Days 40 - 41: A Weekend at Camp

I spent the weekend at Alex's church's kid's camp.  Alex and her boyfriend John go to Trinity Presbyterian church, and are really involved in their youth programs, and they were having a weekend camp to sort of kick off their kids program for the year this weekend.  Alex asked me if I'd like to go, and I said sure.

We arrived at the chuch (which meets in a school gym... hmm... sounds a lot like the last Presbyterian church I was attending!) at about 5:30pm on Friday.  There was the usual pre-camp activity going on, with a lot of kids sitting around and a lot of luggage sitting around and a lot of vans sitting around.  Eventually the kids got loaded into vans, the luggage into a different van, and I was loaded into a car with Tanya, the pastor's daughter who doesn't have her full license yet and needs a licensed driver to drive with her if she is going to carry other people.  Also in the car was Laura, who is in year 10, and Nelly and Zelita, who are both university students and kind of jr. leaders.  We drove south for about an hour to a town called Ngaruawahia, which is easier to pronounce than it looks (the "g" is silent so it sounds like Nara-WAH-hia, as best I can tell.)

The camp is a Christian facility and as best I can tell they have groups come in to use it for a week or a weekend at a time.  There are two sides, so they could have two camps in at the same time. The photo at left is the sort of main lodge, where the kitchen and dining area and large meeting room are located.  The facilty was quite nice, but also pretty simple.  It's fairly rustic but there are flushing toilets and showers and electricity in the cabins.  They have a pool and a volleyball court and a playground, as well as cool hills behind the place to hike in, a flying fox (zipline), a game room and a rugby field.  So there are lots of fun things to do.

Most of the kids that were at the camp are from a poor area just outside of Manukau city called Takaninni. The majority are of Polynesian decent, either Maori or something else, like Tongan or Samoan or some combination. They have difficult accents and it's hard to tell what they are saying sometimes. Their names are also hard. The girls in my cabin were called Hairere (pronounced as best I can tell Whydiddy), Jalil, Haley, Laura, Jamiraqui, Paige, Ave (pronounced like Ave Maria), and Cassandra. They all go by nicknames too so it was hard to keep up with who was who. The camp was much more laid back than any I've ever attended. The kids don't really listen very well, and I found it a bit frustrating that they talk amongst themselves almost continuously, even when you ask them to be quiet. But it is not what I am used to because it is not where I am from so of course things will be different. They seemed like really great kids however, and it's cool that the church is able to reach out to them so effectively.  I thought it was really great that they don't ask them to be something that they're not in order to be able to participate.  So they're not making them change to feel accepted.  I think that's an important thing for a church to do.

While I was at camp I was feeling a bit campsick - so much was different to me that it was hard to feel like I belonged. It helped to find some places to help out, like in the kitchen, doing dishes, or cleaning. I was in a cabin with Tanya and eight girls, and she was really in charge, I was just a helper. The kids seemed curious about the fact that I was from America. One girl kept telling me that she thought I had a cool accent. Some others wanted to know what it was like in America, or where I was from or what we ate for breakfast. I tried WeetBix for breakfast for the first time - they are blocks of some kind of grain flakes (the same shape as Shredded Wheat blocks) that you get wet and then break apart. They were pretty good. I had a good time, but didn't get a whole lot of sleep. The kids had trouble being quiet enough to sleep and then they wake up early in the morning and whispering seems to be a concept that they do not understand. We had a fun racing game where I was in charge of a tug of war station which was a lot of fun, and there was a pool at the campground which we got to use on Saturday afternoon. No lifeguards though, or anyone enforcing any kind of pool rules such as No Diving, which was clearly posted but I still saw it happening. I think at camps in America there is too much fear of being sued so you have to have strict supervision and I guess I start to think that's what's required. But maybe not everywhere. Anyway, at some point though there needs to be some structure because some boys got too rough and one kid got cut on his head. It was a new experience for me, though, and an interesting one. I learned some new songs, too. If I get involved at Trinity perhaps I can help out with their girls' group and teach them some camp songs from America!

The schedule looked a bit like this: once we arrived we played some games, then we had tea, which was just a little snack.  Then we sang some songs and the kids were sent to their cabins.  The cabins are constructed in several long rows that are connected to each other, with a bathroom at the end of each row.  Eventually the kids quieted down enough so that I could sleep.  The next day we started with breakfast at 8, then more singing and a talk from one of the leaders (which the kids all dreaded) but I thought was pretty good.  I went to the older kids' talk and it was on trusting God using the story of Moses being commanded to kill Isaac.  Next was morning tea - another snack.  Then came a second round of singing and another talk.  Then lunchtime.  After lunch was a big game that involved going to different stations and racing for time and for points.  Then the swimming pool and flying fox were opened.  I couldn't believe that on the flying fox there is nothing holding you onto it - you just hang on.  You go out over a small lake and if you don't pick up your feet they will drag in the water and you will get stuck in the middle and have to fall off into the water.  If you make it all the way across then you land on a net platform and carry the flying fox back around so the next person can go.  It looked like fun but there was a long line so I did not have a go.

Next was afternoon tea, and then freetime, I think.  Then we had an amazing feed for dinner: roast chicken and pork and potatoes, mixed vege, and roast kumara, which is like sweet potatoes but tastes different somehow.  It's very nice.  For desert we had apple crumble with ice cream.  After dinner there was more singing and then tea again and then a talent show.  By this time the kids were pretty tired so it didn't take them too long to fall asleep.  During the night some of the cabins got pranked and got their faces drawn on with markers.  Crazy!  The next day there was more swimmingch service, cleaning up of the cabins, etc., a lolly scramble, in which I think more people got injuries than got candy, and then we headed home.  So the weekend was a bit insane, and very laid back, and the kids had a ton of free time without structured activities, but it was fun, and also tiring, and a good way to meet a lot of people who are involved with Trinity church.  So I'm glad that I went, even though it was different and hard to find a place to fit into and be helpful with.

Days 32 - 39: First week back in NZ

** Editor's note: I have skipped a few of my last days in Australia to bring you this breaking news update.  Hopefully I can go back and fill in the missing days eventually, so check for new links that will be dated earlier than this one.  Thanks for reading!**

I flew back to Auckland on Friday, Feb 19.  Eve took me to the airport after we had breakfast with Pete, Barb, Joel and Becky (Joel's girlfriend.)  We ate at an organic food place called Doof Doof.  Their motto is: we know food backwards!  Eve and her mum gave me an awesome SA t-shirt.  It shows the outline of the state of South Australia and says "Heaps Good" across the top.  I wore it onto the plane.  Leaving SA was so sad.  It didn't help that I was pretty tired from all our events of the last two days, but even so, I cried a lot saying goodbye to Eve.  We had such a good time together and it felt like I was being flung out into the cold, cruel world all by myself.  But eventually, the plane did take off and so I waved out the window to Glen Elg, the beach where we'd been swimming the night before, the netball court, Eve's house, Micah and the puss, and everything else. 

