It started with sand

One tiny sand particle started it all, and Fraser Island, a World Heritage is considered the largest sand island in the world.

My camping abilities have been in a dormant state for several years now. By ‘several years,’ I mean at least 7 or 8 years of suppressed hardcore overnight roughing it. However, somehow, some way, I was persuaded to resurrect my bathe-in-a-lake skills.
A 5:30am departure on Friday morning had 15 of us piled into three 4-wheel drive LandCruisers on our way to Fraser Island off the coast of Australia.

Fraser Island is one of 2 islands off the Northeastern coast of Australia, and is only accessible by 4wd vehicles ferried across the sea for a small price. The island is World Heritage listed, and is the largest sand island in the world. The place has a huge population – 360, 11 of which are Aboriginal. We’re talking major social events!
http://www.fraserisland.net/

We traversed the ferry and landed on “The 75 mile beach,” which doubles as the main highway on the island, as well an airport landing strip. “All vehicles must yield to any landing aircraft.” Whoa! After a beach picnic everyone was in the Cruisers ready to roll, while I was standing at one driver door with map to help determine our route. I hear, “Dingo! Wow, there’s a dingo!” Huh? What? There’s a dingo??!! Mind you, I am the ONLY person NOT securely in a vehicle. I nearly jumped onto the hood in fright, and scampered into the truck, of course searching for my camera (first) and my safety (second). Let’s put it this way, dingoes are the equivalent of wolves… nice to look at from afar, but you don’t want to encounter a wild one face-to-face. They are ancestral of domestic dogs, but have reverted back to the wild.
The weekend passed through large freshwater perched lakes (i.e. lake sitting on top of compact sand and vegetable matter, above sea level), lots of bush-driving and a beached shipwreck exploration. Oh, and being waken up every morning by a kookaburra laughing loudly. Thanks to the lack of inhabitants and no light pollution, the night sky afforded visibility of every star, dot, poke, sattellite, constellation, and the entire Milky Way! Could have been the wine though too. I couldn’t have imagined a better back-to-camping expedition.

Pictures Fraser Island

Going Native

I forgot to tell you all about my experience post-busting my butt on Mount Taranaki! (From blog post: The Big One)

Remember my 3 hour hike down Mount Taranaki, and my butt-busting experience on the rock? After I got down off the volcano, I drove 2 hours south to Wanganui to stay in a great YHA hostel there for the night, and have a Sunday on the Whanganui River (“wh” is pronounced “f” like “ph”). First person I see? The same gal that I shared a room with the previous night outside Taranaki, and we are sharing a room again! (love this small country!) Turns out she is a transplanted doctor from Pakistan that has been in England and Ireland for the past 6 years, and now practicing in NZ. We are also sharing a room with another woman, whom we’ll call “Sue”. Sue is a very tall New Zealand native with a curious nighttime ritual.
The night winds down as the three of us chat on about our weekend adventures and other NZ plans. During this, Sue has prepped us for her middle of the night ritual, and has placed a banana and box of raisins next to her bed.

Sue:           “I used to eat chuppies and biccies, but now I try to eat something healthier…”
Jessie:        HUH? (trying to stiffle language confusion)
                   Um, what are “chuppies and biccies”?? Wait, What? What are you eating?
Sue:           Ohhh… It must be my accent. Chippies and biccies…
                  (Translation = chips and cookies)
Jessie:       When?
Sue:           Ohhh, sometime during the night.
Jessie:       Whaaaaaat?

Leaving the Kiwis… Gimme the Aussies!

I’ve decided that being back in classes at Georgia Tech (all summer, now Fall semester) definitely does not encourage much in the way of extracurricular writing. GT? Go figure! Ha!!

The last of New Zealand (in and around Wellington): http://picasaweb.google.com/Jessie1508/AroundWellington#

FISH!
Who rises at 5:30am to go see, smell, taste and photograph raw fish, crustaceans and bugs? I do! I do!
The Sydney Fish Market Tour adventure included donning bright orange reflective vests reminiscent of roadside workers…

First stop on the tour…learning about fish markets, fish mongers, fish, Dutch auctions, fish, cold slurries, more fish… In brief, the industry was deregulated about 50 years ago, and thanks to Sydneysiders preference and love from fresh fish, the Market has grown and grown! The SFM ranks as the second largest in the world, only outsold in volume by the Tokyo fish market. This, however, seems close in size by statistics, but the Tokyo market sells in two weeks what Sydney sells in one year. WOW! Interesting point, however--- the SFM uses a silent reverse (Dutch) auction that allows about 1,000 sales / hour versus the Tokyo fish market still uses traditional voice auctioning and is limited to around 200 sales / hour. Imagine the Tokyo possibilities.

The Big One

With only two weeks left in New Zealand, and I decided to go for broke: Mount Taranaki.. I planned on getting to the summit of that beast. Have you seen The Last Samurai? This is the volcano used in that film. It is truly a beast at 8,260 feet to the summit!

The week prior 7 guys from my program also made the summit their goal, all physically fit, but half way through two had to turn back at the half-way point. It is a 7-8 hour total return climb for a fit hiker, and you need every bit of light that you can scavenge. Mount Taranaki, aka Egmont, is the most fatal mountain in New Zealand; many of these deaths occur due to unprepared hikers and quick (alpine) weather changes.


