Girls Love Dirt

Time is flying at a phenomenal rate now. I leave Melbourne on Friday morning, and I'm soooo behind behind with my blogging!!!! For so long I felt like I had all the time in the world and now I'm struggling to fit everything in that I want to do. **sigh** If only I was independently wealthy and didn't have to stop and work. Although the working is often fun and I meeting wonderful people and end up having so many adventures I wouldn't have had otherwise. If I could just stretch time to add a few more days to Dec. I'd feel much more relaxed.

So for those of you that are curious, here's my plans for the next while. Friday morning I fly to Perth and that night I'm going out to see one of my favourite DJs, Kid Koala!!! I wanted to see him when he played in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago, but couldn't get the night off. I was very excited to discover that he was playing the first night I arrived in Perth. Early the next morning I'm heading off an a 4 day tour to Exmouth (home of the beautiful Ningaloo Reef) where I will do one or two days diving. Back to Perth on the 22nd. I was meant to head out on a 2 day tour of the southwest the next day, but yesterday they cancelled it on me. So now I'm struggling to replace it. Harder than you would think as most companies have already cancelled due to Christmas. I've got Christmas Day and half of Boxing Day in Perth and then popping over to the East Coast to spend a couple of days with a friend. I'll also have one day in the much praised Byron Bay before heading off to Sydney for New Years'. Jan 3rd I fly back to NZ until the 27th (Maybe get to see David and Michelle if they will still be there???). On the 27th I fly to Hong Kong to meet my friend Kelly who is flying in the same day from Canada. I'm very very excited to have a travel partner again as she is going to stick with me for about a month as we explore Thailand and perhaps Vietnam. I have another month after she leaves me to discover Cambodia and Loas, and then HAPPILY back to CANADA!!!! At which point I might need one of those proper relaxing vacations. Too bad I'll be broke ;}

Enough of that, now back in time to October 20th (am I really this far behind with my narrative???) when I hopped on the train and travelled from Dunedin to Queenstown.

I really enjoyed getting back to Queenstown. It was nice to see it in the spring and have time to do more exploring. The one thing I had really regretted not being able to do when I went to skiing was the gondola ride. The weather wasn't the best, but I made my way up anyway and was lucky enough that the rains stopped long enough for me to do a couple of hours tramping at the top.

I pasted the above photo from two, which is why the middle looks a little funny. Worth it though to get a sense of the endless beauty.

The next day I headed out on a bus tour and overnight sail in Milford Sound. M S is the most touristed spot in New Zealand and its easy to see why. If you find yourself here I highly recommend the overnight sail. I loved my time in the Sound and others who did the day tour seemed a bit more ho-hum about the experience. The ultimate is to do a 5 day tramp, but I didn't have the time nor did I know far enough in advance that I was coming in order to book the huts. I've heard you sometimes have to book a year in advance. Sailing is easy to book a day or two before.

The above first two photos were taken from the bus and the third from the shore, but the rest were taken from my ship.

I think what really made the sailing special for me was when we got to get out of the boat and expore the coastline and waters in our own time by kayak. There was an incredible feeling of stillness and quiet when most of the other passengers headed back to the boat and just a few of us stayed out to enjoy the evening.

The next morning was overcast, but beautiful. The clouds hung about the mountain sides like Christmas garlands. I was quite hoping the skies would open up so we could get display of the waterfalls with full force. Milford Sound can get about 10 meters of rain per year, so the fact that we had two days without rain is quite unusual.

Must run and get some stuff done today. The air in Melbourne is a bit disturbing. There are brush fires in Victoria and thay are so bad that all of Melbourne is very hazy and it smells like everyone is burning log fires. A very strange smell when its about 27 degrees.

More soon! (I hope)