Surfers Pair-o-dice

All my bags leaving Sydney

Whoa… What a crazy week it has been. Arrived in Surfers Paradise on Jan 3 after a hellish 14 hr train ride. But I must say, it was so worth it. The sand is pearly white and the water was a balmy 25C. Beautiful. I spent majority of the week playing in the waves and laying by the pool. Oh yeah, the hostel is only 25 m away from the ocean and it has a pool. Apparently rated the #1 hostel for Australia in December. This place truly is paradise. 

Surfers Paradise

Yesterday I went on a daytrip to Nimben on the border of New South Wales. Our tour guide got lost so many times on the windy, curvy roads. But after 3 hrs we finally pulled in to this tiny hippy town. The first thing you see pulling in to Nimben is many deadlocked hippies and brightly colored murals. The food was delicious and so cheap compared to the coast. I loved it there. After Nimben we continued further east to a secret local spot. We walked into the bush and came across a 20 ft waterfall with a huge swimming area underneath. The water was cold, clean and very refreshing on a +32 day. There was even a spot where you can jump off the waterfall into the pool beneath. It was so hot outside so I figured I HAD to jump off. A friend on the tour took a video and I’ll be getting it from him very soon to share with all you folks. After many hours at the waterfall the van loaded up and continued on our way back to Surfers. We even stumbled across a hippy eco-fair in the middle of nowhere. We stopped to take a look. There was drum circle and vans parked everywhere. It was funny to find this many people that deep into the bushes but when in Nimben, I was told it wasn’t that much of a rarity. We finally got home at about 10pm and I was exhausted from traveling around all day. But it was so worth it and if your ever in Australia make sure you stop by Nimben to checkout for yourself. But its my last day in Surfers and the beach is calling….

CP

Don't drink goon. You may think $11 for 5 litres is worth it... but its defiantly not.

There goes the Neighborhood...

Atop 'The Rock' 

Well that’s just it for the year folks and I have to say I’ve been enjoying the last couple weeks quite thoroughly. The weekend before Christmas my house-mate John took me hiking to NSW famous 'The Rock'. About a 6k hike with a elevation rise of 4500m. There were tons of stairs and steep rock faces. The view was worth it though and I was happy we did it. Finally my last week of work in Wagga Wagga wrapped up on the 20^th of December. A bit of a bittersweet moment but I was quite excited for my journey ahead. From there I took the train onward to Bateman’s Bay, A lovely beach town along the NSW coast. Apparently the weather is quite mild for this time of summer but the sun and sand were wonderful. The water temperature was about 18 C and the waves were extremely fun. I thought they were big, but as a Saskatchewanian, I’m not very experienced in such things. The rips were also something very new to me. Its kind of scary feeling when you can feel your ankles being pulled by the water.

By the time Christmas rolled around I was back in Canberra, the national capitol. I must say it was pretty a anticlimactic holiday season. Just never really sunk in that it was Christmas time. No snow, +28 weather and shorts aren’t really what I’m used to in December. A skype chat home made me feel sad seeing my whole family celebrating without me. But at the same time I was happy to know that somewhere in the world I had a loving people that still cared about me on Christmas.

First Vegemite experience.... not pleasant. 

The next stop on my epic adventure is going to be Sydney on January 1 for a festival called Field Day. The lineup is stacked with artist like Justice, Calvin Harris, Example and Crystal Castles. I’m anticipating a day filled with amazing music and oodles of dancing. The plan after the festival was to stay in Sydney for a couple more days to see two of my favorite bands Fleet Foxes and Beirut. But sadly, they both sold out before I had a chance to buy tickets. So the new plan is to head south to Melbourne for a couple weeks. I received a lovely second hand tent from Vicki at Pioneer for Christmas so I’m hoping I can find a campground to live in.

After my time in the south I’m thinking of returning to Canberra on January 27 to see my favorite dj quo Zeds Dead. Another stop in my musical adventure. I’m actually seeing a lot more music than I expected I would in Australia. The summers are abundant with great tunes and I’m happy to soak it all in. The future after that is pretty vague. I’m thinking I’m probably going north to Caines and see the Gold Coast, Some of the best beach in the world. Hopefully get a chance to learn to surf and take a dive into the Barrier Reef.

At this point I am basically half done my trip and I have so much to look to in days to come. I am happy, safe and loving life! Oh and ¡ɐılɐɹʇsnɐ ɯoɹɟ sɐɯʇsıɹɥɔ ʎɹɹǝɯ

CP

What was that?!

After being in Oz for exactly a month now, I thought it was about time to show a bit of the hilarious lingo that I encounter every day. Most of everyday life is alot the same but I am constantly asking people to repeat themselves. And they eat some strange stuff here too.... a burger with the lot (everything) usually comes with pineapple, beet root and an egg. Strange. But I hope this makes things a little easier to understand what the hell aussies are saying half the time.

g'day: hello

how ya going? : whats up? or how ya doing?

give way: yield

mate: buddy or friend

mozzies: mosquitoes

bonnet: car hood

peckish: hungry

woop woop: made up name for a small town (he lives in woop woop)

bloke: friend

figjam: f*ck i'm good, just ask me (nickname for pompus people)

bogen: think popped collar and white sunglasses or a figjam

ute: truck (utility vehicle)

cuppa: cup of tea

tea: supper (can also mean a cuppa)

never never: nickname for the Outback

knock off: quitting time

lippy: lipstick

rage: party ("rage on wayne. rage on garth.")