I landed in Auckland at about 6 pm and caught the bus back to the BASE hostel where I'd stayed earlier.  Once again I landed a windowless room, but my roommates were really nice, Stephan from Germany and Amanda from Canada.  Since I was prepared for no windows it was better than before, but almost as soon as I'd arrived I was itching to get out of there.  I walked to the grocery store and picked up a few things that I could eat over the next few days.  After making some pasta for supper, I headed to bed.

On Saturday I roamed about the city, visiting the public library to use their internet for free, and phoning people about cars they had for sale.  I set up meetings with a couple of people and also figured out where to go to church tomorrow.  The church I chose is kind of far away from the city, but I had a good feeling about it.  I went to the park down the street in the afternoon on Saturday.  I sat in the sun there and did a bit of Bible study and watched some guys playing cricket.  I tried really hard to get to bed early since I need to be up early to get to church in the morning.  I also phoned Jenna, who I know from camp, and who lives in Christchurch.  She told me that her friend Alex had extra space in her flat and that maybe I could stay with her.  She promised to get in touch with Alex and give her my phone number.

Sunday morning I went to church at Howick Baptist. It took me 40 minute to get there on the bus. I met these two older people, Barrie and Phyl, who were really kind to me. They answered questions for me and found me someone to sit with.  After church they came into the same cafe I was at, and I ended up having lunch with them.  I sent a text message to a guy I had talked to the day before, who is selling a cute little Nissan March.  He brought the car to me so I could test drive it and Barrie and his friend Terry were around and checked out the car when the guy brought it over.  I liked it, and I liked the seller (he is a Christian Iraqi and didn't seem like a dishonest person) so I put a deposit on the car.

Once I got back to the city I was feeling pretty excited about how things were going, so I decided to take myself out to eat at Burgerfuel.  It is a burger chain that everyone says is really great.  I had what's called a Ring Burger - it's got onions and jalapenos on it.  Also, it's about the size of my head!  With that I also got some kumara (sweet potato) fries and aioli dipping sauce.  Kiwis are big into aioli.  I'm not sure what it is, maybe mayonnaise with garlic? but it tastes mighty good.  And the burger was amazing!  I finished everything but only because I was super hungry, and afterwards rolled myself back to my hostel.

There is a book trade shelf at the hostel - leave a book/take a book kind of thing.  I don't have any books to leave but I have taken two off the shelf: The Fellowship of the Ring by Tolkien and The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque by Jeffrey Ford.  They both seem pretty good.  It's great to have reading material again.


On Sunday night I got a msg. from Alex, my friend Jenna's friend, saying I was welcome to come and stay with her at her flat and that she had tons of space. She suggested that we meet up on Monday. I had already booked an extra night in my hostel for Monday night, so I knew I wouldn't be able to move in until Tuesday. So Alex and I planned to meet for coffee/other drinks Monday afternoon.

On Monday I headed up to the AA office (automobile assoc.) which is right behind my hostel. They opened at 8:30 so I was there at 8:32. I inquired there about insurance and membership, where you get 6 free road service calls/year. It's $89. I haven't decided if I will get that yet. Insurance is about $500 for 1 year, and that's only third party insurance, which covers repairs to another car if you crash into them.  Then I headed to the IEP office. They open at 9, so I was there at 9:02. They are convieniently located right across the street from my hostel. There I used the computer to fill out an application for Treble Cone, a ski field in the south island. I want to apply to at least one other ski field as well. I also called Steven Parker from Adventure Specialties Trust and set up a meeting with him for Thursday morning to talk about working for him. And I picked up my mail - I had about 5 letters from various people. That was awesome to recieve.

Next I went to the post office to mail some things, and bought some little stationary cards that I could use to write back to all my admirers. I went to this really cute stationary story that Eve really likes. It's called Kikki.K. They have cute stuff.

Once I was done with those errands, it was time to meet Alex. I found her in my hostel's reception area. She had messaged me and said, "I'll be the one who doesn't look like a backpacker!" So I found her easily. We had some lemonade at Starbucks across the street, and were joined by Ans, another flatmate, partway through. He works in the city for TV-NZ. It was a good meeting; Alex is really lovely. She told me that rent at her place was $80/week and food $30/week. Which isn't bad. I was pretty excited about it. Apparently Alex's sister and brother in law and their two kids are in the states right now for a pretty serious operation for Alex's neice.  So the house we're staying in actually belongs to them, but they need people to pay the mortgage and Alex and her friends moved in.  Alex said that the Americans her family has met have been so kind and helpful to them, that she wanted the chance to do the same thing here.  Currently there are four people in the flat: Alex, Ans, and a married couple who have a little mini-apartment over the garage, Matt and Kat.  They are all Christians and active in their churches.  I arranged with Alex to meet her tomorrow afternoon to move in.

The next day I signed up for a free city tour, which left at 10. They took us out to the harbour bridge and we watched someone bungee jump off - so scary! The guy was only about 5 feet from us! My stomach felt like I was the one jumping! Miniwati has now decided that she wants to bungee jump while we are here, but not me.  We also went to Devonport, which is a cute coastal suburb just outside of Auckland city centre, and we drove up Mt. Victoria, one of the many volcanoes that suround Auckland, to look at the view and the silly outdated gun that the British installed there in case the Russians decided to attack. It was a good tour, and the guide was pretty funny. I also met this kid, Matt, from Ontario. It was nice to have someone to hang out with and talk to.

By the time I got back to Auckland, it was almost time for me to meet Alex, so I headed back to my hostel and grabbed my stuff out of storage, and off we went out of the city. My new place is really nice, and it's great that I can share other people's stuff like TV and ironing boards.  I have my own room with a great big double bed in it.  I am now living in the southern part of the city, which I guess some people say is a rough neighborhood, and maybe it is, but I don't think it's any worse than Harrisburg was, and I think it's experiencing the same kind of neighborhood trends that my old Harrisburg neighborhood was, too. They have just had a brand new mall built and the city is really expanding. So my new location is a suburb of Harrisburg called Manukau City, and a suburb of that called Manurewa. We had dinner at Alex's flat and then me, Alex, Alex's mom (who is visiting from Australia) and her boyfriend John, went for a walk. We stalked my car (it lives right around the corner, which is wonderful!) And everyone said it looked very clean (which it does) and although they didn't say it I'm sure they were all thinking how cute it is.  Because it is.

