Bundanoon

I’m very fortunate to have the Royal National Park within 15 minutes of my house, but last Monday I decided to take the day off work and venture a bit further south to Morton National Park. I drove about an hour and a half down the Hume Highway (which leads to Canberra and eventually Melbourne) to the tiny town of Bundanoon in the Southern Highlands. In April they have a Highland fling to celebrate the Scottish heritage of the town, but I found it to be very quiet this time of year. Bundanoon reminds me a bit of Vashon Island; there are no chain stores but plenty of antique/tchotchke shops, a cafe that hires bicycles by the hour, a Chinese restaurant, and a bottle shop called the “Pioneer Flask”, which boasts the only ATM in town. There is a train station that links Bundanoon to Sydney, with service once every hour.

This freight train was flying through the town, probably on its way to Melbourne.

The entrance to the national park is just outside of town, and as I parked I spotted two kangaroos hanging out in the picnic area. I found the trail head and began to walk to my final destination: Fairy Bower Falls.

The foliage was thick and green, and at times there were clearings where I could see for miles out into the valley. During my hike I heard a rustling sound to the left, and looked over to see a wombat ten feet away, chewing something and looking at me very casually. I was too startled to even take a photo, which I realize makes me sound a bit timid, but if you can picture a rat about the size of a corgi you might understand why I was eager to get away from it.

I made my way down a steep incline to the top half of a small waterfall. To the side of the falls I could see a mossy, damp staircase carved into the side of the rocks - this must have been the old trail to the falls. Fortunately the current trail is easy to negotiate.

I can see why the place is named Fairy Bower. There are tiny gnats circling the falls, and it’s not difficult to picture them as tiny fairies. Hopefully I can make it down to the park again soon - it feels very remote, but it’s a quick drive from home and definitely worth the trip.

Too soon

I came back from my lunch break today to find a Christmas tree installed in the lobby a full six weeks before Christmas:

Maybe it's because Australians don't have Thanksgiving, and they don't do much for Halloween, but they approach Christmas celebrations with an enthusiasm I haven't experienced since I still believed in Santa. What made it feel even more wrong was today was sunny and about 90 degrees - or maybe the heat is just making me grumpy.

Crazytown, New South Wales

We have had a cold snap here in Sydney over the last couple of days, and since I didn’t have any leftovers from last night’s dinner to eat for lunch, I decided to go up the street to Saigon Queen for some pho on my lunch break. After I ordered I sat down to read my book (The Awakening by Kate Chopin - very steamy for the late 19^th century!) while waiting for my food to come out.

There was a middle-aged lady drinking a diet coke a couple of tables over, and after a minute or so I became vaguely aware of her mumbling something to herself. It started to sound more like a hissing noise, and became loud enough that I realized what she was saying: “Sssssslut! Sssssssslut!”  After a few more seconds I couldn’t ignore it any longer, and I looked up to see  her leaning towards me, maintaining direct eye contact, all while hissing the word slut. I didn’t know what to do - as a rule I tend not to escalate situations involving people with questionable sanity. I made the split second decision to bury my eyeballs right back into the book and ignore her. After a minute of this she went up to the counter to pay before leaving, and I was left to eat my soup in confusion.

For reference, my outfit consisted of a knee-length grey skirt, a button-up shirt with a Peter Pan collar, and a cardigan. People are strange.

Jibbon Head/Dharawal Aboriginal Engravings

It’s officially spring in Australia, and I decided to take advantage of the warm weather to check out Jibbon Beach in Bundeena, a small town that can only be accessed via ferry or by driving through the Royal National Park. I’ve taken the ferry before, so I decided to take the drive through the park down a winding two lane road until I reached the beach access point.

Trailhead

Jibbon Beach - the water is so calm and blue.

My ultimate destination was the Aboriginal rock engravings at the far end of Jibbon Beach. It was fairly deserted except for a couple of people on kayaks, and as I reached the end of the beach I came upon a grass clearing, where a group of about 20 people were gathered around a man who was burning incense and rhythmically hitting two sticks together; I decided my best course of action was to walk quickly past them avoiding all eye contact. I continued a few hundred meters more to Little Jibbon Beach. My guide had warned that many people treat this as a nude beach (which it isn’t), and advised me to call the police hotline if I came across anyone in their birthday suit. Fortunately the beach was deserted, and I was treated to views across Port Hacking to Cronulla.

Little Jibbon

I was disappointed to find a construction zone all around the engraving site. A lone tradesman was working on the viewing platform being constructed at the side, and he was blasting Top 40 radio from a boom box next to his lunch pail. It was interesting to see the engravings, estimated to be about 2000 years old, but the ambience was definitely compromised. 

