First Two Weeks in OZ

12 days ago we landed in Sydney where we had a small layover and then it was on to Melbourne. The cultural hub of OZ. But by the time we got in it was late and so we just found the closest backpacker and crashed out. The next morning we hopped on a tram and headed to a place called St. Kilda (we had many recommendations to go there, beautiful beaches and penguins and such), but just our luck it was raining that day. What is it with NZ and OZ greeting us with crap weather when it is suppose to be summer time? It's ok. It was still beautiful. We dropped our packs in a hostel in St. Kilda and headed off to explore. We walked down to the beach, where we saw many kite surfers, looked like fun, and for $180 we could join. No thanks I'd rather bungy again. We walked past a creepy looking amusement park and some coffee shops with so much cake in the windows it was tempting (good thing I'm gluten free or I would have had the lot). We found some cute shops and by cute I mean those hippie ones, that smell like sandalwood and have prayer flags hanging all around and most things in the shop are from some Northern Thailand hill tribe and the nice lady hands you cup of homemade chai when you walk in, yeah we spent a long time in that shop. Why rush back outside into the rain? She told us some great places in Melbourne and around OZ. On to find some wifi to see if we can score a work trade close by. We spent a couple more days there riding the trams around to different parts of the city, because unlike NZ, this town was huge, and everything was not walking distance. It wasn't until our last day we figured out that we had to pay for those trams, oops (we never got caught though, so oh well). We went down to the pier one night to watch the sunset, and the penguins coming back from hunting. It was my first wild penguin sighting, and it was very exciting!

After three days we finally found some work so we hopped on a train (yes we paid for this one) and headed to a small town called Glenlyon (pronounced glen-lion). Our host, Peter, met us at the bus stop with his friend Phil (because Peter doesn't drive). They drove us to a small little house with two caravans out front, surrounded by eucalyptus trees and brown hills that were covered in Kangaroos! We could just make out their silhouettes as the sun was going down. I think I am going to like this place, I thought. We settled in that night and met the other WWOOFer, Pablo from Spain, who didn't speak much English, that's ok I'd just practice my Spanish. The next morning Peter showed us around the property. He is only living on one acre but it is not to be underestimated. His farm is all organic and permaculture designed. He is growing over 30 kinds of apple trees, 7 kinds of plums, quince (I didn't know what that was either, it's a pear looking thing, tried one but it wasn't ripe, tart). He also has various berries, veges and avocado trees. As far as animals he has 21 chooks and 14 ducks. I have enjoyed my time with the chooks (even got a couple cuddles in), they love hanging out with people, among other things. They tore apart a marsh snake (yes it's poisonous, but not dangerous apparently...whatever that means), thanks ladies. The work was fairly easy, I harvested and preserved apples everyday. And in between I did some weeding, harvesting of other produce, watering and stacking firewood. There was also a Korean girl, who came a couple days after us. She was the sweetest and cooked us amazing food (Am I allowed to call her cute, when she is 34? Ha I'm taller). She didn't speak English very well either, made for fun conversations. Almost every morning (when I could bring myself to crawl out of our cute caravan) we got up before the sun and walked down to the reserve where we watched kangaroos do their kangaroo thing as the sun rose. Sounds amazing? Yes it was.

So far I am really loving it here in OZ, but to be honest I am missing NZ. I didn't realize how nice it was to be in a country where everything is close together. And you can hitch everywhere, making it easier to get around. The kiwis were so friendly and the beauty of the land exceeded my expectations, and trust me I had high expectations. OZ has a lot to live up to, but it's only been two weeks. We have exactly one more month, I hope it's enough. I have just rented a camper van (I feel so grown up!), and we are now headed off for the Great Ocean Road and the Grampains. The trip is close to 900kms (thats almost 560 miles!) and I get to drive every km of it. Stoked!

Cheers!