The next day, I used the internet all day and watched Olympics on TV. That night I went with Alex and John to a music rehearsal for the church camp that they are helping to organize this weekend. I am going to go to it, which should be fun. I really don't know what to expect, though.

On Thursday I caught a ride with another flatmate, Kat, to my Steven Parker meeting. The Adventure Specialties Trust office is right on her way to school. My meeting went well, and we arranged 8 days of work in the next 2 months. It's not a ton, but it's a start. I will be working with school groups, doing games, or rock climbing or something along those lines.  Then I went into town and set up car insurance for my car. I also bought a souvenir NZ rugby ball key chain, to hold my new keys! And I purchased a fuel canister and some stove fuel for my camping stove.

Back out at the ranch, I texted my car's owner to see if he was home, and called around to his house to get my car. He lives so nearby that I walked to his house in about five minutes.  We sat on his back porch and drank tea and met his family and he invited me to go to church with him. I told him I would, even though it's an Assemblies of God church and I don't agree with them on everything. But I do plan to go at some point. After we signed a few papers and such, the car was mine! He even gave me $25 back since it is very low on petrol.  Hooray! I drove him to the gas station and put some petrol in the car, and then we went home. It feels great to have transportation!  Now I just need to learn my way around.

That night I had dinner with Kat & Ans, and then we went out to the local shopping mall because Ans wanted to get a present for his brother in law's birthday. I just window shopped, but it was great to have people to be there with. We went to a pub and had a drink afterwards, too. It was nice.

Which brings us to today! Kat and I went a dropped off an application at the kiwifruit packing place. I may be able to get some work there in April for a few months.  In fact, they have just called me and I have an interview next Thursday.

My plans for the day include a trip to the PO to register change of ownership for my car and then to purchase some jelly (jello) crystals at the supermarket for Alex to use for a game at camp where the kids race to suck jelly through a straw.

So the last few days have been really eventful.  I was not feeling very optimistic when I arrived back in NZ but so much has happened and it has all been good that it seems things are looking up.  God has been really good to me and the Kiwis I've met have been a real blessing.  I am really thankful for that.

Day 31: My Last Day in Australia

Today was my last day in Australia, and Eve and I set out to make sure it was as full a day as possible.  We had a lot things to do in Australia that had been forgotten up to that point. So we headed off to get them done!  Our first stop was Tom from the Beard's house.  There I picked out and purchased a Beards Tshirt, to show my support for how awesome they are.  Of course I put it on right away.

Next was a lunch date with Bek.  She hadn't been feeling well as wasn't able to come to the Beards concert with us last night, so she texted us and asked if we could come have lunch with her.  So we met her near her work and went for another A.B.  This is that delectable, chips, gyro meat and sauce dish that Eve and I had tried earlier.  It was just as good the second time around, and this time I got pictures!  (Everything looks red because we were sitting under a red awning.)

While we were eating lunch I also tried a Farmer's Union Iced Coffee.  Apparently this is a unique South Australian drink, but it is not like iced coffee in the states.  It was more milk than coffee, and a lot of sugar too.  Delicious!  I would drink it again, and I don't even like coffee!  After lunch, I said goodbye to Bek and she headed back to work.  I hope I get to see her in Adelaide again someday soon!

After lunch Eve realized that she had never really taken me to downtown Adelaide!  Guess we found too many other things to do to outside of the city.  So that was where we headed next.

Downtown we found the Malls Balls, a giant statue of two polished balls balanced on top of each other.  Your reflection looks really funny in them.  We also looked at statues of four pigs that are running around in the courtyard that connects all the arcades. There is even a sculpted trash can that one of the pigs is eating out of.

We had a few errands to run at the mall.  But since it was hot we split a juice smoothy - yum!  There is a good smoothy chain in SA but I can't remember what they're called.  We were also hunting for a kangaroo scrotum pouch for Nate.  I thought he might be amused by it, which it turns out he was.

After the mall, Eve and I went to the Post Office and to the library to return the books we'd borrowed at the beginning of the trip.  (Note to Eve: if your mum is looking for her library card, I think it's on the bookshelf in your lounge.)  I mailed some things home that I didn't have space to carry.  Now Bek has them for safe keeping.

We scampered home to have tea with Pete and Barb, and then headed over to Eve's school to play a netball scratch match (for fun).  It turned out that teams were four on four, McMillans (me, Eve, Joel and Pete) vs. everyone else.  Katie, Debs, Lachlan, Katie and another boy whose name I have forgotten were there.  It was a lot of fun and I found out that I am really terrible at netball!  It is not really like basketball at all, and I'm sure I had a zillion violations because it's hard to remember where you can and can't go.  Either way, my team was superior and so we dominated everything.  (Hey, I'm writing this history, so I can write it however I want!)  After netball, Eve and I laid on the netball court and watched the international space station pass overhead.  That was pretty cool to see!  It looked like a gigantic star, only way closer than all the other stars.  It was crazy to think that those people are so far away, yet we could see them and they seemed so close.  Since we were hot and sweaty from netball, we headed to the beach, Glenelg, for a night swim.  First we ran down the sand and then into the water.  The water was warm and the lights from the buildings on the beach created cool shadows and rays in the water.  It was very relaxing, and also fun because I spent my first evening in Australia at the Glenelg beach, and now also my last.

After we were done swimming we rang up Hannah, and went to her house to get changed.  But we still had some more things to accomplish, although it was already 10 pm by this time.  We grabbed Hannah and headed out to the Pie Cart downtown.  Meat pies are best from South Australia, but our mission tonight was to find a Pie Floater.  This is a pie, floating in pea soup.  It sounds pretty gross, but it's actually not bad, particularly when you can add lots of sauces.  We put tomato sauce on the pie itself, and worceshire sauce is making hair and eyes and a mouth.  Then there was also some mint sauce which blended in with the soup becuase it's also green.  The pie cart owner even gave me a postcard to comemorate my first ever pie floater.  (It was the first time Hannah had ever eaten one, either - what kind of Australian is she?) 

We were now nearing the list of things to do, but we weren't quite finished yet.  We walked from the pie cart to an all night pancake restaurant, where I tried some South Australian beer, and Eve and I split some delicious chocolate pancakes.  By this time it was well after midnight, so we dropped Hannah off and headed home.

Day 30: Surfing! and The Beards!

Today Eve and I headed out to Middleton to do some surfing.  We hired surfboards and hit the beach.  Unfortunately there was a very strong rip tide and the waves were also fairly large and pushed us around a bit.  But we did get to ride a few although not for very far.  We are definitely not surfing experts, that's for sure.  There was also an enormous amount of seaweed that had been pushed up to the shore with the rip.  At one point we ended up drifting into the seaweed and having to wade through it for a while.  It was disgusting!  And after we finished we both had seaweed stuck to us everywhere!  Ew. 