I arrived at the parking lot base early that Saturday morning with lots of winter-ready clothes, food and water in my pack. I took one step out of the car, and realized that half of my clothes needed to get put on immediately! No layers were shed the entire hike up until I stood atop the summit and smiled for the camera!

The beginning of 1000s of stairs!

After a steep but relatively flat 1.5 hour 5000 feet climb from the carpark, you reach an overnight hikers lodge. After you leave the lodge (nice rest stop and views across the country), you hit a series of steps. The steps, at least on the downhill, are a welcome (structured) addition to the climb. There are about a million steps, but hey, who’s counting? After all the million steps, you are at decision point. You hit about 2200 feet of scoria (“scree”); this is the point that the 2 guys earlier had to call it quits. Scree--> Think pumice stone (also volcanic formed), but slightly heavier. Now picture 2200 feet of this stuff, all shapes and sizes from the size of a dime to half dollar, all layed out on a 35 degree climb up it. Basically, “one step forward, two steps back” is the trend, so you can either try to take lots of steps quickly to lose less in the end (quickly tiring), or take one step, try your best to plant that foot, and swing the other foot up the incline. Repeat a thousand times, give or take a hundred.

Halloween, Rugby Style

(As some of you may know, I have made my way back to the States, and am back in Atlanta now. I will continue to send out these fun stories and pictures (slow and steady wins the race), but just let me know if you’d like off the list!)

Let’s get to it!
Fact: Kiwis (i.e. New Zealanders) do not celebrate Halloween.

Timeline:

Friday
12:00pm
Walking to a cricket match in Wellington . See three bananas standing on a balcony, one of them eating a banana. Chiquita banana lady close by.
3:00pm
Watching cricket match. Twin Jesus’ pass by me in the stands, big smiles on their faces. Mario & Luigi were right behind them, bouncing like balls.
6:00pm
Eating dinner at an outside café, and at least a dozen hot pink flamingoes pass me by.

From Middle Earth to Mount Doom

Growing up I had an impression that volcanoes were dangerous locations containing enormously deep craters at the top in which a person could disappear whole. They were unpredictable and could swallow a person on a whim. Volcanoes were NOT something that you purposefully sought out.

Ski lifts to the top of Mount Ruapehu (Mount Doom!)

Toss all of that out the window! The entire Georgia Tech students and faculty of the Pacific program headed to the Taupo Volcanic Zone, which (technically) lists 22 volcanoes in the region!!! 50+ persons later and we had all taken a few ski lifts to the top of an active volcano, Mount Ruapehu, which erupted as recently as last year. Who in their right mind does this?

An impromptu classroom!

  Well it turns out that volcanoes are not such menacing creatures that I had invented. The next day I even purposefully hiked a few including – the Tongariro Alpine Crossing – billed as the best one-day hike in all of New Zealand, and listed as one of the Top 10 one-day hikes in the world. Simply amazing, a 19km hike that with 2 million years of volcanism below foot, passing by some of the most spectacular sights and glowing cones all around. This hike, friends, explains why Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand. Some of the formations, colors and scenery looks like it came straight out of a movie. Or some other alien planet! I saw Emerald Lakes that possessed the color of brilliant (manmade bright!) emeralds! And craters so deep and colored by red that only a 64 box of crayons could have made the hue so rich.

Hiking down the scree with Mount Tongariro and the Blue Lake in the background

Marine Lover’s Paradise

Wellington --> Picton --> Queen Charlotte Sounds --> Kaikoura --> Blenheim --> Wellington

Second weekend in New Zealand gave me a chance to reach exploration adventures of mammoth proportions! By mammoth I mean a heart the size of a VW Beetle, and hiking tracks that go on for days and days. However with the term “weekend”, only sampling size proportions were possible. Oh well.

Queen Charlotte Sounds

First stop: Queen Charlotte Track in the northern sounds of the South Island. The entire track is 70 kms or so, usually done in 4 days. I tackled 15 kilometers (around 9 miles. Uphill. Both ways.) , and threw in the proverbial towel. I’d have to say that this was really my first big “hike”, so there were lots of new experiences… Packing all my food on back. Packing weather-change clothes. Eating for necessity every hour, drinking more frequently (all in, no out!). But long-haul hiking virgin, I am no longer!! Man it was awesome. Step one, Queen Charlotte Track. Step two, the entire Appalachian Trail! Yeah right.

15 kms down, and one beautiful coastal drive to go! Destination: Kaikoura, New Zealand

Dusky dolphins (smaller than the common or bottlenose)

This drive was one of the most scenic and gorgeous drives I have ever observed, and I hope you might someday have the opportunity to see this as well. I literally had difficulty not pulling the car off the road every 15 minutes. This town’s tourism is really the only reason I planned this trip though – the drive was simply a bonus. The tourism industry? Marine, marine, marine! Whale watching (yes, I paid the exorbitantly overpriced tourist rates), dolphin swimming (skipped this one, but was on the verge), hiking (another fur seal colony!), coastal relaxation, cold brews (definitely), just bliss.