jumper: a sweater

corker: amazing (cricket might refer to a nice shot as a "corker of a shot")

boozer: a pub

mystery bag: a sausage

good onya: good for you

whacka or wanka: an idiot

greenie: hippie or environmentalist

vejjo: vegetarian

feral:  can also mean hippie

tucker: food

too right! : of course

sunnies: sun glasses

thingo: our equivalent of "thingamajig"

doovalacky: our equivalent of "whatchamacallit"

chips: fries

spewin' : angry

sheepshagger: New Zealander

earbashing: nagging

seppo: an American

rotten: drunk

piss: beer ("let's hit the piss")

grog: hard liquor

paddock: field with crop

lollies: candy

galah: fool or silly person

footy: Aussie rules football

raftie: someone in the navy

chunder: vomit

chewie: piece of gum

CP

I'm going to Foreshore!

YAY! MUSIC FESTS!

Armin Van Buuren

After many days in the canola factories I thought it was aboot time to have a little fun here in Auss. Apparently I came a good time of year to scratch my musical itch. Summer starts.... right about.... Now. December 1st. One of the first festivals of the year in the area is Foreshore in Canberra (Can-bra). The city is only about 3 hrs train ride away from Wagga and I was definitely ready to dance.

LMFAO

Friday afternoon I set off to Canberra for the weekend, hopefully gonna meet up with some newfound friends. The forecasted weather was supposed to be rainy all weekend but, the clouds held off and the sun was shining! All things went to plan and before I knew it we were at the gate of my first big music fest ever. Started the day off in the hightop tent in the middle of the crowd waiting to see LMFAO! I was pretty damn excited! I must say they absolutely party rocked my socks off. The whole crowd was going nuts and of course they played all their hits. Unlike most Top 40 artists they actually sounded really good live. I was impressed. From there we wandered to Salt and Peppa, a little bit of 90's hip hop to get the crowd dancing early in the day. We got to the stage a bit late so we had our own dance party at the back. After spending a few hours in the heat it was time to checkout some other stages and of course refill my hands with beers. After waiting in line for what seemed like forever, I made my way toward the throbbing bass of Armin van Buuren. That was definitely the tent I had been searching for. The whole place was full of fists in the air and sweaty bodys jumping into each other. Personally I danced my face off and when he finished I need a break. I found some familiar faces and we all took a break in the shade.

Gotye

After a nice break we basically parked ourself at one stage for the rest of the evening. Thats where all the good tunes were going to be. I saw some great afternoon acts like Boy and Bear and Gypsy & the Cat. Both contributed to a feel-good afternoon. Ladyhawke was supposed to follow and we waited around to watch but for some reason at the last minute she cancelled. Kinda a downer because I would have liked to see another great band on a different stage - Jinja Safari. But I couldn't complain because that meant Gotye got to play sooner. Personally I was very excited to see them. And their live set blew me away. A 11 piece band with so many strange and complex instruments on stage. Check them out here. At this point the clouds had rolled in and the skys opened up on us. Luckily I had a poncho and was cozy warm regardless of what the weather did. The last band Pnau went on at about 9pm and I was getting exhausted. They closed the fest like champions and I left quite satisfied. Hordes of people left the grounds and somehow I had to figure out a way to get to my accommodation. The taxi took forever because thousands of people all had the same idea I did. But I did make it home. And slept like a baby.

The next morning I took the train back to Wagga for another week of work. The days progressively seem to get hotter, which brings amazing thunderstorms. We had one last night which shook the house. I think 80mm in one evening? Is that alot? Im still trying to figure out the true metric system. Not like our half-ass Canadian metric system. Pffft. Im safe. Im well. And I am happy.

CP

Pnau

Week One

G'day! How ya goin?

Week one is over and let me tell you what... travelling alone is hard!Constantly making sure you know where your going and how long it takes to get there. I left Saskatoon at 3:33pm on Nov 8 taking a total of 23h 17m to finally arrive in Sydney on Nov 10 at 7:50am. I think the total travel distance was around 14,814km? When I got there, it was pouring and was about 30 degrees outside.A nice change from the frigid Canadian tundra. I was happy as could be until I found out the airline lost my bag... A little hiccup I had to deal with but nothing major. So without anything more than my laptop and my sweaty clothes I set off for Sydney.

I needed to get to Wagga Wagga (about 5 hrs away) so I could start my job for Pioneer Hi-Bred the following Monday. I couldn't get a train there until the next day so I set off to the big city to find a place to sleep because I was exhausted. I went to maybe 15 different hostels and hotels trying to find a place to rest but every single place was booked. I hadn't had a good sleep in long time and the heat was killing me. Luckily I found a place a long ways from downtown and paid way more than I should have just to have a shower and a sleep. Next morning I rode the train and got a see a bit of the Ozzie countryside. Finally got to Wagga on Friday around 2pm and got to see the Pioneer station... or should I say shed. I stayed in a motel for the weekend because the co-worker I'm staying with (John) was away at a wedding for the weekend. Still bagless, I wandered the streets in search of clean clothes and a toothbrush. My stuff arrived the next day and I couldn't have been happier. Started work on Monday and met the 3 man crew that is Pioneer Aus. We spent the week in the feild doing plant counts and notes. My body wasn't used to +30 temp in Nov so it was a tiring week. Luckily Friday is here and I'm hoping to see a bit more of the Wagga and hopefully meet a few friends. But I'm still alive and happier than a pig in plop.

CP