Australia: New Year, airport mayhem and the Red Centre

After Christmas with relatives, my friend Claire has arrived in Australia for a 2 week jaunt around the highlights, starting with New Year's Eve in Sydney. Coincidentally, that's also her birthday. Here's what happened over that week.

We've been here 9 hours, you bastards

New Year's Eve/Claire's birthday began with a trip to Pancakes On the Rocks, a cafe in the Rocks that specialises in, you guessed it, pancakes. What better way to start a birthday than with pancakes? Although, it being before lunch time, we opted for the savoury variety instead.

Nicely full of carbs, we had a wander around the contemporary art museum. Just as odd as any other modern art museum.

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At this point, it was slipping past noon, I thought we should probably be trying to find somewhere to sit and wait for the fireworks. I'm not sure Claire understood just how busy it was going to get, so instead we tried to visit the Botanic Gardens, but they were shut because of the fireworks and the public viewing area there was already full.

Yeah, New Year's in Sydney? Madness. Instead we went back to Observatory Hill which was already getting busy but promised to be quieter than other areas because there was an alcohol ban and the capacity was lower.

And so we sat on the grass and waited.

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And waited.

And waited some more.

For nine hours. Well, not quite that long for the first batch of fireworks, after which a few people with little kids slotted off.

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But nine hours for the midnight fireworks. As it turns out, we had quite a good spot, being up on the hill. You could see up and down the harbour and the Harbour Bridge was near enough straight in front of us. But you can only do so much about the people around you and as the countdown hit midnight, a bunch of Germans pushed their way in front of us.

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And this is why most of my photos of the fireworks have huge heads in them. Ignorant bastards. I was tired. I'd been waiting on prickly grass for hours. I was not in the mood to be charitable and I'm still not. It doesn't hurt to be polite.

I think Claire enjoyed the fireworks though...

Where did the morning go?

The following day, I woke up around 9am. Said fuck it to getting up. Woke up again around 11am. Thought really hard about getting up...

In the end, we didn't leave the AirBnb until well after noon. We'd wanted to do Taronga Zoo and determined not to completely waste the day, we hopped on the ferry and arrived at the zoo about 2 hours before closing. I don't think we did too badly - we made a rough plan of what we wanted to see and then whizzed round. Look, a wild dragon.

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And a sleepy red panda.

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And a really dozy binturong.

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Oh, and I finally saw a platypus. Claire has better photos, but this will do for now.

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Yep, not bad for 2 hours. Normally I'd spend all day in a zoo though...

Since we'd slept so long, we didn't really feel like going back to Leichhardt and the AirBnB so early, so we had a wander through the Botanic Gardens in the rain.

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And then hopped on a bus to Bondi, just to see the beach. Also to see if they had any good fish and chips. Here is the glorious sunset over Bondi.

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I can't claim to have tried the fish and chips, because I had calamari, which was delicious. Claire seemed to enjoy hers though.

DO ALL THE THINGS

On our last day in Sydney, we had to be a bit more organised with our time. First stop, the Opera House for our tour. Fascinating, but it lasted longer than I expected. Look at this concert hall - the funny flying saucers are so that the orchestra hear themselves properly. Other than that, the acoustics are brilliant in there.

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I love this architecture.

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With the tour apparently overrunning and our planned train missed, we made a detour to the Queen Victoria Building to see the huge Christmas tree with its Swarowski crystals and all that.

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Finally, we got on the train to Katoomba. Yep, going back to the Blue Mountains. This time I bypassed Scenic World and took Claire straight to the Three Sisters.

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We also took the track down to Honeymoon Bridge, which joins the pillars to the cliff. There were rather a lot of steps...

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Which we then had to climb again on the way back. I must be getting fitter because they didn't seem too bad to me.  Either that or the cola I'd downed before we got on the train was giving me an enormous sugar rush...

Back on the train and home, where we arrived far later than we'd intended and ended up watching the new episode of Sherlock until we realised we had to get up early in the morning to get back to the airport. Sorry, Sherlock. It'll have to wait.

Well done, Qantas

At a time so early I haven't even written it in my journal, we set off for the airport. A bus and a train later and we arrived for check in. It should have been easy. Self-check-in. Done. Simples. Self-bag-drop? Not so much.

I should have known. Way back on the first day of this trip I'd had issues with EasyJet's fancy-ass self-bag-drop system and now in Sydney it was happening again on a much grander scale. This time the entire system broke down. And with all the check-in desks removed to make way for the automated system, there was very little space for the clerks to work the manual back up system. With our flight time fast approaching, we got stuck in a queue waiting while one very apologetic Qantas staff member tried to get everyone's bags scanned and sent through in time, fighting against a system that kept closing the flight because it should have left already.

Somehow, Claire ended up quite a long way behind me and I was told when I got through security that I had to get on the flight. So I sat on the plane, wondering whether she was actually going to make the flight, especially when the cabin crew asked if she was on the plane and didn't seem too bothered when I told them that she'd got delayed by the bag drop break down.

Claire ended up being the last person on the flight. Off we went to Alice Springs, quietly fuming over the mayhem. At least Qantas feed you on their flights - I was in desperate need of a calming cuppa.

On arrival at Alice Springs I collected my rucksack from the carousel and then stood and waited as all the other bags were claimed. A few other passengers were watching with the same sort of rising annoyance we were feeling. Clearly, Claire's bag hadn't made the flight. So we marched over to the service desk, where the poor clerk had no idea what had happened in Sydney and tried to reassure the growing gathering around her desk that their bags would be on the next flight.

