Take a trip in the Delorean

Momentarily taking a break from Australia photos to share a supa cool trippy art exhibit that's here in Boston.  Sherie recognized the artist as the guy who did the ceiling of the Belagio.  So anyone who's been to Vegas will probably recognize it too.  Chihuly is a glass blowing expert, and man was it cool!

 When you first walk in there's this canoe filled with blown glass thingys.  A few things come to mind:

1)Can you imagine transporting all of those?
2) Do you think he meticulously places every single piece or willy nilly puts them in wherever they fit?
3) Can you say Dr. Suess.

 Sherie and I originally took the girls as an afternoon date.  I was terrified they'd be like bulls in a china shop.  Thankfully they were great and didn't try to tough anything.

Sammie points something out to Sherie

The second room was one giant display of glass structures.  So cool.

The ceiling

There's an octopus thingy in there

 The next room had ginormous chandeliers that were just plain awesome. 

It was so good, I brought Lindsey!

My ladies :)

GOW series: Last installment

On day three of the Great Ocean Walk, Hannah and Dave decided to be lame and bail on the hike.  In their defense, they stayed behind to surf.  Macca and I took off to a highly recommended hike segment.  Unfortunately, we had some problems finding the trail.  The road on our map turned out to be a private driveway, locked with a gate.  Ignoring the fact that I'm American and I know better than to trespass, I unlocked the gate, we drove through, I locked it back up (for the sheep) and drove through the pasture trying to find the trail.  I was only a hella teeny bit apprehensive, until Macca reminded me, "Kassi, we're not in America, they're  not going to shoot you."  To which I said, fair point.

Master Trespasser

Unofficial Poll: When we come across another locked gate instead of turning around, Macca :
(a) parks the car to continue on foot
(b) hangs his laundry out to dry
(c) leaves a note for the farmer
(d) all of the above.

Yea, he's weird.

After leaving a note for the farmer that we were on the GOW, and hanging something to dry out the car like he didn't have time to finish his laundry, we took off on foot past the second gate.  It quickly turned into a steep downhill horse track.  It  also was quite muddy from the previous rain.  Needless to say, it didn't take long before I was sliding down the mud hill on my ass.  Literally slid about 5 feet only to be stopped by a tree branch nearly impaling my inner thigh.

(Lesson #45 learned: don't skimp on hiking shoes. Goes well with Lesson #24 : don't skimp on sleeping bag...which all basically comes down to Lesson #1: don't skimp on hiking/camping gear.)

Once we got off the horse track we found ourselves in true bushland.  With no path, I was meandering through kangaroo tracks trying to see our path.  (I should note that by this time, we had spotted the path and were trying to get to it but there was a cliff in the way).  While meandering, a kangaroo suddenly jumps out from under a tree, to be followed by a Momma kangaroo and  Daddy kangaroo.  Daddy was the biggest roo I had ever seen.  Scared the piss at me.

 

He first stopped maybe about 5 feet from me while he decided whether or not to kill me.  He hopped on a bit so I moved forward, only for him to stop again and stare me down.  Giving me opportunity to snap this photo.

Long story not so short, we finally found the gd path about an hour after leaving the campsite.

 This hike was pretty much just walking up and down those massive hills in the distance.  It wasn't as nice as the other hikes we had down, which was surprising cuz the guy who told us about it said it was the best part of the whole walk.  It was still amazing, but I had been spoiled at Wreck Beach and Apollo Bay.

 We used the opportunity to make asses out of our selves and piss each other off, lol.

We are here, can't you tell?

 This pic was taken on top of a particularly big stretch uphill.  When I reached the top I decided to lay down in the nice grass of the field.  That's when I got bit by a something, I can only hope and assume was a bull ant.  Those f*ckers hurt!  It only added fuel to the Kassi's-an-accident-prone-idiot-fire.

Unknown to me, when you get bit by a bull ant it hurts for quite a long time.  Hannah did get bit by one the day before, I didn't give her the credit it deserved until I experienced it myself.  I spent the rest of the afternoon rubbing the bite on the back of my elbow and secretly being paranoid that it was something poisonous.  (Glad I never actually voiced that one on the trip).


We eventually meet up with Hannah and Dave, who have started at our end point and walked to meet us.  We quickly made a trip out to the 12 Apostles before heading back to the beach house at Airey's. 

Sweet as pic of the shore in Dave's sunglasses

 Two of the original 12 Apostles.  The Apostles used to be part of the main land.  But Big Bad Southern Ocean has warn away at the cliff-line pushing it back, but leaving these mammoths standing.  Unfortunately, as the Southern Ocean continuously pounds the shore, 5 of the original 12 Apostles have fallen.  What's hilarious to me is that there's only 7 nowadays and they still call them the 12 Apostles. 

