New Zealand - act 1

Landed in Auckland and was met by a very nice young couple who whisked us off to pick up our accommodation for the next week. We decided to hire a 2 person camper van (it was a Mercedes!!) and it had its own toilet and shower.
It was a baptism of fire as we trundled through the Auckland highways with random obnoxious Kiwi drivers tooting their horns at us and making naughty gestures (and that was before we left the rental place car park!)
Then it started to rain ......... as if we hadn't seen enough in Cairns already ...!!
We followed our new found kiwi friends home where they introduced us to the Hell Pizza >> https://www.hell.co.nz and i had dessert pizza for the very first time!

Tuesday we visited Piha beach a very picturesque coastline, famous for its surf and this is the place where Tim and Neil Finn from Crowded house saved Eddy Vedders (Pearl Jam) life! I climbed Lion Rock ....grrrrrr. After this we went to Kelly Tarltons, www.kellytarltons.co.nz, an aquarium/antartic experience, with numerous fish/inverts/penguins to see. Whilst we were there we took a dive in the main tank, which could be viewed from underneath via perspex tunnels. In the tank there were numerous fish including blue mao mao, snapper, trevelly, moray ells, turtles and stingrays. It was a pretty wierd experience being on the other side of the glass for a change!
Before i came to this side of the world i thought i would be eating healthy, drinking healthy and exercising to lose my ever expanding waistline .... However, this has not been the case ..... I was introduced to a restaurant called Lone Star ...... can anyone say "steaks the size of my head"??? - not that i have a big head or anything :p
Since being on this trip away, i consider myself a 'backpacker', as i have a backpack. Since coming to NZ and hiring a campervan i have become a 'camper' (and a happy one at that!), however, we all have to cheat now and then, and after stuffing my face with huge steaks and prawns i couldn't fit into the camper van, and had to spend a night in a inner city hotel (The Copthorne Hotel - Kingsize bed, statalite TV .... and the piece de resistance .... a bath!!).

Cairns and Cape Tribulation.

In Cairns I went on a live aboard, anchored off a Cay in the outer barrier reef and spent the night out on the ocean while i completed 4 1/2 dives (first one out of the 5 didn't go as planned, i jumped in a rough ocean - i'm used to calm swimming pools, and my weight belt decided to come off, follwed by my fin on my right foot. I splashed my way back to the boat shelf and sat there pretty spooked, contemplating not getting back in. I slapped myself around the face a bit and jumped back in for a snorkel. The other 4 dives went pretty much to plan (apart from using my air too quickly and having to share air so i could stay down longer). I did my skills and was qualified after the 4th dive.
Lesley and I enjoyed a night out at sea and drooled over the starry night sky (amazing what you can see without light pollution), we were also lucky enough to have one of the passengers on board serenade us with his acoustic guitar!.
The boat was pretty rocky and although i didn't puke, Lesley did. Strange though as she waited until we were in calmer waters before barfing!

The next few days we went upto a place where Reef meets Rainforest - a place called Cape Tribulation.
Inhabitants included - Natures top predator, Saltwater crocs (known man eaters and of which there were many, along with many warning signs)- they can grow upto 8 metres and can chomp down with such force that each tooth exerts a pressure on the victim of 6 family cars! - we saw a 5 metre croc by the name of Scarface
Numerous spiders - most venomous and most bigger than my hand
Snakes - again, most are venomous (and slippery little barstewards) - the snakes in cape trib included the brown snake (not the type you find in the toilet!! - read about it!)and the inland taipan (it can strike you 6 times in a second and inject as much venom in each strike as the deadly sea snake!)

In cape trib we went horse riding with two real ozzy cowboys (named Mick and Buffalo!), managed to get my horse (Popeye) up to a canter, but i kept getting blocked by Lesleys slow horse (Red) up ahead. Night times in cape trib were spent curled up in a ball, with the fear of god that something was going to eat/sting/bite us!

After that crazy ordeal, we came back to reality in a nice town called Port Douglas, had some beers, ate some food, caught a plane to NZ ................

Long time no blog .....

I have had severe lack of computer time, for that I am not sorry as I have been flying around the southern hemisphere doing and seeing some great things.

First of all, I should say that Lesley arrived in Cairns on 15th July safe and sound. After 30+ hours of flying she looked and smelled worse for wear, but love is blind and I have no sense of smell!
We headed to the Calypso Inn (a backpackers with the basics) for some R&R then went out in Cairns for a look around and a burger!
Cairns is a pleasant holiday town with a public salt swimming pool that is apparently used in the summer months when the ocean is not safe to swim in (stingers!)
As we ate, I endulged myself with my new favourite tipple …. Carlton Draught! (Victorian Beer from Melbourne)

More to come …...............