The next flight would be the next day. We wouldn't even be in Alice the next day. Fucking hell, Qantas. Well done.

Because of the bag fiasco, we'd missed the shuttle into town and the next one wouldn't be coming in until the afternoon. We ended up sharing a taxi with an Italian couple who were in the same situation and fortunately, it turned out cheaper than the shuttle, otherwise I would've been writing angry emails to Qantas demanding some form of reimbursement for the additional cost...

With our stuff safely dumped at the hostel, we had to go on an emergency shopping trip so that Claire actually had clothes. Something else that'll need reimbursing. At least she could use my toiletries.

And then we spent the evening playing Exploding Kittens and getting attacked by mosquitoes.

Don't piss off a lady with a digging stick

Far too early in the morning we were awake again and climbing onto a nicely air-conditioned bus headed south. Some dozing later, we arrived at Erldunda, which is pretty much just a roadhouse. They do a good cooked breakfast though, which was excellent. They also have some emus, which we tried to feed.

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I say tried, because as soon as the emu pecked at the pellets in Claire's hand, the things flew everywhere and the emu just sort of stared in that stupid way they have.

From Erldunda we moved on another hour or more down the road to Mount Conner Lookout. Mount Conner is a tabletop mountain which is occasionally mistaken for Uluru by unfamiliar tourists. I can assure you, it looks nothing like Uluru.

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Ever onwards to Kata Tjuta, also known as the Olgas, an odd collection of rounded sandstone hills held sacred by the local Aboriginal groups. By this point, the temperature had hit uncomfortable levels, so I was amazed to spot some tadpoles in a puddle.

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A week or so before we arrived in the area, there had been enormous storms and torrential rain. I can only imagine that Kata Tjuta was absolutely dripping, so perhaps tadpoles aren't such a surprise. I wonder where the frogs live when it's dry?

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We took the short walk up the Valley of the Winds, trying hard not to melt and then climbed back on the bus. From Kata Tjuta, we drove back towards Uluru, where our first stop was the Cultural Centre. Fascinating little introduction to the Dreaming stories and songlines connected to Uluru and its importance for the Traditional Owners. I was also sad that there was no way I could afford any of the beautiful artwork in the craft shop.

And so onto Uluru itself. Our guide, Gerry, took us on a few walks, starting with the Mala Walk, which is tied in with the story of how the Mala people were invited to a ceremony by another tribe. Unfortunately, the Mala had already begun a ceremony of their own and once started, such things can't be stopped, so they declined. The other tribe were furious and ambushed them. The story is inextricably linked with a series of marks and gouges on the rock, which are said to represent, for example, the bodies of the fallen Mala men, the ceremonial pole they were erecting and the tracks left by the Mala women as they ran to warn the men.

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Aboriginal mythology never ceases to amaze me with how strongly it's tied into the land. It makes a hell of a lot more sense to me than most other oral traditions.

From there, we visited Mutitjulu waterhole, where the woma python woman, Kuniya, confronted the poisonous snake man, Liru, over the death of her nephew. In vengeance, she struck him with her digging stick as was her right, but then she hit him again and again until he died, which is at odds with traditional law. You can see the marks left in the rock from the force of the blows above the waterhole.

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The waterhole itself is a beautiful, quiet spot. Strange to think that not long before we visited the water was up above the platform because of all the rain.

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And then back to the carpark to have barbecue and wait for the sunset. Delicious kangaroo sausages. Not so delicious rahs who turned up just before sunset and spent all their time taking ridiculous Insta-ready photos. Claire and I had delightful fun snarking about them. By all means, come and enjoy the view, but these guys were dressed for a night out clubbing. I'm stereotyping like hell, but I got the impression none of them really appreciated how important Uluru is, they just wanted to take photos and say they'd been there.

Once the rahs got out of the way, I did manage to get some reasonable photos of the sunset. Claire had kindly brought my better camera back from the UK, but I don't think it made too much difference to how gorgeous Uluru looks in this light.

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And then back on the bus for the very long drive back to Alice Springs. Why on earth did we decide a one day trip was a good idea?

Is that flowing?

Since we didn't get back to Alice until gone 1am, we felt entirely justified in having a lie in. Once we'd grabbed some lunch, we had a mooch around town. Poked about in one of the many Aboriginal art galleries, but since we'd not left the hostel till quite late in the afternoon, we only got there just before closing. We made plans to return.

On the way back to the hostel, we stopped to take some photos of the river. The Todd River through Alice famously spends most of its time with no water in it. It had had pools when we arrived, but to our surprise, when we stopped this time it was actually flowing. In fact, it was filling - you could tell it must have rained further upriver and the water was slowly making its way down through the town. Pretty cool.

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Oh, and Claire's bag had arrived from the airport. At least you got that right, Qantas.

Snake in the hair

On our final day in Alice, we went on a mission to find some Aboriginal art that we could afford. This meant going in pretty much every gallery along the main strip before we finally found some small canvasses within our price range. And then spending forever in the gallery going through every single canvas in search of a favourite.

It was like trying to pick out a pounamu pendant in Rotorua all over again. I eventually pulled one out that I loved. Eventually. There were several others I'd quite happily have bought as well if I'd had the cash.

Art purchased, we mooched off to the Alice Springs Reptile Centre to while away the afternoon. That was great fun, especially the handling session. First up, the wriggly Gremlin, a bearded dragon.

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He didn't want to sit still with me. Apparently I wasn't tree like enough. Still, his friend Nora the Blue-Tongue was much more docile.