Entrance to the engraving site

A whale I think?

Wallaby or kangaroo?

Fortunately I continued walking a little bit farther and the views up and down the coastline were spectacular.  

View of the coast

Byron Bay

Last week I took a couple of days off work so that we could take a little road trip up the coast of New South Wales to Byron Bay. It's about a 10 hour drive, and my poor little '98 Paseo handled it beautifully! One of the things on my agenda was The Big Banana in Coffs Harbour. Australia has a number of "Big Things", which are essentially tourist traps on the side of the road. This one happens to be a banana, but there is a Big Prawn, Big Guitar, etc. depending on the local economy. I got a picture with the banana and then we got out of there because there really wasn't much else to see.

The Big Banana

As we made the trip up the coast, the scenery changed gradually from sandstone rock formations and gum trees near Sydney, to sugarcane fields and banana plantations the closer we got to Queensland. Just when I thought we would never get there, we started the descent into Byron Bay and finally arrived at the Beachcomber, a small resort just a short walk out of town.

Byron is known for it's hippie culture (although I would say Portland would give it a run for it's money), and I saw plenty of white people with dreadlocks, people carrying guitars but not playing them, Birkenstocks, and tie dye. Fortunately, it also has amazing food and about 10 pubs within a few minutes walking distance to each other. We happened upon a fun place called "The Rails" that had live country/rockabilly music and had a few beers there on Saturday night.

The main reason I wanted to go to Byron Bay was to check out the lighthouse. This is situated on the easternmost point of the Australian mainland, and it was truly spectacular. We went on Sunday morning and nearly had the place to ourselves while everyone else nursed a hangover.

 Path up to the lighthouse

View of Byron Bay from the lighthouse. There is still a shipwreck in the bay from the 1920s that is now a popular surfing spot.

When it was time to head back home, we stopped overnight at Port Macquarie, a quiet town about halfway back down the coast to Sydney. I was able to try a couple of Australian beers there that were inspired by Northwest hops - this beer from Little Creatures brewery was about the closest I've tasted to a pale ale back in Seattle.

Yum!

The waterfront in Port Macquarie

Griffiths Teas

My desk at work is one of the few in our office without a window, but our lucky photocopier has sweeping views of Surry Hills from the back window. Whenever I need to copy and bind some practice parts or perusal scores, my attention is drawn to a really interesting building across the road with “Griffiths Teas” painted in fading white letters on the outside. It has been vacant ever since I started 3 years ago, and I always wondered what the story was behind the building and why it is no longer in use. A quick internet search turned up a surprising amount of information about the place.

Apparently Griffiths Teas was started by an Englishman who immigrated to Melbourne in the early 20^th century, and he opened a location in Sydney to cater to thirsty commuters arriving and departing from Central Station. The business had closed by the 1960s, and from there the building was leased to a variety of tenants; when I walked by the building today there were old signs for a furniture business, as well as posters for various brands of power tools (in addition to the original signage advertising tea and cocoa). The windows and doors are all boarded up, and it seems that the only tenants now are pigeons.

 View from street level

It looks like some sort of hardware store might have been here

The loading dock area is no longer in use, so now it's a scooter parking zone

A bit more research indicated that the owners of the Griffiths Teas building are a reclusive elderly couple named Isaac and Susan Wakil, who own several properties in Sydney valued around $75 million. Rather than develop them, they prefer to keep the buildings vacant and watch the value increase over the years. At least that’s what the public suspects is the reason for keeping the buildings vacant; the Wakils have never replied to requests for information about it and are almost never seen in public. However, their Rolls Royce can frequently be seen parked outside the offices of their business, Citilease. 

Damn Skippy!

Every now and then I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and have some trouble falling back asleep. When that happens I usually go out to the couch to watch some TV until I feel tired, and there is one Aussie classic that is on almost without fail: Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

Last night happened to be one of those nights, so I get to spend my Monday with the theme song firmly stuck in my head. You can check it out by following the link if you want, but consider yourself warned that it’s equal parts annoying and catchy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_agtNKbgSfI

Time for a cuppa

One thing I simultaneously like and dislike about Australia is the coffee. There is no shortage of cafes, and I don’t think I’ve had a really bad cappuccino since I arrived here. The foam is velvety, smooth, and often adorned with a cute little piece of art on top such as a heart or leaf. On the other hand, if you want to find a regular cup of plain old delicious brewed coffee people will look at you with complete confusion. Everything is espresso-based, and the closest thing to brewed coffee I can seem to find is called a “long black”, which would be called an Americano in the States (AKA watered-down espresso). If I’m really craving a cup of coffee I can go to one of two Starbucks located downtown and zip past the line of people waiting for lattes, but yesterday was a beautiful sunny day in the middle of winter and I settled for a long black outside in Hyde Park.