PADI and the Great Barrier Reef

I'm now a certified diver I did my 4 open water dives on a live aboard over 2 days moored at the outer Great Barrier Reef. What an amazing place!! I also pooed in my pants when i saw pretty much every coral and marine fish i have ever read about (there are tons!!!).

I managed to scrape my leg on a table acro (thought it was a millepora when i glanced back ), i also saw reef sharks and hitched a ride with a green turtle (dude didn't mind me hanging on to his shell at all, just kept looking back as if to say .... "ah! .... whatever!" ).

I was really tempted to bore everyone on board (16 berth boat) with my abundant knowledge of corals and marine fish, but i decided against it and listened patiently as they all said they were dissapointed they didn't "find Nemo" ......

Anyway, no mocking my spelling as i am typing this on a keyboard that has no letters on it (all worn away )

Laterz

M'off again.....

Bags packed, going for a beer with some people, fly to Cairns tomorrow morning 9am Oz time to meet up with Lesley.

Keep in touch 0/

What i've been upto ......

For those who don't know much about forensic pathology, the Victorian Institute of Forensic medicine is a well equiped operation that is rather unique in that it is one of only a handful of places that routinely uses CT (computed tomography) to assist with a cause and mode of death.

I have been rather lucky in that i was able to undertake a project using the CT scanner to provide me with a project as well as being involved in the routine day-to-day stuff. Bascially the project was to determine the usefulness of CT in demonstrating fatal skull fractures. This resulted me producing a review of a number of cases and addressing a number of issues (one of which included replacing the use of gruesome post mortem photography with CT generated 3D models for court).

Some of the images i have produced can be viewed by clicking the following link (**warning - the images are graphic - not gory tho!**) Click

As an issue of confidentiality i have purposefully not given any commentry around the cases

3 days left

Its Tuesday night now as i sit alone in the VIFM mortuary writing in this blog. I can't believe how quick the time has flown by! I have alot to do before i leave, which includes giving a presentation to alot of people who know alot about something i know not alot about ...... (make sense??)

Then I'm off to Cairns to meet a very Jet lagged girlfriend (Les, i'll be the one standing in the pink bunny rabbit suite holding a parsnip), then we are off to Cape Tribulation and Cooktown to be bitten by snakes, spiders and mosquitoes, before becoming supper for my favourite friends, the saltwater crocs.


Oh and if another person asks me if i am from Ireland, I am going to beat them with a large endangered bandicoot!

Last day in Sydney

After a night out on the plonk, i didn't take too kindly to being woken up by crazy Italians celebrating their worldcup victory at 6am!!!

However, i had to face to sunlight again to be whisked around by another tour guide offering her services for free (thanks again Lisa!). I was taken to some of the most sceneic points in Manly and some more spectactular views.

After about 2 hours of frantic sightseeing, i had to jump on the ferry to catch a plane back to smelly Melly, a i made the plane (just!! - had another small railway hiccup) and managed to take a few snaps on the way back.

Karma........

People often talk about karma. I believe, what goes around, comes around. Not really from a romantic, philosophical point of view, more from a logical or statistical point of view, in that if you do something good for someone, that makes someone feel good, they will transfer that sense of happiness or kindness onto another few people, who will inturn, pass it onto another few people, until eventually it gets back to you. The same goes for the otherside of the coin. Therefore i found it rather ironic and humerous that on the way home, i boarded the plane to find a couple with a baby sitting in my seat and next to my seat (i had booked a window seat so i could take photos of the city on the way home). I didn't say anything to them, as i didn't want to cause a fuss, or disturb them as they had a little one. So i sat down next to them and waited for the plane to fill up. This rude guy then taps me on the shoulder and tells me i am in his seat, and to get out of it. I explained that i had the window seat, but the couple were sitting there with a baby. Not impressed he demanded to sit in that seat, as "he likes to sit in the aisle". The couple with the baby checked their tickets and realised that they were sitting in the wrong seats, and should have been over the other side of the plane. I told them not to worry about it, i moved to a window seat (where they should have been) and the guy got his lovely aisle seat.

I got some nice sunset and aerial photos of Sydney and the guy got a 3 month old baby screaming in his ear all the way back to Melbourne!! (result!) When he got off the plane, his face was a picture, i reckon he had the worlds biggest headache, while i had a nice set of photos and an MP3 player !!