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And finally, Angel the Olive Python. Claire didn't want to hold her - something about ears. Her fear might have been well founded, since Angel first managed to get herself tangled through my plait and then stuck her tongue in my ear. Repeatedly.

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Riding a delightful endorphin high from getting to touch pretty animals, we headed back to the airport and hopped on our flight to Cairns. A fairly small plane - one of those funny ones with two seats on one side and three on the other, which led to the coining of the ridiculous insult "you're a lop-sided plane".

Cairns was wet. And hot. We slept.

Ooh, a neat place to finish for once. In the next installment of "weird-journal-blog-thing-what-Zoe-does-so-she-doesn't-forget-things" we're in Cairns for the Great Barrier Reef before heading off to Melbourne for... whatever it is people do in Melbourne.

There may be more penguins involved...

Australia: Christmas, caves and Claire's arrival

After leaving Tasmania behind, I'd taken up residence with my Uncle Les in Mittagong, south of Sydney, so that I could spend Christmas with family. So far we'd retrieved my grandad from the airport and visited the Blue Mountains. Somehow, I am dealing with living with two grumbly, but lovely old men.

Leftovers for tea again

A lovely, relaxed Christmas Eve morning was balanced by an afternoon drive around the area with Linda and her younger son while Uncle Les did... whatever it is that needed doing for the Christmas meal. First stop, Avon Dam, with pretty views.

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And then on to Nepean Dam, which also had lovely views and also the somewhat disconcerting sound of thunder closing in...

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Finally a quick stop at a small animal sanctuary, where the wallabies were sensibly trying to shelter from the incoming storm.

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And so came the storm. Pretty sure it's The Storm, the one that follows me around. It certainly seemed angry enough.

And then sleep. Always, sleep. Oh, and reading of that Pratchett book I picked up, which is rather good.

Merry Christmas!

There isn't a whole lot to say about Christmas. It's a big family affair with my uncle, not like the quiet thing I have at home. Still, there was enough food to last out a zombie apocalypse and Secret Santa brought me cider. All round, a pretty awesome day.

I don't think I've eaten that much since I left the UK... So stuffed.

It's not that far

On Boxing Day, Uncle Les took us to Morton National Park, where I had to deal with the ticket machine because after 5 minutes of watching my uncle and grandad struggling with it, I thought I'd best do something. Not entirely sure what they were doing wrong, but it worked first time for me...

First stop, the Echo Point lookout, over this beautiful valley.

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And then to the Wishing Well, which is clearly a man made hole in the rock and not really what I was expecting.

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Finally, a short walk down to the old Erith Coal Mine. And I mean short. The sign said something like 1.2k return. OK, so it's down a big old hill, but it's not very far.

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The mine is all shut up, but some of the props still seem to be in there.

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Apparently there used to be a railway running to the cliff edge above the mine and they'd hoist the coal up there instead of having to cart it out by the hill. The hill which we then had to climb again. The way my uncle described it afterwards, you'd think we'd walked miles...

And then Christmas leftovers for tea. This is going to become a running theme.

Do you think it likes eggs?

The following day, Linda rescued me from another day of grumbling by taking all three of us on a trip to Wombeyan Caves.

Access is via a dirt road, which initially I thought was total awesomesauce. An hour or more in, I started getting travel sick, courtesy of all the twists. Urgh. Nice. Fortunately we weren't too far from the caves and once I got out of the car I was fine. Besides, one of the first things I spotted was this goanna.

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I'm a huge Disney fan. Rescuers Down Under is one of my favourites and so of course I started stalking this goanna, calling it Joanna and asking if it wanted eggs. I don't think anyone heard me...

First stop, Victoria Arch. Pretty.

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And then on to our guided tour of Wollondilly Cave with the excellently named, somewhat insane, John Mango. Here, have a slightly out of focus photo of the prettiness inside the cave.

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And maybe another?

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It was nice and even better because it was cooler than outside and had no winged demons to bite me. Ultimately, though, I've seen more interesting caves.

And so back onto different dirt road back to civilisation. Via McDonalds where I filched the free WiFi and tried to find out when Claire was arriving on Thursday and how to get into our AirBnB. I hate being so reliant on WiFi.

And so to sleep.

Um... I have control?

On my last day in Mittagong, my uncle's brother-in-law offered to take me and my grandad on a little sightseeing flight over the area. He co-owns a small plane and teaches folks to fly, so I thought this was a great idea.

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I was not expecting to get to fly the damn thing. But a minute or two into the flight, having explained how the basic controls worked, Ken told me I could have a go. So I hesitantly confirmed that I had control and that was it.

I flew a fucking plane.

I thought it'd be for a few minutes, but I had control for the entire flight up until landing. It was both terrifying and pretty damn awesome.

This would also explain why I have precisely zero photos from the plane, but plenty of us on the ground. Look at me, looking stupid in the pilot's seat...

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She's a cool little Piper. Wouldn't mind having another go. Cheers, Ken.

Apparently nothing else on this day even came close to making an impression on me, because all my journal says after "I flew a fucking plane! :)" is "not sure what else happened here?"

I hear a Northern hemisphere accent - would you like some ice?

After my flailing with Macca's WiFi a couple of days prior, Claire had managed to text me late on the Thursday night (my time) to tell me the flight was delayed. Unfortunately, by the time I got that text, Grandad and Uncle Les had already gone to bed with the intention of getting up early to accompany me to the airport. This despite my assurance that I was more than capable of getting on the train on my own. Bless.