After we got tired out from surfing, we headed into town and got some fish & chips for lunch, which we ate at the local park.  Delicious!  Then Eve took me to Wirraway, the camp that she worked at for two years as the cook.  It was great to see her camp and meet her coworkers and friends from there.  At the camp they have a lot of horses for horseback riding, a low ropes course, a flying fox (zipline type thing, but you have to pull it up the hill yourself!)  There's also a pool and a games room.  They have a tricky puzzle of two horseshoes connected together with a ring attached and you have to try and figure out how to get the ring off.  Eve taught me how to do it and I could even do it behind my back (I guess that's the hardest challenge!)

That night we headed out to the Beards concert.  It was great!  They had so many fun and funny elements to their show, including a totally staged "competition" to prove that people with beards are smarter.  They also had beardless "servants" wearing togas and waving palm fronds at those with beards, and feeding them grapes off of silver platters.  And the band sounded great.  I was really impressed.  Afterwards Eve and I grabbed some food and had a bite to eat with her brother Joel (lead singer) and his girlfriend Becky.  It was a really fun day and a great night, too.

Day 29: Haigh's Chocolate Tour

Today Eve had to work, so I hung out at her place by myself until 11:00.  Then I had a tour scheduled at the Haigh's Chocolate Factory.  The plan had been that I would drive to Eve's school, pick her up, and then we'd go to the tour together.  But she was too busy helping with the pancake sale for Mardi Gras so she couldn't come.  So I went by myself.

Haigh's is an Australian chocolatier.  The business goes back 4 generations.  Originally the Haigh forefathers knew nothing about making chocolate.    One of their sons was given the option to join the family business (I can't remember what they used to make) or go to university.  He decided to join up, but only if he could learn how to make chocolate.  No one in Australia knew how to make it, so he wrote letters to 10 chocolateering families in Europe.  Only one (the Lindt family) replied, and so he went off to Switzerland (I think) to study chocolate-making with them and to teach their son English in exchange. 

After a few years, he returned from Europe, sourced all the machinery that he needed (also from Europe), and started making chocolate.  It sold so well, that eventually that became all that they made.

On the tour we got to sample some chocolate, and it was really yummy!  We also saw loads of people working by hand to make the chocolate -decorating it, coating it, hand wrapping giant hollow Easter eggs in foil, etc.  Apparantly wrapping the eggs is tricky - you can't press too hard or they will break, and you can't handle them too much or they will melt!  I also learned about how they make cream filled chocolates: the cream center is whipped up according to recipe and it hardens into a solid.  Part of the recipe includes an anarobic enzyme.  When the cream center is enrobed in chocolate (it passes under a shower of chocolate - mmm) oxygen is cut off from the center and the enzyme is activated.  It then turns the solid into a cream!  Fascinating!

Haigh's does not export their chocolates because they cannot control the conditions of the exportation and their chocolate might arrive at its destination not looking so fresh.  So there is no way to get it outside of Australia. 

After the chocolate tour had finished, I drove back to Eve's school and we went for lunch together, although I wasn't very hungry becuase of all the chocolate that I'd eaten!

Day 28, Part 2: Birthday!

I arrived home in Adelaide at about 3 on Monday afternnon, Feb. 15.  My birthday!  Eve was waiting at the gate for me with flowers.  Then we headed to town to do a bit of shopping for the dinner party that night.  Eve had planned gourmet pizza and salad for the menu, and the party was set to start at 6:15.  Our first stop was at a bakery, where Eve had a pie and I got a gigantic doughnut covered with sprinkles.  Eve has some great photos on her phone, maybe she can email me one and I can post it.  Next we got a deluxe chocolate cake from the bakery, and then went to the grocery store to grab a few last minute supplies.  When we got home there were balloons on the gate and a sign that said, "Happy Birthday."

Eve had done a lot of prep work ahead of time, making the pizza dough and chopping ingredients.  She was the chef and I just did what she told me to do.  The pizzas has things like chorizo, prosciutto, bacon, special cheeses, and chili and pumpkin on them.  They turned out great!  We also had a delicious salad.  When the cake came out the Australians sang Happy Birthday and then Hip Hip Hooray a few times.  Next I had to cut the cake and that is apparently a big deal, with lots of photos.  Barb made a pavlova, which was amazing, and the chocolate cake was super rich and fudgy.  I will probably dream about it for the rest of my life!  About 10 people were at the party, and I wore my new birthday top for the occasion.  Eve gave me a Beards CD and a DVD of The Dish, which is a great Australian movie.  Bek and Adrian came, and brought a little glass emu (acutally it was an echidna, thanks Eve for noticing that and helping me get my Aussie animals right), who is darling and adorable and I will cherish for always.  They also brought some really delicious wine.  I had an excellent time at my party and want to thank everyone who attended for the great atmosphere and vibe and Eve for organizing everything and doing most of the cooking, and Barb and Pete for providing the location and the pav.  It was a wonderful birthday overseas.

Days 25 - 28: Sydney

Day 25: Adelaide to Sydney
The next day, which was Friday, Feb. 12, Eve drove me to the airport before her class. I was astounded to find out that she could go through security without having a boarding pass, and she saw me right to my gate (unfortunately she was selected for a random screening going through security and tested positive for explosives... but when they did the test again she was cleared, and they STILL let her through!)  My flight for Sydney left a bit after 8, and took about two hours. After we landed, and I stepped off the plane, I realized that Sydney was even more humid and hot than Adelaide!  It was a bit disgusting, but I knew that rain was forecast so I was looking forward to some relief.

I took the train downtown and then caught a bus to my hostel, where I had a very welcome shower.  Then I took the bus back downtown and wandered around.  I saw the Argyle Cut, a street channeled through walls of rock on either side.  I think it's been there for quite some time.  Next I made my way to the Sydney Harbor BridgeClimb, and booked myself a climb for tomorrow night.  I also wandered over to the Opera House, which is my favorite attraction in Sydney because for so long it has represented my trip to this part of the world.  It felt like I was in a dream to be walking past it!  I called in there and asked about tours, as well.  Then I headed back to the hostel, where they are having a free BBQ tonight.  I wasn't expecting much but they had loads of hamburgers and hotdogs that were quite delicious.  The BBQ was "dampened" a bit by a deluge of rain, so I moved inside.  While I was eating, I started talking to a German guy who has been in Australia for 8 months or so.  He did some work at a banana farm, and showed me photos of his trip to Uluru with a tour company.  There are a ton of Germans staying in this hostel - about 70% Germans, I think.  They are everywhere!  I haven't met any other Americans, though.  My roommates are a guy and a girl from Italy, Bape and Leah.  They are very nice but don't speak English very well.