Aussie wedding

Last weekend Hayden and I celebrated our Aussie wedding at Wanda Surf Club in Cronulla. We couldn’t call it a wedding in the legal sense of the word (technically it was a renewal of vows) but we had pretty much everything you would expect to see: a celebrant, exchanging of rings, and dinner and cake afterwards. Of course, it didn’t happen without a few mishaps. When I checked out the venue last month, I noticed a gigantic cockroach - dead fortunately - in the corner of the women’s bathroom, and when I went to set up on Friday night I was greeted by the same little fella. This led to the not-so-glamorous task of cleaning the toilets the night before my wedding, but by the next day they were sparkling and ready to go. Unfortunately, I had left Hayden’s tie at work after having it dry cleaned, so he had to make a last minute stop an hour before the ceremony to pick up a replacement.

Once we got there, things started to come together nicely. It was an unusually warm day for May, and looking out over the ocean you could see whales following a yacht, spouting water into the air. There were just over 50 people in attendance, and once the ceremony was over we had a nice feed and some drinks overlooking the water. I’m glad we got to have a ceremony in America and Australia, and it seemed like the right thing to do to have everyone share in us getting married, but it’s been really hard not to second guess everything the whole way. Maybe we should have just flown Hayden’s family over, or vice versa? I suppose there isn't much to be gained from worrying about it now.

A friend of the family agreed to take a few photos for us - not bad!

I ordered this little hair pin for the December wedding but it didn't arrive in time. At least I got a second chance to wear it.

With Hayden's parents

The nieces and nephew

Cutting the cake (adorned with miniature Australian flag)

Bieber

Sometimes at work I reach a point where I can't look at a computer screen any longer - usually right around 3pm - so I take the elevator downstairs for a stretch and a break. There is a Priceline pharmacy  on the ground floor of the building where I work, and I often wander around inside and just have a look to see if there is anything on sale. I've been doing this for nearly three years now, and while most of the stock rotates out every so often, the one thing that has remained untouched is the Justin Bieber singing toothbrush. Poor Biebs!

Garie Beach Bushwalk

Yesterday I took the day off work and decided to make the 30 minute drive into the Royal National Park for a hike (more commonly known here as a bushwalk). I used Garie Beach as my starting point to walk a section of the Coast track, a 26 kilometre stretch along the coastline of the park. I probably only walked 5k or so, but saw a lot along the way.

Setting off on my hike, I was already able to see some beautiful bits of coastline.

Within the first 15 minutes, I came upon a strange little village of huts gathered near Little Garie Beach. One of them was a community hall/chapel, and had some information about the shacks posted outside. Apparently people used to build private residences in the park during the depression, and paid a small fee to the government to stay there. Many have been demolished since then (usually when the owner passed away), but those that remain are now heritage listed. It's a beautiful little spot, but very isolated and not accessible by road. Each shack had rainwater tanks outside for collecting water, and solar panels on the roof for electricity, so I suppose you would have everything you really need there - except for human interaction! The coast track went right through the middle of the little village and onward up a large hill.

The community hall

Here is a view of the village from above.

The view from the top was worth the sweaty walk up.

Along with plenty of birds I couldn't identify, these little lizards were everywhere! 

I haven't been on too many hikes while in Australia. I got really spoiled living in the Pacific Northwest - I remember one time I walked to the top of Mt. Si after a half day of teaching - but here there just isn't much in the way of mountains or alpine lakes. Another problem is that nobody seems to maintain the trails, so sometimes I'll be going along nicely only to have a trail meander off into a giant mud puddle or patch of shrubs. On the plus side, Australia does have some of the most beautiful beaches and coastline I have ever seen.

Here is a bit more information I found about the shacks:
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/travel/destinations/2012/11/beach-heritage-shacks-of-royal-national-park/

What a bargain!

Usually if I need to buy beer or wine I make a trip to a shop called Dan Murphy's, because the prices there are slightly less shocking than most bottle shops in Sydney. This week they are running a special on Pabst Blue Ribbon that has left me feeling a wide range of emotions, from outrage to confusion to just plain amusement: only $52.90 for a case of 24 tall boys. Please note the average review for this beer is 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Mardi Gras

This past Saturday marked the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras celebrations. I work on Oxford Street, which is where the parade was held, and many of the shop owners were going all out in preparation. It seemed like everyone was selling glitter, metallic hot pants, beads and basically anything with a rainbow pattern. Last year the city painted the crosswalks in rainbow paint, but after some backlash about the safety (and cost) of doing that, this year they stayed their usual color. ANZ (one of the major banks here) managed to compensate for the loss by bedazzling several of their ATMs in the area, which they renamed ‘GAYtms’.