So we left early, drove to the station and hopped on the train. I believe my uncle was going to take my grandad into Sydney for the day, but I never got confirmation on that. I honestly thought the pair of them were going to cry when I got off the train at the airport after hugs and goodbyes and being pressed with more coffee money than I could ever need. It had been a really lovely week being surrounded by almost-familiar people instead of the constant stream of strangers you get travelling.

Still, I was going to retrieve Claire and that meant another two weeks of familiarity. Despite the delay to her flight on leaving, she arrived near enough on time and after acquiring an Opal card for her and topping up mine, we hopped on the train into the city.

I hadn't thought it through. Normally, I'm pretty good with public transport. I'd figured we'd get the train out to Lewisham, the nearest stop to our AirBnB rental and then get a bus from there.

There was no bus. Claire was melting in the 35 degree heat, which coupled with her jetlag was not great. In the end, I had to use a payphone to call a taxi, which took us the 10 minutes down the road to the AirBnB.

At this point, all should have been well. The info I had from our AirBnB host implied that someone would be home to let us into the annex. No one answered the door. For ages. So we went round the corner to a cafe so I could grab some breakfast and Claire could rehydrate. Going from freezing in the UK to melting in Australia can't have been much fun.

In the meantime, I sent a message to our host to say that we were having trouble getting in and promptly received a call back to say that her brother should be around to let us in. So we tramped back and tried again. Still no response. I even tried sticking my hand through the gate to see if I could open the lock. Apparently even my hands were not skinny enough for that.

Meanwhile, Claire's melting into a puddle in the front yard. We'd already tried the neighbours to see if they had a number for the brother, but had no luck. After a while, the neighbours appeared again, said hi and came out with a line that made my day.

"I hear a Northern hemisphere accent. Would you like some ice? And some water?"

Thank you, unnamed neighbours. Having saved Claire from completely disintegrating, I sent our host another message regarding our inability to get in and was delighted when she got straight back to me with instructions to get into the key box. More than an hour after we arrived, we finally got in.

With the day rapidly wearing away, we refreshed and caught up and then headed off to find some food. Ended up at a little Italian place at the end of the street where I had the most delicious gnocchi with gorgonzola. So good.

And then Claire passed out on the bed when we got back. Poor thing.

Of course we need funny shaped ice cubes...

With Claire feeling a bit better the following morning, we caught the bus into the city and went for a wander.

First stop, Darling Harbour, which was busy and also home to a visitor centre selling koala, kanagaroo and Australia shaped ice cube trays. With the temperature still in the 30s, we decided we might have to come back and buy them. We resisted for a while though, mooching off around the harbour with the aim of getting to the Rocks, one of the oldest parts of Sydney. Passed the Harbour Bridge on the way.

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We had a wander around the Rocks before popping into the Opera House to book a tour. Hey, we can't afford to see a show there (and I don't think we were interested in anything that was playing), so the next best thing is a tour, right?

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Then on to the Rocks Discovery Museum, which was kind of interesting and also free, which is always a bonus.

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Onwards, up to the Observatory where I geeked out about science things and we also got to go into one of the telescope domes.

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At this point, I was amazed that Claire hadn't completely collapsed from the heat and residual jetlag. I think it started kicking in on the way back to the bus stop though, when we had to stop for gelato.

And then well and truly collapsed when we got back to the AirBnb. Oh dear.

Plenty of sleep needed, because next we have New Year's Eve in Sydney to negotiate as well as Claire's birthday. A few more days in Sydney and then we're flying to Alice Springs in preparation for our trip to Uluru.

You think Sydney's hot? Ain't seen nothing yet...

Canada: Don't panic!

Woo, I've survived another week. It's been an interesting one and for the first time in a few weeks I've been in more than 2 cities over the week. Here's what's been going on.

The museum overload continues

Following a week where I pretty much went to a different museum every day, I went to a few more, beginning with the National Gallery of Canada. There, I started with the very small section of comtemporary Inuit art, given that the main Aboriginal art area was closed for refurbishment or something.

Some of these bone carvings are amazing. I mean, look at this.

Little bit in love with these things. Out of the rest of the gallery, I think the most amazing part was the reconstructed interior of the Rideau Street Convent Chapel. The gallery on the whole was pretty quiet, but I got this little gem to myself for at least 10 minutes. So peaceful.

From the National Gallery and intent on making the most of my museum pass, I headed just round the corner to the Royal Canadian Mint and took a little guided tour round the factory. They only make investment and collectable coins here - the main mint operation is based out in Winnipeg (maybe I'll see if I can visit that one in a week or so). Huge rolls of gold and silver were spotted - the silver rolls were worth about $20 million if I recall correctly or was that the gold? I should have made a note.

Unfortunately no photos allowed, presumeably for secutiry reasons. I also managed to really show up my Englishness when the guide got onto talking about which way round the monarch faces on coins - i.e when we get a new monarch, they face the opposite direction to their predecessor. Everyone's there going "oh, yeah, right, interesting" and my brain just goes, "you're missing someone. Why are those two facing the same way? Ohhh..."

At which point the guide goes "have you noticed anything strange about these faces?" and without thinking I pipe up "You're missing an Edward" and immediately go bright red for no apparent reason. Of course they're missing an Edward because Edward VIII abdicated before the Canadians had a chance to mint any coins with him on. But they kept with tradition so George VI is facing the same way as George V because Edward VIII should have been facing the other way.

Rambling over. Mint tour completed, I took a nice long break at the hostel before heading out later in the evening to see the light show at Parliament.