Day 26: Opera House and Bridge Climb!

Back downtown today and I first headed to the Rocks Market.  These are open air stalls in a section of town known as The Rocks.  Next I visited the Opera House and had a tour.  It was fascinating, and is a really beautiful building.  It's on the worldwide register of historic places, and is one of the youngest buildings to be on the register.  There was some drama over its being built, too, since politicians had different ideas than the architect's original design, and after a change of power, the architect actually resigned instead of being pushed into an advisory role.  In the end, he left Australia, and never returned to Sydney to see his design realized in full.  He was eventually invited to be the visionary of the Opera House's future, but it has been his son who has carried out that work on-site.

After leaving the Opera House, I made my way uptown to the Victoria Building, a beautifully decorated and stylized up-scale shopping center.  Once I explored to my heart's content, I took myself out to Darling Harbour on the Ferry.  Then it was time for my bridge climb!  I was quite impressed with the speed and efficiency of the BridgeClimb operation.  They call you in, you sit in a circle and fill out paperwork, then you move into the next room and stand on a yellow dot in a circle, and while you introduce yourself to one another, the staff size you up and give you a jumpsuit and a pair of rainpants that will fit.  My group was 14 people, 13 Australians, and me!  From the outfitting room, we moved on to changing rooms, with a separate hallway for each group and individual rooms to get changed.  They recommended that you strip down to your underwear underneath the jumpsuit, because it was quite warm and still rather humid, even though showers had been passing through all day.

After we got changed, we stashed our stuff in lockers and passed through a metal detector.  You aren't allowed to take a camera or anything up onto the bridge with you, since if you dropped it, it could smash through a windshield of a car below or hit someone and hurt them.  I did stick Miniwati down the top of my jumpsuit, though.  I was hoping she could make it into some of the photos!  After clearing the metal detectors we met our guide, Baxter, and he took us to another room where we put on our harnesses (a belt with a static line that clips into a line on the bridge) and were fitted with rain jackets that hung off our belts (to put on if we needed them) and radios so Baxter could talk to us without having to yell.  Then off we went!

So many people climb the Harbour Bridge that they have a new group moving through this whole process about every 5 minutes.  It really is quite impressive that they can outfit and equip groups and explain everything so quickly and streamlinedly.

We first walked along an approach section, which is actually underneath the roadway of the bridge.  Then we climbed a set of ladders up to the arch section of the bridge.  From there we walked up the arch to the top of the bridge and back down.  It was about 8pm by the time we got onto the bridge, so the lights of the city were on and the view was beautiful!  Until we reached the top, it didn't rain, and we heard lots of stories about the construction of the bridge and its history.  Baxter took photos of the group and even allowed Miniwati to be in a photo when he really wasn't supposed to.  The whole experience was a lot of fun, and a good thrill to be so high (394 m above the water).  I would recommend it to anyone!

Day 27: Today I took public transportation to Hillsong Church in the hills outside of Sydney.  Becuase of track construction I had to ride the bus to Olympic Park (remember when the Olympics were in Sydney?) and take a bus the rest of the way.  I was worried that I might miss the Hillsong bus (they pick people up at another train station) and the guy in charge stopped people from getting onto the bus right before me, but when I told him I need to be there by 10, he let me on.  Hillsong is where Darlene Tzeck (not sure if that's spelled right) is from, and she is responsible for songs like "Shout to the North Lord." (thanks astute readers.)  The church was nice, but enormous, and it is an AoG church, so not exactly what I'm used to, but that was okay.  They sang some cool songs and I enjoyed the song they did for communion, which is one of my favorites by Jon Foreman.  It was really nice just to be in church.  Afterwards I went back downtown and took a ferry out to Manly, where there is a really nice beach and I watched some surfers and bought myself a new top from the Element store there for my birthday (which is tomorrow.)  I enjoyed being out in Manly immensely.  It was very relaxing.  I ate yummy paella at this chain called Nando's which does chicken with a special chili seasoning.  It was yummy!

Day 28: My Birthday!
Being on my own in Sydney was a little bit of a downer because I missed Eve and having someone to talk to.  It will be hard leaving Australia and heading back to NZ, and will require an adjustment.  I hope I can make some friends soon! 

Well, today I checked out of my hostel and wandered around a bit in Glebe, the suburb that I'm staying in.  It is a very backpacker heavy, artsy sort of area.  I found an internet cafe and did some emailing.  Then it was basically time to head to the airport and back to Adelaide.  I enjoyed seeing Sydney, and particularly the Opera House, but I have a feeling I would have had a better time with someone to share it with. 

Days 24: Sushi Train!

After a day spent at home while Eve was attending her youth worker course, we headed into the city to go to a place called Sushi Train.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but here's how it works: you sit at tables surrounding a constantly rotating conveyor belt.  In the middle of the belt chefs prepare sushi dishes.  When these are completed, they place them onto specially color coded plates and put them onto the conveyor belt.  Then they circle until someone from one of the tables grabs them off the belt and eats them.  When you are ready to leave, they charge you by the colors of the plates that are left on your table.  Eve and I ate some yummy sushi (although she doesn't like fish, so her's were not technically sushi at all...) and then went for a walk downtown, which resulted in us ending up in a gelato place, where I tried Belgian Chocolate and another chocolate flavor.  Both were deliciously rich and yummy.  Tomorrow I leave for Sydney for a few days, so we went home after gelato so I could pack.

