roommate. I went to sleep pretty early with the promise to go back and stay with them for my last night in Cairns when I get back from diving.

Another early morning marked the beginning of my Great Barrier Reef Trip. This was the real fuel behind my coming to Australia and I was hesitantly hopeful that it would be great. I booked a 3 day 2 night live aboard trip because it seemed to be the most economical way to get in as much diving as possible. I was picked up from the hostel directly and shuttled to the dive shop for registration and then the boat. The people who’d be joining me were a mix of old and young including a couple from Beijing whom I have been enjoying speaking Chinese with, a group of Canadians and Brits doing their Open Water Cert and an American from NY who would end up being my dive partner for at least the first and part of the second day.

The journey out to the reef was choppy and over an hour long. Many people were getting seasick and I wasn’t feeling all that fantastic myself. It was nice being out on the water, but I was a touch concerned that it was going to be 3 days of lingering nausea. However, like magic(or not magic at all) when we approached the reef the sea flattened protected by the coral heads nearly touch the surface. The edges of this reef area were lined with gently breaking waves that dispersed the energy that fueled my fellow travelers vomit and my uneasiness.

We buddied up and prepared for the first dive and it was great. I can’t say I saw anything that blew my mind, but visibility was good, the equipment worked and my buddy was competent…I was diving the Great Barrier Reef. Dive 2 was nice, highlight by the most enormous clam I have ever seen. They are called Giant Clams for a reason as the one we saw on the dive was more than a meter wide and nearly that tall. It was very much alive, can you imagine the size of a pearl that could come out of that?! I started to realize that though some of the stuff may be similar to home, a lot of stuff was much bigger. I didn’t even notice the sea cucumbers at first because they were so big; more than 2 feet long and 8 or 10 inches around.

We did the first 2 dives from the day boat and then they transferred those who would be staying the night to the larger liveaboard. After formalities, we got in another dive highlighted by the first shark and turtles. After some dinner it was time to night dive. However, before we got started they turned a light on behind the boat and started feeding some fish, the commotion attracted the attention of at least a good dozen sharks and countless tiny sea-snakes. After this little show it was time to jump in! The dive itself was overall uneventful, but there is something special about diving in the pitch darkness, the unknown. Never in my experience have I ever felt so utterly out of my element as I do diving at night, truly at the mercy of the ocean. On our return to the surface, there was a some sort of spawning of tiny worms; millions of them at the top of the water column. We were covered in the tiny worms, it was a definite a little creepy, but they appeared harmless. After a good long shower and a beer it was time to sleep.

October 22, 2008 - To The Beach

Last night was good fun. I had a bunch of drinks at the hostel bar again. There was typical traveler bar hyjinx including a silly trivia game. My group grew last night as it was day 2 in the same place. I shared beers and laughs with a group consisting of a few brits, a Canadian and a couple of Dutch girls.

I was determined to make it out of the hostel bar so I ended up hooking up with some acquaintances I made including Germans a Scot and some Welch. We didn’t go to the famous Kings Cross, but to a bar that was obviously geared towards transient Australians. It was packed, loud and dirty; it felt the same as a dive college bar anywhere in the world. I had a few more drinks and then stumbled back to the hostel.

I slept in pretty late, this morning it was not intentional, 11ish was a bit of a struggle. I headed off for coffee and some food with a Canadian girl who is staying in my dorm room. Funny enough she will be heading to Fujian province to teach after her travels, we had a fun chat about her prospects. I have the feeling she has no idea what she is getting into, but she seems adventurous enough to handle it.

We also had some food, what is turning into my one meal per day allowance. This country is expensive. You pretty much can’t find anything to eat that doesn’t cost around 10 Australian which is about 8 bucks. Maybe I am spoiled, but 8 bucks for fast food is a struggle and with a constant nightly beer diet at 5 bucks a pop, something has to get the axe. My stomach is angry, but it is probably going to be a good help for my manly physique.

The weather here was pretty terrible yesterday and again today. It is raining and pretty cold, probably about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. However, I will not be denied a proper Sydney experience and headed off to the beach. I read on a sign that on a summer day just one of the beach heads hosts up to 35,000 sun seekers and surfers today it was just me and few locals walking their dogs or jogging and the odd surfer or two. It is clear that on a beautiful day that the beaches are probably bustling and beautiful, but today the Pacific Ocean was dark and foreboding.