Very cool.

A potted history of Canada in about 30 minutes told through some amazing projections. And commentary, of course.

Lest We Forget

The following morning I took a stroll along the river path on my way to the Canadian War Museum.

Gorgeous weather and some lovely views. The museum also proved to be awesome. It's very in depth, covering the history of Canada's wars all the way from the first evidence of tribal warfare some 5,000 years ago right up to peacekeeping missions today.

The Memorial Hall was also lovely, although it would have been ever better if I hadn't walked in to two girls having a casual natter in it. They clearly weren't pleased that I'd interrupted them and I really wanted to make some comment about it being a memorial hall, y'know, for remembering and not for nattering. I resisted.

I spent the evening having a very long and rambling conversation with my dorm-mates at the hostel, courtesy of the WiFi being down. The WiFi needs to be down more often - people are so much more likely to talk to each other.

No worries - I set it off in the other building too...

I spent my final morning in Ottawa taking a couple of tours of the Parliament buildings. Very interesting, lots of history but I managed to set off the metal detectors in both of them. This is because I was wearing my walking boots which have metal fastenings. I would have worn my canvas shoes, but they were all packed up ready to take the bus to Kingston that afternoon. Bad move.

So, East Block houses some rooms decorated as they would have been in 1872. Lord Dufferin, the then Governor-General's office.

John A. MacDonald, the Prime Minister.

And George-Etienne Cartier, who was in charge of all sorts of important things, but on his untimely death was implicated in a massive bribery scandal to do with the Canadian-Pacific Railroad. As demonstrated by this cute toy train on his desk.

Centre Block is the building currently used by Parliament. More shinies, such as the library which was the only part of the block to survive the 1916 fire which destroyed everything else. I want this library.

And then there's the view from the Peace Tower, built as a later addition after the First World War.

Aaaand, then I had to go and get on a bus again. Uneventful bus journey was followed by a rather more eventful first night in Kingston. See, I booked an AirBnB. It would have been my first AirBnB stay. I hadn't received any communication from the host, which I thought seemed a bit odd, but figured maybe that's just how it worked and she'd meet me there.

I turned up at the address, knocked repeatedly, called the host and still couldn't get in. I also had a quick peek in the mailbox (and, as it later turned out, missed something important). No chance of getting in. Somehow I managed not to panic. Right, says I. What do we do now?

Find a Tim Hortons, says my brain.

Shut up, says the rest of my brain. I am not going to spend the night crying in a 24 hour Tim Hortons. I am a mature and responsible adult and I will find a way round this crappy situation. At which point, wandering towards the downtown area, I spotted a Holiday Inn. Great, I'm going to have to pay a stupid amount of money, but at least I'll have somewhere to sleep, I think.

So I go and ask the guys at the desk if they have anything available. I mention in passing that I'm asking so late at night because my AirBnB has gone tits up. The guys exchange a glance.

How much was your AirBnB? They ask.

Pretty cheap, I reply. To which, much to my surprise, they tell me that yes, they do have rooms available, but that I'd get a better deal round the corner at the Confederation Place Hotel. They even checked the price for me. I nearly cried at that because they could so easily have just charged me the higher price at their own hotel.

So I pootled round the corner to the Confederation and explained my predicament to the chap at the desk. Technically, he explained, they were fully booked for the night but they did have a room available that was for "emergencies". I have no idea what sort of emergencies they had in mind, but it suited my emergency just fine. He even let me check the room before I took it.

Huge room ahoy!

OK, it cost me about 4 times as much as my AirBnB room, but at least I had somewhere to sleep, free WiFi and breakfast was included to boot.

Bobbing along

I made the most of said breakfast the next morning before firing off a few messages to my mysteriously absent AirBnB host and another to a different host who looked to have a room available for my second night in Kingston. Second host got back to me within an hour, despite not normally taking same day bookings.

Achievement get: AIRBNB BOOKED.

I spent the morning enjoying the sunshine and taking a boat trip to the Thousand Islands which sit in the St Lawrence River which runs past Kingston.

Even got a glimpse of Lake Ontario in the distance.

Getting off the boat, I got to spend another hour sitting in the park enjoying some free live music. Celtic punk. Oh yeah.

I then had a late lunch at Morrison's Restaurant. I'm pretty sure this is the place I visisted with my parents the first time I was in Canada and it had amazing milkshakes. The milkshakes are still pretty amazing and so are the chips. Yum.

Proper milkshake. The sort you can stand a spoon in.

Aaaand, then I headed for my replacement AirBnB. Bryan, my host was there when I arrived and very welcoming even though my booking had taken him a bit by surprise. I didn't see him again after he left, but I did have his cat to keep me company.

Very fluffy, very demanding and very much in love with my boot laces. Having arrived so early, I wasn't sure what to do with myself all evening, so I took myself to Tim Hortons for the free WiFi at which point I found that my previously mysterious host from the night before had been in touch and was very apologetic. Looks like an email she normally sends guests to let them know how to get in, hadn't got to me. On top of this, if I'd taken a closer look in the mailbox, I would have found the key to the property and been able to let myself in and probably work out where I was supposed to be sleeping. Fortunately, she agreed to refund me, so all is sorted now. Yay.

All in a small town, Napanee

All this meant I slept very well in my nice private room, a first since I've been away. It even meant I was nearly fully awake when I got on the bus the next morning to head south to Toronto, passing Avril Lavigne's hometown on the way. I have no idea why I remembered that.