** Eve has pointed out to me that I left a detail out of this description.  It really wasn't on purpose, but she thinks it was.  So, to clear that up: before Sushi Training it up, we did go bowling.  We played two games, and Eve beat me at both of them.  I was not a very good sport because I got really frustrated and annoyed that I was doing so poorly (and also that she was doing so well.)  It was not a shining star moment for me.  At any rate, apparently Eve is a better bowler than I am, regardless of my one season participating on a bowling league.  Ah well.  **

Day 20 - 23: Kangaroo Island

Day 20 (Kangaroo Island): Today we drove down to Port Jervis, to catch the Sea Link ferry to Kangaroo Island. This island is off the coast of SA. The ferry takes about 30 minutes to make the crossing. It is fun to stand on the ferry deck and look for dolphins, although we didn't see any. Luckily, the weather was good and it wasn't too choppy because Eve says she always throws up on that ferry. That didn't happen either. The ferry is a car and passenger ferry, so we brought Pete's car, Longman, with us. Once we arrived, aruond 4:45pm, we went to the grocery store to get some food. Then we headed over to American River, which is where Eve's uncle Jim lives. Uncle Jim was kind enough to let us stay with him while we were on the island. When we arrived, Uncle Jim and his mate, Noel, were heading out to do some fishing, so we went with them. It's a short walk from UJ's house to the docks. We used cockles for bait, and fished from there. The disappointing news is that neither Eve nor I caught anything useful. Eve caught a crab with her line, the same crab twice, actually. And I had a lot of nibbles but no bites. On the next dock over little children were reeling the fish in like no tomorrow. It was a little depressing, but the night was so nice, and we watched the sun set, and a dolphin chasing fish over in the shallows, that I couldn't complain. It was beautiful, and so relaxing. Noel caught three fish that were large enough to keep, and combined with some that he and UJ had caught earlier, we had a delicious feast of fish for tea. Eve made chips in the oven and we steamed some broccoli while UJ fried up the catch. Yum!

Day 21: Off to explore the island today. I decided what our activities for today should be, so we headed along the north shore of the island to a beach called Stokes Bay.  To get to the beach, you had to walk through some slab caves - way cool.  Here's a view of the beach through the walls of the cave.  We had the beach almost to ourselves.  The water was beautiful, and we enjoyed swimming and laying on the sand underneath our trusty Eukanuba beach umbrella.  After a few hours at this beach, we drove farther along the coast to check out Western Bay Inlet, another cool beach.  The color of the water here was beautiful.  I thought it looked like something from Peter Pan: cliffs on one side of the beach, and a small lagoon (for the mermaids) on the other, with greenish blue water in between.  The swimming was good here, too, but it was noticeably colder at the bottom of the water than it was at the top.

We left the beach and drove like mad women to get to the island honey farm about 10 minutes before they closed.  There we bought some homemade honey ice cream (yum!) and chocolate covered honeycomb.  Delicious!

Back at Uncle Jim's, we made dinner and Eve taught me how to play canasta.  Then the three of us played two hands and I won one of them!  In the end Eve won and I was second.  UJ was third. 

Day 22: Today we tackled the south coast.  First we visited an adventure shop and hired a sandboard, but it was very hot so we decided to leave sandboarding (sliding down the sand dunes) at a place called Little Sahara for the next day.  On our way south, we passed a koala walk, so we turned in to check it out.  There was an honesty box asking for $2.50 each to explore this area where koalas tend to hang out.  We had spent most of our cash so we didn't have the money to go in.  So we raided the car, knowing that Eve is something of a change hoarder.  In total we found $15 in change buried under floormats, down the seats, and squirreled away in various locations in our bags that were in the car.  So we were now set.  We walked around the koala walk for a few minutes and saw 7 or 8 koalas, just chilling and sleeping in the trees.  We also saw a wallaby, some kangaroos and a cool parrot, which was eating from a bird feeder.  Eve startled the parrot and it flew up and flicked bird seed down her shirt and in her face! 

At the extreme southern end of the island is a national park called Flinders Chase.  There we saw Remarkable Rocks, a bunch of large rock formations with remarkable shapes, and Admiral's Arch, with lots of seals lying around the arch, too. 

We watched the sun set through the arch and enjoyed the antics of the fur seals that were lying all around.  Then it was back to Uncle Jim's for the night.

Day 23: Today we headed to Little Sahara, an area of massive sand dunes, and rode our sandboard down the dunes.  Neither of us were particularly good at it, and it's not really that much like snowboarding because you can't really turn - you just go straight down, and, if you're Eve, you go straight down while screaming!  We had the dunes all to ourselves for a couple of hours, which was great since we weren't very good at sand sliding.  In the end we sat on our sandboard like a tobaggan and rode it down. 

We also visited the Island Pure Dairy, which makes cheeses from sheep's milk.  We watched the sheep being milked and tasted delicious cheeses and yogurt.  It was really yummy.  This evening we headed back to the mainland on the ferry.  I really enjoyed Kangaroo Island - it's beautiful.  Now official "holidays" are over! (for Eve anyway) 

Days 12 - 19: Australian Road Trip North Adventures!

Day 12 (Jan 30): Eve had another wedding today, which I attended.  She sang a duet with another friend and the harmony was beautiful.  She is really musically talented.  I wish I could sing like she can.  I got stuff together for our trip while Eve was busy at the reception.  We leave tomorrow!

Day 13 (Wilpena Pound): I went to Eve's church this morning while Eve was at home packing for the trip.  I enjoyed being there for a service and hearing Eve's dad Pete's piano playing as well as the rest of the music, most of which were familiar songs.  We sang a lot, which I appreciated.

Eve came and picked me up from church and we went downtown to get our Spaceship.  Everything went smoothly, and there weren't any unexpected fees or anything.  The woman who showed us how everything worked in the Spaceship was a bit uninformed.  That would be my only complaint.  She couldn't really show us how everything worked because she didn't know herself.  Fortunately, we are good at figuring things out for ourselves, and the Spaceship came with a pretty good instruction book.  We have a DVD player, a bed in the back with a pop out awning, a radio with MP3 input, two sunroofs, two gas fired cookers, seats for 4, pots and pans, a cutting board, cutlery and plates and cups, a big cargo area, and a fridge.  Everything is very neatly put together for such a small space.  We loved our Spaceship right away.  Her name is Earmuffs - all the Spaceships have names that are painted onto their sides.  We saw some other vehicles with names like Nabu Nabu and Scare Bear.  I think Earmuffs was the best.  The girl from the Spaceship store said, "okay, I will back out the Spaceship from the garage for you in case you crash into something."  Eve stayed with her to jump in once the vehicle was out of the garage while I went to get Eve's car so we could drive home.  About 10 minutes later Eve appeared around the corner with Earmuffs.  Apparently the girl was about as good a driver in reverse as she was at showing us the way the Spaceship worked!



We got Earmuffs at about 1 pm, and after a trip to the store to get mosquito netting, we headed home to pack.  Everything was mostly pulled together but Eve's genius added two folding chairs.  Excellent idea.  We filled our water tanks (one with a built in pump dispenser, like a sink!) and packed our fridge with food that we'd bought, and then hit the road around 3 pm.  Our destination was the Flinders Ranges National Park, specifically an area known as Wilpena Pound.  It is a ring of mountains with a flag area in the center.  There is only one was into or out of the pound.  We stayed near this opening.  Heading north from Adelaide, we made good time (since Eve was driving) and arrived in Quorn in time for dinner at the local pub.  Then I took over driving but darkness overtook us before we reached the pound.  This is bad because there are areas of unfenced stock, and kangaroos can also jump into the road from behind little bushes which can be dangerous.  We had paid to get full insurance on Earmuffs but we still wanted to avoid this happening so we drove slowly as it got dark.  Finally we arrived and found a place to camp for the night.  Setting up the Spaceship to sleep was easy, which was great since it was dark.  Hardly anyone was staying at the campground, which was also great.  We crawled into bed and Eve was asleep in minutes (which is her special talent and also because she was very tired) while I found it to be a bit hot and had to put some water on my feet until they felt cool enough to sleep.  We both slept well in our new mobile home.