I hiked the along the Oceanside trail between 2 of the most famous beached in Sydney Bondi and Coogee beach. Aside from the weather it was a great walk, I think it was about almost 2 hours (I as of yet still have no time keeping device which is very strange for me). I walked through a seaside sculpture exhibition, through a little neighborhood, passed a magnificently placed cemetery.



I returned to the hostel feeling pretty good and like I had a nice workout. My flight to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef is tomorrow morning bright and early at 7:30 AM. I will be doing a 3 day and 2 night liveaboard dive trip. Ill say goodbye to Sydney tonight with a few schooners of beer with my new friends try to get a few hours of sleep.

October 20th and 21st - Settling in Down Under

I awoke suddenly to a member of the flight staff announcing abruptly that we would be landing in Sydney in just 1 and a half hours. I was surprised, just before I fell asleep I was sure it would be a long anxious and restless night, but as it turns out I was shocked with how the time passed so quickly. I rolled in and out of sleep for the remaining time. The last reminder of China was served to me in the way of a hot plate of meat and noodles for breakfast, I kindly passed and went for the omelette. That was a mistake. As the Sydney opera house glimmered by briefly out the window; we were soon on the ground. My trip had officially begun.

I was feeling pretty good, I made it easily through customs and my backpack with camping equipment, towel and jacket attached did as well. The only goal now was to find the hostel. I had booked it and saved the reservation to a file which I had brought, but I couldn’t read as my new computer did not have the necessary software. Oops, hurdle #1. The lonely planet had an address for a hostel I believed to be the same one, so I went on that.

I asked a few people around the cheapest way to the city center and headed off. I took public buses and my first stop was a random junction which appeared to be the furthest point out where the real city buses would reach. I met a few people there, talked to a mousy Canadian guy who had some interesting advice, but then he tried to send me in the wrong direction towards the city and lost all credibility. I did eventually find the right direction and stop, I did this by speaking Chinese to some random guy whom I overheard speaking Cantonese on his cell phone.
That is a good segway into my strongest impression yet. Sydney is a true melting pot and in a totally different way than America. America is a conglomeration of many backgrounds coming together to make one multi color, multi ethnic beautiful mess, people by and large consider themselves American and speak to their friends and family in English. Of course many languages can be heard on the streets of the US, but it has nothing on Australia. I had heard Mandarin, Cantonese, French, Spanish and Hindi within 30 minutes of arrival.

I continued my journey to the hotel which culminated in a hour long stroll downtown to find where I was going. I made it to the hostel around 2 PM and in the process already had the downtown bearings in my head.

Another thing I noticed as I walked was the women here in Australia are beautiful. I think it goes hand in hand with the cultural melting pot. Beautiful Asians, blondes and brunettes were all going about their business on the metropolitan streets.

After due process in getting my room settled I headed out to explore the city. I started out in Darling harbor and made my way along the waters edge to the Harbor Bridge and the famous Sydney Opera House. I only had rough directions and left the map at home so the ensuing 3 hour stroll/walk/hike was enjoyably unplanned and an excellent workout.

Sydney is a beautiful city; clean and apparently quite safe. The bars and cafés along the waters edge reminded me so much of Cape Town, SA. The architecture is a mix of old and modern, but none too overpowering. It kind of had the feel of the mid-Atlantic/northeast coast of the US. The closest thing I could come up with was a combination of Cape Town and Baltimore(minus the gangs, drugs and violence).

Upon my return I attempted to settle in on the next critical goal…make some friends. The results were mixed, but by the end of the night I was having beers with several groups of what seem to be good people.

I get the distinct feeling that this is/was different than my previous experiences because it is a western country. This has an effect in 2 main ways. First, people are more comfortable and less reliant on each other. My experiences traveling in China showed me that in uncomfortable and unknown places backpackers stick together and are looking for ways to help each other acclimate and have fun. It was also a little easier for me to make friends because people were drawn to me because of my language skills and experience. Here, I am just some guy, an American of which people are generally wary. Secondly, this place draws a different kind of traveler. This is far less out of most peoples comfort zones, people who may not be wheels up for trekking across Uzbekistan are ok with hanging out in Australia for a month. There is also a large proportion of people here looking for work, thus this is a very different travel agenda.