Toronto is... big. Very big. But it's also not as hectic as you'd imagine a city this size to be. Unfortunately, despite arriving quite early in the afternoon, I spent the rest of the day sitting in the hostel feeling sorry for myself having come down with a disgusting cold. As I write this, I am onto my fourth packet of tissues in 24 hours. Urgh.

Land of screaming children and sharks

I made up for that wasted afternoon by starting the next day bright and early. Although, I must admit that the early part was rather due to my disrupted sleep - woken up at 2am by the guy in the bunk under me crawling out of bed and throwing up. On the floor. Right next to my bag. Ewwwww.

Anyway, I dragged myself out of the hostel intent on exploring the city. It was pushing 30 degrees, so I decided against wandering around too much and instead tried to find somewhere indoors. I settled on the CN Tower.

Great views, but absolutely rammed with tourists. I did manage to get a photo through the glass floor, diving in for a minute as soon as there was space. I don't remember it being this busy last time...

It still being horribly hot when I stepped out of the tower, I headed next door into the aquarium. This was both awesome - they have sharks.

And cool jellyfish.

And I got to stroke both a very small bamboo shark and a horseshoe crab.

However, it was also rammed with screaming children. Urgh. Looks like everyone had had the same idea as me for avoiding the heat. Yuck.

After the aquarium, I thought it was probably a good idea to book my train tickets and promptly nearly had a heart attack at the cost. I'm so glad I budgetted for this, because I think I would have taken a bus otherwise, however long it took.

Fortunately, I then had a lovely evening chatting with my fellow hostellers about random crap. Hostels are awesome places - how often are you going to get English, American, Swiss, German, Lithuanian and New Zealanders all chatting together?

Pottery and dinos and minerals, oh my

I have spent today in the Royal Ontario Museum. I only meant to spend a few hours there and it turned into nearly 7. The museum is huge and covers a huge range of areas from anthropology and social history through to natural science. It's hard to pick highlights, but Harold was rather concerned that I was going to feed him to the Allosaurus.

Other interesing sections included a small selection of Ainu artefacts. The Ainu are an indigenous people from northern Japan and the Kuril Islands and while I've heard of them before, I don't think I've ever seen anything about them in a museum.

Oh, and I just about resisted the urge to sing Treguna mecoides trecorum satis dee at every single suit of armour I walked past. There were more than I expected.

Also, that particular chap had a pretty cool Mughal period recurve bow. Not that I have an unhealthy interest in medieval warfare or anything. It's just good research for fantasy writing. Like that makes it sound any better...

Basically, I had a great day geeking out about all sorts of things. Plus, I saw some black squirrels in the park on my walk back.

I still have a few more days in Toronto. After that, I'm heading down to Niagara, then Hamilton before embarking on my epic train ride across the country to Vancouver. Would you believe I still have over a month left in Canada?

Maybe I'll squish in a few more museums before then?

Destination Daydreams: Tasmania

With departure rapidly approaching, I figure now is the time to get back to daydreaming about where I'm going to go rather than worrying whether everything I need is going to fit into my rucksack. In the New Year I'm hoping to revisit my former home of Tasmania. I lived out there for a year when I was 20 and despite that I barely scratched the surface of this beautiful island. So, I'd like to give myself 2 weeks as a minimum and 3 weeks if I can find the time so I can really explore.

Hobart

First up, the lovely little capital city - Hobart. This is where I lived and yet... I never really got to know it. I explored a couple of the museums and the Botanical Gardens but I missed out on Salamanca Market and the little places around the city. I also need to make an attempt on Mount Wellington. This is the view from my student house in the city.

That big mountain? Yeah. I saw that out of my window every day and yet never thought to go up to the top. Best get that fixed!

Hobart's such a beautiful little place as well - it doesn't feel like a capital city. It's very laid back and that might be why I loved it so much. I'd like to spend a week or so there, so I might see if I can get an AirBnB place - seen some lovely ones on the website!

The South East

I have no idea what's down here apart from the Huon Valley area. Basically walking, right? Lovely countryside, sleepy little towns. Sounds like my kind of place. The only problem will be how awkward Tassie is to get around. There's a good, regular bus service between Hobart and Launceston, the only other big place in the state, but aside from that buses are a bit less common. That said, Tassielink have a reasonable network and can probably get me to most of the places I want to go.

The West Coast

Temperate rainforest and a huge World Heritage area. What's not to like? Also, winding little hill railways, penal colonies and possibly kayaking. Always with the kayaking. The Tasmanian Wildnerness World Heritage area covers nearly a third of the state, so I figure it's worth making the trip over to the West Coast just to see that. And if I get the chance to go kayaking again, all the better.

The North

Devonport? Burnie? General pretties up on the north coast. Might attempt to make a return to Narawntapu NP if I can find a way to get there without a car.

I'm also considering getting the ferry back across from Devonport to Melbourne on the mainland. Similar price to the flights from Hobart so it might be a nice change.

Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair

Cradle Mountain should be easy enough to do from Launnie... Launceston. I did it when I lived in Hobart, but it rained the entire few hours I was there, so I'd like to see it in the dry, if not in the sun.

Lake St Clair... not so sure about that one, but I'd love to see it. Tassielink runs a bus from Hobart to the West Coast via the lake, so I might be able to do it that way. If not, it'll have to be an organised tour.

The East Coast

Wineglass Bay, Bay of Fires, Freycinet etc. Mostly revisiting places from my year out there. Oh, and not forgetting Maria Island, because lizards and Painted Cliffs.

Wow. That's actually quite a lot of stuff to do in Tas. Good job I've set aside 2-3 weeks for it.