<=o)

Lighthouse and Avalon

After taking in the sights of the Pacific coastline up near the lighthouse, i made my way back town to the beaches and with the intention of heading towards a small popular town called Avalon.

One of the problems of travelling on your own is that its difficult to get yourself into pictures, without having to ask strangers all the time if they will take one of you. There is two problems with asking other people to take pics for you. 1. they may nick your camera 2. they usually make a mug of the shot.

I faced this dilemma on the way back down from the lighthouse. I climbed up a small ledge to get a good vantage point, but when i got up there there was nothing but me and a few trees. So i enlisted a tree to help me take a photo and ingeniously wedged the camera between a rock and a hard place.

On the way i stopped to watch a seaplane take off in the Pittwater bay area (thought he wasn't gonna make it at one point!), and i strolled through the park looking in tha tree canopies at all the wild parrots and parakeets (unbelieveable for someone who has only ever seen them at Pets at Home!!).

I jumped on a bus that took me to Avalon, apparently a place where lots of people with money like to shop. To me it was a nice town, with some nice cars, and a Subway sandwich place :)

I took a look over at Avalon bay, it was getting a bit rough and although there wasn't anyone swimming in the public enclosed baths, there were plenty of sufers getting 'wiped out!'

Home and Away - Summer Bay

I was told by the locals to head up to the Northern Beaches and check out Palm Beach. Being a trusting kinda fella, i did just that! It took about 2 hours on a bus, but it was well worth the wait. Passing by lots of very expensive properties, such as Nicole Kidmans house and Russel Crowes places, i eventually arrived at Palm Beach. I thought there was something vaugely familiar about this beach, i couldn't quite put my finger on it, nevertheless i headed off to the rockpools to see what i could find (turns out that this is actually the beach used in the popular Ozzie drama 'Home and Away!' - aka Summer Bay!).

Ignoring the "We are here" sign this is where i went to (Palm Beach, not North Narrabeen).

The life in the rockpools was amazing, I saw some small puffer fish, loads of turbo snails and other inverts including a tiny mithrax crab.

I decided to take a walk along the beach and climb upto the lighthouse (you can see it in the below picture). I took a smugglers route to the top and the views and the weather were/was stunning (see photobucket image album).

Manly

This is the place where Nicole Kidman was recently married, and at a later time i took a trip (but no photos) of the place where she tied the knot.

It is about a 20 min ferry journey from the city, and what an amazing contrast. The place is like a holiday village, if i lived here i would get no work done.
It is basically an outcrop of land that lies between Manly harbour (part of Sydney harbour) and the Pacific ocean. Which means ... beaches on both sides of the town!!

There was a great vibe in this place, with both young and old mixing well. Everyone is pretty chilled out and happy in the sunshine.

After dropping my bags off at my friends shop, i went for a walk to find a pub. After i had a beer or two, i headed out to the beach to watch the world go by, when i had a wierd experience....

..... back in Melbourne i went to the Australian Rules Football Game with the guy i am living with and a random other guy from the Netherlands (Sebastian) who was travelling alone around Oz and wanted to see a game. During the game we got on quite well and as he was heading up to Sydney, i said i would contact him in a week when i headed up there. We left it at that and due to a mistake on my behalf, i failed to get his number, which meant i wouldn't be able to meet up with him when i went to Sydney. So here i was sitting on a beach, a decent distance away from Sydney, in Manly, minding my own business, when along comes Sebastian, who just happened to be visiting Manly that day at that time!! (he was actually staying some 40 mins inland from Sydders, so that meant miles away from Manly). To cut along story short, once we had gotten over the whole unbelievable situation of the whole small world thing, we went for a pint.

A weekend in Sydney (and loads more pics!!!)

** ALL MY SYDNEY PICS CAN BE SEEN ONLINE AT THIS ADDRESS .. http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b134/Paulmalsop/Random%20pics/Sydney/ **

Hopped on a plane to Sydders this weekend for some sun, sand and sightseeing.

What a contrast to Melbourne, they are two major cities 1 hour away from each other, but they are soooo different, especially at this time of the year. I left cold, windy Melbourne to land in a very sunny and warm Sydney.

For those who are not up on Australian geography, here is a map

After I landed and navigated my way through Sydney airport and the train system (only getting lost once) I was met by a friend of a freind (Bec) who had agreed to be my tour guide for the day. She took me on a whistlestop tour of all the landmark sights. First stop was circular quay, and this is where the ferry/train interchange is, but it is also a great vantage point to see the two most famous Sydney landmarks, the bridge and the opera house.