Day 14 (St. Mary Peak): We woke up at 6 this morning.  The plan was to hike early before it got really hot out.  We pulled ourselves together and hit the trail at about 7:15.  The trail for the peak runs in a circul from the campground, through the pound, up the peak, and back down the outside of the pound to the campground.  Pete (Eve's dad) had suggested hiking the shorter route from the campground directly up the peak and then turning around and heading back down.  He failed to mention that this was called the "Outside Track." So when we saw "Inside Track" and "Outside Track" listed on the map, we didn't know what it meant, so we just picked one, and we picked incorrectly.  This turned what could have been a 12km hike (7 miles or so) into a 20km hike.  But we enjoyed it!  The trip through the pound was great, very flat and shaded by small trees.  It wasn't too hot and we saw kangaroos lying in the shade of trees, an enormous spider, some emus and several lizards.  It didn't feel too hot as we climbed up a short distance and arrived at a small saddle.  From here our trail (Inside Track) joined the "Outside Track" but both trails continued together from there to the summit.  We pressed on and scrambled over some rock slides and rough terrain.  It was definitely getting hotter but we made it!  There was a cool breeze at the top and awesome views of the pound, the nearby salt lake, and a steep, curvy valley beneath us.  We fed the lizards at the top of the peak and watched them fighting with each other and daring one another to come closer.  After eating lunch, we decided to take the shorter Outside Track to get back to our campsite.  We hacked our way back to the trail junction, and headed off.  We found this track to be rather rough and steep for the first several km's.  It didn't help that there was not much shade, it was really getting hot now, and we were both nearly out of water!  Eve was having trouble with blisters on her feet, and my hip flexor was bothering me.  We counted down the km's and staggered back into the campground, where we raided our fridge for ice cold Vitamin water.  Hooray for Earmuffs!  (She has a secondary battery so the fridge stays cold all the time.)  It was a great feeling to be back.  We both suffered a bit of sunburn from this experience as well.  It was sweltering!  We paid for our night of camping (reception had been closed the night before) and took advantage of the showers to rinse off and feel a bit cooler.  In the campground, a kangaroo came right up to us wanting food.  We gave him a scratch behind the ears but that was all.  That shower might have been the nicest one I've ever had in my life.  We left Wilpena Pound and streaked south for Port Augusta.  On the way, we stopped in Hawker because Eve wanted to show me a painting of the 360 view from St. Mary Peak that is on display in a workshop there.  Unfortunately, we missed the workshop closing by 7 minutes, so I didn't get to see it.  That's okay, though, I saw the real thing!

Eve's family has some friend who live in Port Augusta, and we'd arranged with them to park Earmuffs in their back yard.  They live 20 km down a dirt road, right on the beach, with the Flinders rising hazily in the distance across the water.   What a view!  (I could retire there.) And we had an amazing breeze off the water to keep us cool for the night.

Day 15 (Coober Pedy): Our next stop was farther north, in the opal mining town of Coober Pedy.  It is not a very pretty place, as most of the people live underground to keep cool.  You can just see the tops of their houses poking out from the ground, but they continue either underground or back into the hillside.  Coober Pedy produces a lot of opals, but there is no commercial mining effort.  It is only individuals trying their luck.  Everywhere throughout the town there were signs warning people to be careful of mine shafts.  Apparently falling down a mine shaft is a big problem!  They even have a rescue team to help people who get stuck.  That is if you survive.  And if someone finds you, becuase chances are you're going to be there for several days.  The mining operations look like big piles of dirt scattered as far as the eye can see.  It has a very lunar appearance.  And there is not really much grass, just reddish dirt.

On our road trip so far, I am beginning to see how vast and empty much of Australia is.  We drive for hours between towns, and there is nothing - no houses, no roads, just dirt (frequently red), sometimes sheep, and some green trees or bushes.  We only pass a few cars every hour, and we have a game where we try to get people to wave back to us and keep track of how many wave in a row.  The big trucks (road trains as they're known here) don't often wave so they can break a streak.   The country is not desolate, though, it's actually much richer and beautiful than I'd imagined that it could be.  It's also very hot!  And water is a scarcity, but they have had a significant amount of rain so things are greener than they would normally be.  We have also heard that because of the rain, the flies and mozzies at Uluru are out of control.  We're hoping we won't need to use our mosquito net becuase then we can return it. 

Today we stopped in at a roadhouse for some petty and to use the toilet.  Apparently it was a unisex bathroom, as the door seemed to indicate, and also since a male truck driver came in while we were washing our hands.  Interesting... I guess when you only have a few customers arriving at a time it doesn't make much difference!

In Coober Pedy we visited the Old Timers Mine, an example of a working opal mine, and also the underground house they have there.  Other attractions included The Big Winch, which is really a lookout point from which you can view the town, and a couple of underground churches.  We stayed at a campground where they have excavated a cavern underground where you can pitch your tent.  So we abandoned Earmuffs for the night, and slept down in the cave.  It was supposed to be to beat the heat, but it wasn't all that cool in there... on the surface there was a nice (rather strong) breeze but we didn't get the breeze underground.  So we were a bit disappointed and Eve didn't sleep well because she was hot and also she doesn't like the dark so the cave kind of creeped her out.  She also got bitten by something in the cave or was allergic to the cave or something becuase she had welts on her legs when she woke up.  Not as good a night's sleep as Earmuffs. 

We ran into Holgar and Lisa, two Germans that we met at Eve's friend Hannah's Australia Day party.  They are on their way to Uluru, too, but a few days behind us.  It was fun to see them again; they are really friendly and both have great attitudes.  They have purchased a campervan that they named Dan the Van.  We envied them because they are not sleeping tonight in the cave, but up on the surface with the cool breeze.

Day 16 (Uluru/Ayers Rock!): Back in our faithful campervan, we headed even farther north and crossed the border in the Northern Territory.  Australia is divided into six states and two territories.  The states are: South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania.  The territories are the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory (like Washington DC). So now I have been in two of those states/territories.  The Northern Territory (NT) doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time, while South Australia (SA) does, so we gained an hour as we crossed the border.  The farther north we go, the fewer cars we see and the more space between the towns and places where petrol is available.  We have to pay attention to make sure we don't get stuck without fuel.  Luckily, we didn't have any mechanical troubles on this trip either, since it can be a long wait for some help, and there isn't very often any phone reception.