Have you visited Tasmania? Where would you go? Do you have a favourite place? Please share!

100 Days, 100 Things: Days 41-60

This is part 3 of my attempts to note down something interesting, new, weird or stupidly mundane each day in the countdown to finishing work before I set off on my round-the-world Grand Tour adventure. Things are getting both more mundane and more interesting. How this is even possible, I have no idea...

41. Thursday 14th April - made pho.
Having tried the Vietnamese noodle soup at Pho in Manchester, I decided to have a go at making it myself. My attempt at chicken pho turned out pretty nice, especially with the pile of beansprouts I dumped into it!

42. Friday 15th April - pasta bake?
Looks like nothing interesting happened on this day. First pasta bake in a couple of years was as exciting as it got.

43. Saturday 16th April - took a walk on Saddleworth.
My mum was supposed to be taking a balloon flight from Bakewell for her birthday but the weather turned against us. Instead, we took the dogs out for a walk on Saddleworth Moor, something we've been meaning to do since Mum moved to Manchester nearly 2 years ago.

44. Sunday 17th April - finally did some proper gardening.
I can't remember what I actually did. Possibly I dug over the veg patch? Or did I put the onions in? Nah... I think the onions went in the week after... Nope. It was this day. Onions, shallots, garlic and potatoes. All going in a bit too late for my liking and none of which I'll have the joy of eating because I'll be on the other side of the globe. All the more for the relatives.

45. Monday 18th April - blogged for the first time in ages.
Which, I do believe, was the last post in this series. You can read it here: 100 Days, 100 Things: Days 21-40.

46. Tuesday 19th April - created an overly detailed packing list.
I almost always use a packing list for holidays and short trips, so I figured I need a super-awesome one for the Grand Tour. After all, how on earth am I going to make it all the way round-the-world if I manage to forget something along the way?

47. Wednesday 20th April - started planning Australian adventures.
Claire got her flights booked to join me in Australia over the New Year, so we could finally start planning what we want to do in those 2 weeks. Too many things to do!

48. Thursday 21st April - overdosed on pretty AirBnB listings.
Falling a little bit in love with AirBnB, especially given how many awesome listings there are for Sydney at New Year.

49. Friday 22nd April - started laying out all the things on the aforementioned packing list.
And started worrying that a) I've forgotten some things and b) it won't all fit in my rucksack...

50. Saturday 23rd April - The Complete Walk.
Took a trip to London with my sister to see as many of the 37 films which made up The Complete Walk as possible. 15/37 - not bad going considering the technical difficulties. So much Shakespeare! And topped off with an evening of Shakespeare on the BBC when I got home.

51. Sunday 24th April - booked my first AirBnB.
Got the accommodation booked for my stay in Sydney over New Year with Claire. A lovely little studio apartment a little way out of the city centre for less than half the price it would have been to stay in a hostel, let alone a hotel.

52. Monday 25th April - fell off the blogging wagon.
Yeah... my attempts to keep blogging regularly are not going so well. Doesn't bode well for me keeping on top of it while I'm away, does it?

53. Tuesday 26th April - booked Australia flights. Poor bank balance.
Sorted out internal flights for the two weeks I'm spending with Claire in Australia, just to make sure we actually end up on the same flights. My bank account doesn't know what's hit it this month...

54. Wednesday 27th April - more jabs.
Back to the doctors to get yet another jab, this time for my Hep B booster. Also got my prescription for anti-malarials sorted, so that's another thing I can stop worrying about.

55. Thursday 28th April - played the bath game with the dogs.
We took the dogs out for quite a late walk because the weather had been foul all day. When we got back, we played the game where I chase them round the kitchen with the towel in an attempt to dry them off. They love it - they get like puppies again. Might not like getting wet, but they really like avoiding getting dry!

56. Friday 29th April - more jabs.
Yet another jab, but hopefully this one is the last one I'll need. Certainly the most expensive - anyone want to explain to me why the Yellow Fever vaccine is so very costly? At least I don't seem to have had any side effects from it yet.

57. Saturday 30th April - dogs on the beach.
Took the dogs down to the beach. They love the beach. Poppy invited herself to someone's picnic and Mum nearly had to pull her out of a bag of crisps. Sneaky sausage dog.

58. Sunday 1st May - "Not even for me?"
Someone let slip to my nanna that I'm going away for a year and now she's spending every time I see her trying to talk me out of it. We have now had such classics as "But I might not be here when you get back!" and "You won't change your mind? Not even for me?" This is exactly why I didn't tell her.

59. Monday 2nd May - fixed my "critical error".
No thanks to Microsoft. My Windows 10 threw up a glitch and basically broke my start menu. Microsoft's fixes didn't work, but the one I used last time this happened did. And Microsoft don't seem to know a thing about it. Thanks, guys.

60. Tuesday 3rd May - uh...
Not a lot happened. Other than a minor freak out when I realised that it's now less than 6 weeks until the Grand Tour kicks off. Yeep.

Excitement is setting in! Less than 6 weeks to go!

The Grand Tour: Whistlestop Australia

Claire, veteran of both the New Zealand and Ireland trips, is joining me for a couple of weeks in Australia over the New Year. This is going to be wonderful and will make a nice change from travelling alone for a while (although I am also hoping to spend Christmas with relatives).

Now that flights are booked, the fun bit of planning can start. I.e. what are we going to do with those 2 weeks? How much of Australia can you see in that time?