In the US I always thought of Mardi Gras as an opportunity for straight boys to go to New Orleans and get drunk, but the gay and lesbian community here have transformed it into a way to come celebrate together and bring attention to current events. This year there were several floats protesting Vladimir Putin’s homophobic laws, as well as a parody of the Australian Prime Minister’s border protection policies. I steered clear of Oxford Street this weekend, but I am celebrating Fat Tuesday with a bag of salt and vinegar chips. 

Hens Night

Last weekend I attended my first Australian bachelorette party (or “hens night” as they’re known here) for the fiancée of one of Hayden’s co-workers. I’ve seen hens parties out and about in the city before, and I’m always a bit shocked at the sheer number of girls in attendance; it seems like it’s more common here to invite every casual acquaintance and distant female relative rather than a small group of friends. I was getting picked up in Kogarah, a suburb a few kilometres down the road from my house in Sutherland, and when a neon pink bus pulled up there was no mistaking: this was my ride. As I got on board, I instantly noticed that every single girl had taken the “burlesque” theme to the extreme in corsets and fishnets, while I looked like a Victorian governess in comparison in my floral party dress. Shit. Luckily I don’t think anyone could see me too well due to the fog machine working overtime in the corner, and we continued down the Princes Highway to Darling Harbour for the booze cruise.

The boat ride lasted a few hours, with dinner served by shirtless “firemen” and “police officers”. A few of the girls were really nice, and we spent a bit of time up on the top deck watching the city go by while a couple of meters away some of the servers competed to see who could do the most push-ups during their dinner break. Not a bad way to pass the time on a Saturday!

Grand Canyon, USA

It’s been a busy couple of weeks since I got back to Australia. I’ve finally sorted through all of the photos from the trip, and thought I would write a bit about the Grand Canyon, which was definitely one of the highlights.

After spending a couple of days in Las Vegas, we hired a car and hit the road towards the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I was a little nervous without the GPS on my phone, and the directions I had gotten from the hotel lobby were VERY bare bones. As it turns out, you only have to take three roads to get there. There are vast stretches where the road forms a straight line for miles through the desert. We decided to skip the West Rim, where they have built a controversial see-through walkway over the canyon, and drove straight on towards the South Rim. The interstate runs parallel to Route 66 at several points, and after a couple hours of driving we stopped in the tiny town of Seligman, AZ to refuel and use the bathroom. The gas station borders the train tracks, and even though the landscape is very barren it’s really beautiful in its own way.

 Route 66 at Seligman

Seligman, AZ

All of the accommodation inside of the park was already booked, so we stayed in Tusayan, AZ just a couple of miles down the road. The sun was starting to go down and the temperature was falling fast, so instead of trying to go see the canyon we checked into The Grand Hotel and relaxed with a bite to eat. Every night in the restaurant they had some live music, and this night happened to be a banjo player doing Johnny Cash and other assorted country music covers. The decor was determinedly country western, with saddles substituting for bar stools and horseshoes nailed to almost every available surface, so I went along with the theme and had BBQ ribs for dinner. 

The evening entertainment at The Grand Hotel

We headed into the national park early the next morning. The weather was cold and sunny, and I was hoping that my gamble of coming during the winter to avoid the crowds would pay off. I had read that sometimes the entire canyon is filled with fog during the winter, but when I walked up to the edge I could see for miles. It’s almost unfathomable how huge it is, and without the summer crowds I was able to just look out on it all without having to push and shove. There was a dusting of snow in some of the shady areas, and I could just barely make out the Colorado River winding its way through the canyon.

We walked along the Canyon Rim Trail into the village, where there are several historic hotels and an old lookout post that now doubles as a gift shop. There are no plastic bottles sold within the park, so I bought myself a reusable water bottle as my only souvenir from this trip back home. We had a nice bite to eat at El Tovar before calling it a day and walking back to the car. I hope I can see the North Rim someday, and go during the summer to see if the reds and browns in the rocks are even more vivid. Even though it’s a bit of a pain to get to, I’m so happy I got to see the Grand Canyon at least once in my life.

 The moose at El Tovar was feeling festive

 The view from the tiny lounge where we had lunch

 El Tovar has a huge wraparound porch