I wasn't impressed with the bridge, after all, we have the prototype for the bridge sitting in Newcastle upon Tyne! The opera house wasn't initially impressive either, although once i got around the east side of it, i changed my mind.

After taking many photos, we walked through the botanical gardens and sat in the sun for a while (weather was amazing - clear blue skies, not a cloud in sight).
I then managed to convince Bec to take a trip with me up the Sydney tower so i could get my bearings and take a few snaps of the panorama (It was $19 concession, but i thought it would be well worth it).

The tower is the building on the far left (Tallest free standing building in Sydney at 305m above ground). At the end of the tour we finished with a simulated ride through Australia, which was ok, but its no Disneyland!

Then the tour stopped briefly so we could endulge ourselves with a Subway 6 incher, then we had a look around Darling Harbour.

To get to where my friend (Helen) lives I needed to get to Manly (great name, just my kinda town!! [**Grunts in a Tim 'The Toolman' Taylor manner**]). To get to Manly there are 2 options, 1. Across land and a boring bus, 2. Ferry. Sightsee and commute in one go!

I took the ferry and took in the views.........

Keep your comments coming!

Even if its just a 'hello', makes me smile!!

A funny thing happened on the way to .....

........ work yesterday.

There i was sitting on the 8.30am train into town which was packed with commuters. I was knee to knee with a woman who was reading a book. I got out my clinical medicine book and was doing some revision during the 45 mins journey.

As in pretty much every major city, commuters either busy themselves reading, look straight ahead without making eye contact or look out of the window (or look at people in the reflection of the window - like i do!)

Anyway, this wonam i was sitting knee to knee with began to speak to me, which startled me a bit, but i was polite and answered her queries about what i was doing and where i was from etc. Nearing the city, she closed her book and started drawing on the trains steamed up window............. a bit childish i thought, but hey, who am i to judge!?! She continued this for about 3-4 mins, making sweeping movements with her hands and arms, and i thought she was going to clock me in the face at one point, but i didn't flinch, i just sat there and read my book.

Nearing the final destination of the train, she said ...."ah, i'm just a big kid at heart, look what i've done" - i looked up at the steamed up window and she had drawn my portrait in on it with her hands!! I was rather shocked at what was going on, so i nervously said "wow" "nice one!". She wished me a good day and we went separate ways (i walked a bit faster than usual away from the train).

Only in hindsight, have i realised what a great moment this was, i've spoken to quite a few people about it and they are all taken aback by what happened.

I wish i hadn't been so suspicious, and i also wish i had taken a photo!

MY PHOTOS .... explained (03/07/06)

Just realised i have taken a load of photos without explaining them.

The photos can be found here >> http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b134/Paulmalsop/Random%20pics/Melbourne/

and don't forget to click on the sub link - Rialto towers - some great panoramas of Melbourne, and you can probs see my sweaty hand prints on the first few!!

I will do bullet points as i go along. Sorry if the order is a bit mixed up.

- Aussie rules footy at the Melbourne cricket ground (MCG) - note the funny shaped pitch, wierd goals, and 1/2 time little league!
- Pascoe Vale house, road and station - where i live, where i walk up, where i get the train from
- The apostles, loch ard bay and london bridge - part of the rugged shipwreck coast. Loch Ard bay is one of only two points where you can get up to the land along this treacherous coastline. There is a great story surrounding this bay and can be found here >> http://www.greatoceanrd.org.au/highlights/shipwrecks/lochard.asp (lynn and john were on the trip and their camera broke, so i took a photo of them and have sent it to them)-- NOTICE HOW SOAKED I AM!!!
- Rainforest - not tropical, but interesting, and home to a carniverous snail with a jet black shell called the Otway snail - indiginous to this area
- Cockatoos, Bells beach, Round the Twist lighthouse - as mentioned in previous blog entry
- Kings garden - nice day, nice statue
- Eureka tower - the tallest building in Melbourne!!
- Floral clock - what a nice surprise! and a magpie maybe? look different from the Pommie mags
- Supreme court - i go there to watch trials of murder in progress
- Safe deposit building - looked nice, so i snapped it
- Melbourne Arts centre - sculpture and skyline caught my eye
- Picasso exhibition (War and Peace) - nice building, will hopefully get to see the exhibition before i leave
- Horse and Cart - loads of these trotting around melbourne, considered another way to travel
- Fountain - looks nice don't you think?