This is all rather bounded by the flights that Claire was able to get. It's worked out that we've got 5-6 days in Sydney over New Year, 2/3 days in Alice Springs, 2/3 days in Cairns and 4/5 days in Melbourne. The confusion over numbers of days is because I'm not certain how much time we'll lose because of flights and whatnot.

However, I can safely say that we've got plenty of time in Sydney and Melbourne. Alice Springs and Cairns we'll have to be a bit more organised with our time to make sure we get the most out of it.

I figure there's a fair number of folks who go to Australia for relatively short holidays - 2 or 3 weeks - since that's all a lot of companies let employees take off in one go, plus Oz is expensive. So, here's a very short list of must-do things in Oz which are very much doable in 2 weeks.

1. New Year in Sydney

OK, so this is clearly time dependent, but if you get the chance New Year in Sydney is amazing. Claire and I will be joining the festivities, even more so because New Year's Eve is also Claire's birthday. Someone remind me to find her something awesome... But just picture it: thousands of people thronging the harbour-side, fireworks going off every hour all the way down the river and at midnight that iconic display of fireworks going off over the famous Harbour Bridge. Yep. Pretty awesome.

2. Uluru-Kata-Tjuta National Park

Uluru, formerly more commonly known as Ayer's Rock, is perhaps Australia's most famous landmark, a hulking red monolith looming out of the desert. It is as stunning as the tourist boards make it out to be and the history and culture that surrounds it is fascinating. Nearby Kata-Tjuta, also known as the Olgas, is a similar site and also well worth visiting.

3. The Great Barrier Reef

Need I say more? The largest biological construction (not an organism. Many organisms) on the planet, the reef teems with life and, weather permitting, there's a good chance you'll see something interesting.

4. The Great Ocean Road

Lots of "greats" in this list! The Great Ocean Road does what it says on the tin - it's a road that follows the ocean between Melbourne and Adelaide and it's pretty great. Built after the Second World War to provide work for returned servicemen, it's a beautiful drive and there's a chance of spotting a whole assortment of Australia's quirky wildlife. I think I remember seeing koalas when I took a trip down part of it...

5. Daintree Rainforest

The Daintree is a fragment of one of the most ancient rainforests on the planet and is hugely biodiverse. As someone who studied ecology at university, this is enough to make it amazing even without the beautiful views and the equally awesome wildlife. It's also easily accessible from Cairns, so great for a day trip. Onto the list it goes!


For 2 weeks, I think that's enough highlights. Our only real problem so far has been finding accommodation in Sydney over New Year at a reasonable price. For this, I eventually turned to AirBnB and Claire managed to find a lovely little studio for us to stay in which has cost less than half what it would if we had settled for a hostel, let alone a hotel. So, yes, it's a bit out of the centre, but Sydney has reasonable public transport. In addition, the owner informs us that there's lots of Italian restaurants and some amazing gelato to be had nearby. Bring on the food!

If you had only 2 weeks to see Australia's highlights, where would you go and what would you do? Let me know in the comments!

The Grand Tour: New Year Down Under

Fabulous news! My friend Claire, veteran of both the New Zealand and Ireland expeditions, is planning on joining me for a couple of weeks in Australia over New Year. Also, incidentally, her birthday.

This is going to be good. Sydney's an amazing city and New Year there is just as brilliant. Well, it should be if it's anything like the last time I was there...

Also, Sydney's a good starting point for a couple of weeks in Australia. We can relax and explore the city for a couple of days before heading off to see Oz's highlights. Claire can get over the jet lag and I can enjoy having someone to share the travel fun with for a bit.

So, what should we do in Sydney? The New Year celebrations are the obvious choice and it seems like an awesome way for Claire to spend her birthday (also on New Year's Eve), but aside from that, Sydney has plenty to offer. Taronga Zoo is great and I'd really love to check out the beaches, just because it seems like the thing to do in Sydney! Bondi, anyone?

Last time I was in Sydney we only had a couple of days over the New Year, so we didn't really get chance to do all the exploring. I think the most we did was going up one of the towers on the famous Harbour Bridge. Don't think I'll be forking out to climb the bridge itself though...

There's plenty of museums, galleries and parks to check out and even the possibility of seeing whales without ever getting on a boat, courtesy of some amazing views from the coast. Oh, so many choices and still so little time - if Claire's going to see the highlights of Australia like the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru, we won't be spending that long in Sydney.

And here we hit a bit of a snag. Sydney's great. New Year there is great. Accommodation costs... not so much. The first hostel I looked at wanted to charge £100 per person to stay on New Year's Eve and it wasn't much cheaper on the days either side. Others weren't much better - anything up to £80 seems standard.

So I started trawling the hotels instead and yes, some of these would be as good or better than a hostel for about the same price. I suggested to Claire that it might be an idea to take this option instead and, given that she'll have a nearly 24 hour flight, she agreed.

That would have been that had I not then remembered Airbnb. I wasn't planning on explaining what Airbnb is, but Claire didn't seem to know, so I'll assume it's not as well known as I thought it was. Airbnb is a system where folks can rent out spare rooms or even entire homes to others. I'd expected this to be fairly expensive for Sydney over New Year, but I've found some really decent places for a relatively low price. Certainly better value than a hostel or hotel.

So yes, the places I've looked at are a bit further out of the centre, but Sydney has a decent public transport system and I'm willing to make that trade off. After all, much as I want to have an amazing New Year in Sydney, I still have a budget to stick to and I'll take savings where I can find them.

Where do you dream of spending New Year? Do you have any suggestions for visiting Sydney on a budget? Why not share in the comments below.