I had a bunch of beers with people from England, Germany and Holland in the bar attached to the hostel and then went to sleep with a smile feeling good about my first day.

I slept in intentionally as to try to get over the lack of sleep over the past few nights, but the beer in blood my prevented it from being all that restful. I had a coffee with a new Dutch friend and then handled some travel arrangements for diving and New Zealand. I also met another nice German guy and had lunch with him. It was quickly late afternoon and I wanted to accomplish some sight seeing, but hadn’t found any groups to hang with that had a similar agenda so I headed off alone to the nearby aquarium and wildlife park; both were cool and had only fauna native to Australia which was cool. I want a pet wombat.

It’s about beer o’clock, good day mate.

October 19, 2008 - Hitting the Road

The guitar solo ringing from the last of my fantastically fake china product purchases, “sony” headphones certain to only playing in one ear by the time we land, drowns out the hustle and bustle of the boarding passengers. The ragged movements, grunts and last second shouting phone calls heard over the music, however, ensures me that though bound for Australia we are still very much in China; my home for the last 3 years.

Today was a far more challenging day than I had anticipated. Emotionally and physically exhausting simply put. I may have forced myself to believe that I was actually emotionally prepared for this…but I wasn’t. Things got off to an ominous start, I was up as per my usual fall routine listening to the North Carolina Tarheels take on Virginia. As the sun was beginning to peek through my bedroom window to light my last day in China, a stunning comeback victory by the Cavaliers stabbed at my heart and caused my stomach to turn.

Watching or more often listening to games in China is one of the few pleasures I keep that truly remind of where I come from and why America is, despite popular opinion, not such a bas place. It is excruciating, however, to spend an entire night alone in the dark willing your team so desperately to victory only to have defeat ripped from the jaws of victory. The next day is ruined and your nature won’t allow your mind to wander from it for more than a moment or three.

The dull queasiness in my stomach prevented my falling back asleep until a more reasonable hour. I decided to bring a computer along for the trip, so I had struck a deal yesterday to swap my barely functioning 2 and half year old Lenovo for tiny old school fujitsu I could use for word processing and cash considerations. I was trying to back up some files and clean up the drives a bit to get it ready to trade. Ill spare the details, but it soon crashed. Ultimately it would be a non-issue as my trade went fine, but the dull ache of defeat in my stomach would shift to frustration and barely harness able rage. I had hit my the base of my emotional gorge; it was not yet 8 AM.

The emotions regarding my exit from China or at least their presence started becoming clear last Wednesday. It was my last day of work. To be fair, the job was one, though not necessarily the prevailing reason for my need for a change of scenery. I felt a profound sense of sadness as I left the place. I spontaneously sang the theme song from rent on the street (this is not uncommon for me nor most anyone in China) as I headed for a cab and the slow crawl home from work for the last time and felt emotions welling up inside me and I very nearly cried right there on the street. These feelings didn’t and don’t at all make me feel like I am making the wrong decision, but it made it clear that I wasn’t just gonna coast on out.

I’ve been approaching my exit as I deal with most big changes and decisions; I wasn’t. The decision to go ahead and make the move was a long time coming. Once the decision was made except for a few moments of doubt, I was gone, but made very little efforts to take the necessary steps. So naturally, the days leading up today were stressful, busy and one blurred exhausted mess.

After handling the computer trade and getting a massage for good measure to try to calm down, the rest of the day was a paranoid blur of half preparedness. I am always so certain I am forgetting something critical, it consumes me and I have to battle myself to realize I am more prepared than I give myself credit for. I wandered through the same rooms of the small apartment and lists of necessities. By the time I finally had everything ready and climbed aboard the taxi and headed for the airport, my stomached panged as if I had not eaten in weeks, wrapped tightly in emotionally conflicted knots. I chatted cordially with the driver, one of my favorite things to do which served to calm me down.

The plane is now dark, cold tubes a white light shine down here and there and people are settling in for a night of sleep. For me it is certainly to be restless, but I am sure to find some good hours from my sheer exhaustion. As the energy of the plane around settles down, I can begin to feel a bit of calm within myself finally allow the freedom and excitement make it way up through the heavy emotions and preparation paranoia.