We arrived at Erldunda, the turn off for Uluru.  Later on Eve started calling Erldunda "Erl-de-creme-de-creme" because we had trouble remembering its actual name.  Erldunda seems to consist of one petrol station and a roadhouse.  Big times.  The town of Yulara is about an hour and a half to two hours down the side road.  There is a resort there with camping, hotels, cabins to hire, etc., all for people interested in viewing Uluru.  It is really nice.  We got ourselves situated with a non-powered site for Earmuffs, then hit the swimming pool (yes!) to cool off, and then drove into the National Park to visit the visitors center and watch the sun set on the Rock.  Uluru is the Pitjantjara name for the rock, while in English it is called Ayers Rock.

At the sunset view location, we set ourselves up with a shade umbrella and some fly protection.  The flies were fierce!  We got good at killing them inside the van and the insides of the windows became littered with fly bodies and fly gunk.  If the driver killed a fly while driving the passenger would wipe the fly gunk off her hands with tissues kept strategically in the side door.  The flies seemed to have 30 lives and would sometimes resurrect when you thought they were dead.  Annoying, but at least they go away after dark.

That night it was still very hot even after the sun went down, so we had showers to cool down and ran the aircon for a while as we watched a dvd player in the back of Earmuffs.  Eve predictably fell asleep almost immediately, so I shut the aircon off and opened up our sunroof, which provided enough of a breeze to keep me cool.  The next morning we plan to hike up the rock, but we'd learned that the hike is only open until 8 am in the summer, due to the heat.  So we plan to go into the park as early as possible, at 5am. 

Day 17 (Uluru climb & Alice Springs): We were the first people into the park at precisely 5am this morning.  We headed for the climb site and arrived there just after 5.  Unfortunately, the route was closed and the sign said there were "heavy winds at the summit."  Since the climb is controversial anyway (the Aboriginals don't want you to climb the rock because it is sacred) and also since the sign said you could get a $5,000 fine for climbing, we walked a short distance around the rock instead, and scrambled up onto the side of it to watch the sun rise.  As the sun came up, the flies also came out in full force.  Then as we walked back, at about 7am, we realized that the climb had been opened, so up we went.  It is interesting, the attitude about climbing the rock.  It's almost as if they say, "don't climb" and then turn their head and say, "climb."  There is a route to climb and handrails to hold and tour buses arrive and discharge loads of tourist (mainly Asian) who streak for the rock and go straight up.  So I guess, yes, we disrespected the Aboriginal culture, but I feel as though if it was that important to them they would stop people climbing the rock all together.  It is allowed, just discouraged, sort of, I guess. 

Our climb took us a few hours, and was fairly strenuous, particularly coming down.  I was having trouble with a really sore calf muscle and Eve's blisters were acting up again.  The beginning of the climb reminded me of the cables on Half Dome.  I went backwards coming down just like Bri suggested for Half Dome and it seemed a good strategy except that the next day my arms were very sore.  We enjoyed the views of changing light on Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) which are an equally interesting rock formation near Uluru.  Climbing the rock took longer than we'd anticipated, so when we finished we headed back to the campground for another swim in the pool and then hit the road for Alice Springs.  We were only in Alice Springs for a few hours, just long enough for Eve to have a visit with her sister who lives there, and then we turned around and drove south to minimize our long day of driving for the next day.  As we skimmed along at 130 kph (the speed limit in parts of the NT, which is about 80 mph but feels way faster probably because it is a number over 100) we could see lightning from a massive storm to the southwest.  It was amazing.  We rolled into Kulgera at 9pm, hoping for some petrol, but the service station was closed.  It turned into a wild night in the Outback, with wind gusting and blowing spits of rain until the sky finally opened up and doused us with a good downpour.  Despite the rain, though, the temperature was still warm.

At the petty station, we were approached by an older Aboriginal woman, asking if we had a jack she could borrow.  The vehicle she was travelling in had gotten a flat tire (or tyre if you're from here.)  She was with a group of women and one child in a borrowed car whose jack was not working.  We dragged our jack out of the van and offered our assistance.  Eve held a light and an umbrella to keep off the rain while I fiddled with the jack.  Our jack was not large enough to lift their vehicle, but I figured out what was wrong with their jack and it sprang into action.  The soon had the tire changed and we scouted Kulgera (pop. 30) for a place to sleep.  There was a caravan park, but it seemed a bit creepy, so we continued on our way and slept in the rest area that marks the NT/SA border.  This was also a little creepy since there was a weird man with the hood up on his car just sitting at the entrance to the rest area.  When it is dark I guess everything seems a bit creepy.  Everything was fine in the end, and again we had a nice breeze from the storm with the thunder rumbling and lightning flashing in the distance.

Day 18 (Port Augusta):  Back to Port Augusta today along the same route we travelled on earlier this week, although not without some adventure!  Since we couldnt' get petrol in Kulgara last night, we just pressed on, although we knew the next place for petrol (Marla) was 150 some km away.  But we thought we could make it, no problem.  Unfortunately, things got a bit tight as the needle on the gauge dropped, and then the light came on with 40km to go to the station.  Eek!  The needle sat right above the empty line and then eased onto it.  Finally we passed the 5km sign, "I could walk 5km," Eve said.  And then we were there.  So things worked out but it was a bit dodgy for about a half an hour.

After we pulled in Port Augusta (which, despite its reputation as an industrial hole, is really beautiful, and right on the ocean) we stopped at the grocery store and a special treat for dinner: 99c quick reduced cole slaw.  We stayed in the same secluded beach spot as before, and Eve's familiy's friends gave us some meat to eat with our rice and tomatoes.  Yum! Food on our trip has been soooo tasty.

Day 19 (Home!):  Back to Adelaide and home sweet home (in Australia, anyway).  We returned Earmuffs, which was sad, since we both loved her.  She was wonderful.  Then we picked up some marinated kangaroo steaks and salad for tea, and ate with Barb and Pete, Eve's parents, while we showed them photos of our trip.  I think they were secretly impressed that we'd made it to the Outback and back, without something bad happening.  But they didn't say so.  I really enjoyed my visit to the middle of Australia.  It is so vast, and fairly inhospitable, too.  Yet there is something very beautiful about it.  There's a long trail for hiking that runs through South Australia... maybe one day I'll come back and hike it.  If I do, I will make sure that it happens in the wintertime, though.