Blue Mountains Interlude

This post will be a bit difficult to type, as I am attempting to navigate around the medium-sized dog parked in my lap and resting his chin on my right forearm.

I got up early and caught the bus to the Blue Mountains. The driver was a charming Aussie bloke who offered to take any pictures I wanted for me because I was traveling alone. Bless.

We drove through the city a bit to pick up more passengers (I was lucky, the pick up point for me was the second to last one, some people had been on board for an hour already), then headed out. ...and then the bus promptly broke down somewhere in the suburbs. Fortunately, we weren't delayed for too long. This was the view for the wait, up the retaining wall by the highway, taken when I wasn't sure if I'd be seeing any further wildlife.

Once we were back on the way, the driver assured us that he could shave off the time lost and keep us on schedule.

The drive up was lovely, the mountains aren't particularly tall, but the range itself is very old and very long. There are a lot of small communities clustered around the main road, but once you get a little away from them there's a whole lot of unexplored land - just two years ago, some hikers discovered a tree in a forgotten valley that had, up to that point, only been seen in fossil form. This tree strain dates back to the Jurassic period. There are a lot of cliff faces throughout and valleys that dead end, so the only way through the mountains is along the ridge line.

We stopped at Echo Point, which is just outside of the resort town of Katoomba. The view was stunning. The Blue Mountains get their name from Eucalyptus trees, the oil of which has a blue sheen under the sunlight. 

There are three limestone formations here called the Three Sisters. Legend has it that a gunji (medicine man) was out with his three daughters, and while he searched for plants for his ceremonies, the girls threw rocks off the cliffs. This had the unfortunate effect of waking a bunyip (a local bogeyman creature). The bunyip threatened the girls and the gunji used his magic bone to turn them into stone to protect them. He then had to run from the bunyip, but couldn't get out of the valley. He turned himself into a lyre bird, which made it so he could escape, but in the process he dropped the magic bone so none of them could be turned back.

The views really were fairly spectacular.

There was an Aboriginal cultural center at the first lookout, and the tour company paid for our tickets to watch their cultural performance by way of apology for the delay. I found the legend of how the didjeridu (as spelled in the display) was discovered. A young warrior named Yidiki was out walking one day and heard a strange sound, and he soon realized it was the sound of the wind going through a hollow log. He picked up the log and blew it to the sky, and the sawdust and termites that came out created the Milky Way. He went back to the village, but after a few days they kicked him out as initially he was only blowing directly through the log, which created only one sound over, and over, and over. Eventually, out in the bush, he learned the loose lip technique (which allows for variations in pitch and rhythm) of playing by trying to mimic the animals he saw. He was eventually welcomed back to his village.

From there, we continued on to the next leg of our tour, the Jenolan Caves. Tune in next week, for a whole bunch of pictures of, well, that.

A Gray Day in Sydney

My hotel was in the heart of the central business district, so a quick glance at a map showed that I could follow the cross street to the harbor to see the bridge and opera house. I set off confidently ...in the wrong direction. But I enjoyed the walk and realized my error after a few blocks. The city is lovely, with some stunning bits of Victorian architecture left over, and skyscrapers that aren't completely ugly (happy to not be looking at you, brutalist architecture). It was strange to be in a larger city and surrounded by so many people again - while I've been in bigger places, I'd definitely gotten used to Wellington's small town feel.

 It was a bit of a gray day, so I didn't take a lot of pictures, but the area down around the bridge was very cool.

I didn't go for one, but apparently there's a company that runs pirate themed cruises around the harbor with this ship.

Et voìla: the Sydney Bridge. I was tempted by the guided walks that go up and over the top, which had been highly recommended by my cousin. My lungs vetoed that idea.

Such an iconic building, it was sort of surreal to actually see it in person!

 

I realized I was near the place where my audition was going to be, so I went and found the building. It's a cool old converted warehouse on the pier, home to several rehearsal spaces and dance companies. It also houses the box office for the Sydney Theatre Company (which is run by Cate Blanchett's husband), so I picked up tickets to see Endgame later that night (starring Hugo Weaving!) and another show the following night. The box office girl was very sweet, and gave me the under-30 discount despite my recent stumble over that milestone.

I headed back to the hotel, which is near the Queen Victoria building, a grand old place that has been converted into an upscale shopping mall. I loved all of the intricate details. I found a really fantastic vintage inspired shop on the bottom floor, all original clothing made by a local designer. Sadly, they were mostly sold out of my size and nothing left quite wanted to come home with me.

That night I had dinner at the restaurant in my hotel, an ultra slick place that I didn't quite feel fancy enough to be in.