Ozzy rules!!!!

No i'm not making a refence to the Prince of Darkness, instead, i went to watch a very strange game called ...... Australian football (AFL)

My adopted team were the Collingwood Magpies (who incidently played in black and white!) the other team were the Richmond Tigers. I enjoyed learning the rules of this bizarre game, but for me, it is not a patch on regular footy (or soccer as i'm being forced to call it over here).



Some random things happened in this game - massive punch-ups at the other end of the ground from the ball, while the umpire stood and watched, letting them smash each other in the face. They didn't even get sent off. Some guy snapped his leg clean in half after kicking someone else (it snapped in a way similar to Cisse of Liverpool)



Other random things included, an oval pitch, an oval ball which could be kicked or punched, some crazy goal posts, about 10 referees (umpires) and people running on and off the pitch whenever they flet like it to give the players orders.

The game ended 92 - 45 to the other team. As there is little atmosphere in the way of chants, songs and banter they have this cheesy song at the end on the tanoy that all the fans of the winning team can have a sing-a-long to (i thought i was in Disney land at one point, the song sounded like "its a small world" for those of you that have been there! )

After the game i somehow randomly ended up in a pub with a million fans of the mixed teams (they are a friendly lot over here), being served beer by ladies wearing .... well ... nothing at all, much to my surprise! (i didn't stay too long! ;) )

Wet weekend, 12 apostles and London Bridge

Further down the GOR now and still taking in some breathtaking rugged landscape, we are getting closer to the 12 apostles. A bunch of limestones stacks that were once attached to Victoria, but due to land erosion, they now stand on their own, close to the shoreline.



At this point it was absolutely chucking it down, however, i still managed to get some good shots.



The last stop off point for our GOR tour was a limestone stack called 'London bridge' (see above), so called because it looked like London Bridge. That was until 1990 when a large section of it collapsed (where the gap is between the land and the stack).

There is an interesting story surrounding this piece of land. Right before it collapsed there was three tourists in the area. An elderly couple and a younger couple. The younger couple had walked right out to the edge of London bridge and the elderly couple had just made it back on land. When the piece of stack collapsed, the young couple had to hang on for their lives when the backwash of the ocean covered them. However they survived.

People in the vacinity rang 000 (emergency services), and explained that "London Bridge had fallen down" - the people who rang in were told to stop wasting emergency service time by making hoax calls. It took so long to get through to the emergency services that this was real, and in the end they sent up a local policeman to check it out. To his disbelief the claims were true and a rescue operation ensued. However, as well as the mobilisation of the emergency services, the press were also called, and the rescue was not to commence until they had arrived (about 4 hours from Melbourne!) All this time the young couple were stranded on this piece of limestone.

When they were eventually rescued by helicopter and the drama had been caught on film, they landed back in the carpark and the press surrounded them looking for an interview. In a strange turn of events, the couple threw their coats over their heads, jumped into their car and drove non-stop back to Melbourne leaving the press people scratching their heads. However, as it turns out, the young couple were supposed to be on a business trip to Adelaide, and they were actually not married to each other, but had been having an affair and a sneaky holiday together!! Where was the false nose and glasses when they needed it??!?!

By the time i had seen this sight, i was soaked right through to my undercrackers, but the wild weather added to the experience of the 'Shipwreck coast', as it is known, and i had a great day. I slept all the way back home to Melbourne and we arrived back in the city at about 9pm.

Wet weekend and going round the twist

Who remembers a childrens TV show called 'Round the Twist'?? - about a lighthouse and some strange goings on? Well, during my trip down the Great Ocean Road, I stumbled upon the actual lighthouse! It was something i wasn't expecting at all. After i got out of the bus i hummed the themetune all the way down the road until i got there.

www.roundthetwist.com

On my way down the road i saw a bird fly into a canopy above my head. It was about the same size as a blackbird and i initially mistook it for that. On closer inspection, i realised it was a cockatoo!! on closer insepction of the canopy i realised there were loads of them! initially i though someones pets had escaped, but after asking a local, i was told they are native here. I was well stoked as the cockatoo is one of my favourite birds, and i have only every seen them in pet shops. Seeing them in their natural habitat with all their mates brought it home to me that it is real cruel to keep an healthy animal like that caged up.



Further down the road we stopped and saw some amazing coloured Rosellas and parakeets flying wild and doing there thing. It was pretty fantastic and made a great change from Geordie and his pidgeons!