The food was incredible, though dinner went a little longer than anticipated and I was almost late to the theatre. I arrived with ten minutes to spare, fortunately. The cast was superb. There was some really fantastic physical work, and I would happily listen to Hugo Weaving read the phone book. I had read the script in college, and hated it, and was interested to see what it would be like in performance. I still hate it (while I can appreciate the art form and understand what the authors are going for, I am not a fan of absurdist theatre). Seeing it live did give me a better appreciation of it, though it was still a two hour show performed without intermission, which was a bit brutal - full confession, I almost fell asleep, even with the great performances. Still glad I went, though.

Then it was back to the hotel for a semi-early night, as I had booked a day trip to the Blue Mountains and the Jenolan Caves for the next day and would need to be up early to catch the tour bus.

Sydney, the Flight Over and Initial Impressions

I miss passport stamps. The new photo recognition software, while very cool, feels a bit impersonal. And is also easily confused if you are wearing your sunglasses on your head, as I found out going through security in Auckland. I did end up going to talk to someone to prove that I was, in fact, who I said I was. I flew out around the same time that my Mom and Aunt flew back to California, so we all got to hang out in the airport for awhile, which was very nice.

The flight to Sydney was lovely, if a little turbulent. I spent most of the flight watching the first two episodes of ANZAC Girls, an Aussie-made series that follows the experiences of Australian and New Zealand nurses during WWI. It's quite well done. Having sussed the sunglasses thing, customs and security in Sydney went much smoother.

I caught the train into downtown Sydney and eventually managed to find my hotel, despite a barely functioning Google Maps app. Once I have been somewhere, I have a pretty excellent sense of direction and will be able to navigate back. But getting there the first time? Why, yes, I have discovered a lot of cool things and been places I wouldn't normally have been by being hopelessly lost.

My hotel was lovely, it made me feel as if I had wandered on to a Bond set. The elevator played music and would occasionally quote movie lyrics at you, and the songs and quotes changed depending on how many people were in the elevator. I was often in there by myself, so it would immediately switch to playing "Are You Lonesome Tonight." Sigh. I forgave it when it later told me that the Force would be with me, because I'm kind of easy like that.

The hallways reminded me a little of Sleep No More in NYC, as there were cabinets of curiosities all of the room numbers were on note cards held by sculpted hands:

I got in quite late (and was still fairly sick), so not a whole lot of adventuring that first night. Many, many more pictures to come!

Well, here I am. ...again.

Plans continue to be funny things. Initially, when I came here, the plan was to hang out for awhile, apply for grad school in the UK for acting, then move there in August. (I was fully aware that this was a long shot.)

Obviously, that didn't happen. I was kind of relieved when it turned out that way, as by that time I was fairly head over heels in love with Wellington - it's beautiful, with a thriving performing arts scene, incredible bar and restaurant culture, an awesome Historic European Martial Arts School, and some truly fabulous people. This blog became sorely neglected as I settled in to something that very much felt like a real life. The plan then became that I wanted to stay in Wellington on a permanent basis.

Sadly, that didn't happen, either. There were a few times over the past year when it looked like my temp assignments were going to turn into permanent job offers, which would have then given me the ability to apply for a visa that would have lead to residency. None of them worked out, in the end, so here I am, embarking on another adventure.

I am always somewhat loathe to announce plans, because things very rarely go to. However, I do have a fairly good idea of what the next three months will look like, barring anything drastic.

First up, two week road trip around the north island. (I am currently writing this in a lovely hotel in Napier, so, check.) Then, across the strait to the south island, where I will spend close to a week exploring places that have yet to be determined (see, plan has already changed). I will eventually end up in Dunedin for the majority of my remaining time in New Zealand, except for a quick jaunt across the ditch to visit Melbourne in December.

I return to the States at the end of January. Further adventures will be confirmed from there - part of the reason I'm visiting Melbourne is to scout it for a possible location for my next working holiday visa. The goal is still, ultimately, to return to New Zealand on a permanent basis, but further vague plans may mean that this won't happen for two years, as I'm keen to do some more traveling first.

Another goal is to start weekly updates on the blog on Friday of whatever time zone I happen to be in. (Which will possibly be hampered by the less than stellar WiFi in this otherwise fabulous hotel, but I'll do what I can on my phone.) This means that updates will be quite behind me for awhile, as I still haven't posted pictures and write-ups for the trip to Sydney in, y'know, April, or New Zealand adventures since. I also intend to write a bit more than I have been, which I have been avoiding due to feeling a bit pretentious. But hey, I have a travel blog, so that ship has already sailed.