This is my all time favorite photo of the 4 of us on this trip.  It may be an all time favorite photo of all time.  It's up there.  We're all happy, we've got beautiful scenery, and great memories :)

We were able to make it back for sunset at Airey's:

sunset from the back porch

Then my favorite thing happened:

Boys in the kitchen.  Never gets old.

The next day we had a beach day.  It was bloody cold, but Hannah was willing to teach me how to surf...or well body board.

Hannah and I borrowed whatever wet suits we could fit into.

I love this photo of Hannah and me. I'm not sure what it is about it, but it makes me happy :)

And to prove that we're hardcore, we're going surfing in the Southern ocean with "speed holes."  Named such because you're so damn cold from all the water rushing into your wetsuit that  you move a helluva a lot faster. 

Body boarding.  Cold cold cold.  The wetsuit, speed hole and all did actually keep me rather warm.  The problem was where the wetsuit didn't cover...my arms.  After a few passes on the board, my arms and hands couldnt take the ice cold water anymore and called it quits.  I would later learn that warmer water temperature do not improve my ability or affection for surfing.

 Later, the boys wanted a go.

I don't know if they wanted to go surfing or dancing.  Its unfortunate that I wasn't able to get their faces in this shot cuz its a good one!

Hannah and I got a little bored while the boys surfed so Dave let us take his car back to the house.   Which was my first time driving on the left!! It was disorienting, but I think this little bit of driving helped me feel more confident to be able to rent cars later on.  Thanks Dave!

Speaking of driving....So Macca had just come back from the US when we started this trip.  Where he rented a car and drove on the right...gasp!  A number of times on the trip, as Macca was driving us around, he would make a turn and end up on the right side of the road.  Leaving me and the others if they happened to be in the car screaming "left, left! Left! LEFT! LEFT!!!" As well as teasing him every time we passed one of these signs.  We also commented on how signs say "In Australia" like we were actually driving in Germany or something.  This led to funny voices repeating "In Australia, we drove on the left.  Dipshit." 

There ya have it!  I can't believe I made it through the Great Ocean Walk trip.  It was a fabulous trip and influenced the rest of my time in Australia, but more on that later :)

GOW series: Beauty and possible death

Day 2 of hiking started out with some gorgeous rolling hills to our Northeast

Unforunately, we walked quite a long ways down this dirt road before we realized we missed our turn.  Probably added two hours to our hike time, lol.  Thank goodness we didn't have our packs on!  It was a nice leisurely walk, except for Paul who took off like we had the plague.  Hannah, Dave and I had some fun with pictures on the walk back.

  

  

One of the many "Shit will kill you" signs I came to love in Australia.  Snakes, tsunamis, and currents maybe?  Or jagged rocks?  I can't really tell.  Shortly after passing this sign the others spotted a Tiger Snake, which is quite venomous.  I missed it somehow.

 

 It was about here, walking through Fern Gully, that we started getting a little disappointed that we hadn't seen any beach-scapes yet.  Literally, a minute later we turned around a bend and saw this:

 

 And proceeded to take Facebook profile pics for each of us!

Hannah

My personal best jumping photo ever....I am absolutely terrible at jumping photos

Then Dave went and showed me up.  This shot is still the Best Jumping Shot Ever.

Sour Puss was already on the beach so he got solemn looking lonely-soul-on-the-beach picture

  

Oh we're just chillin on the beach...you know...like you do.

The beach we're on is called Wreck Beach. It is my favorite spot in Australia.  Without a doubt.  Now am I saying that if you've never been to Australia you should by-pass the Great Barrier Reef for Wreck Beach...no. But I prefer things that are off the beaten path, empty, beautiful, serene, powerful and peaceful beaches are my thing.  This one fits the bill.  And it has history.  It gets its name from the obvious...a wreck.  A ship wrecked in 1880 (I believe) here and there are still a few pieces littering the beach.  By a few pieces, I mean two (at least that we could see).  You can only get to it at low tide, if the tide comes in you'll get stuck on the rocks for a few hours so we had to plan accordingly.  Which only makes it more appealing to me. Enjoy an overload of pictures.

 

Southern Ocean

Surfing

  

Dave hiking Aussie style-barefoot.  Taking it to a whole new level with the pack on his back (carrying our water, snacks, etc etc)

knackered

 

I think he was literally whittling wood under the anchor.  This one fake, but later becomes the site of naked photography.

 

 

 Tide pools.  There were dozens if not hundreds of these little circular...holes (?)  I'm not really sure what to call them.  I'm sure they have a name and someone can make me feel really dumb for not knowing it.  But they were all over the place, just asking for me to step in one accidentally, lol. They had their own little ecosystems in them, pretty neat if you ask me.

A little caught off guard with this picture, but good scenery at least :)

 

 There's another ship part...no idea what it is.  Again, its probably something that most people would now, but knowing nothing about ships or mechanics, or mechanics of ships in the late 1800's I have no clue.

I learned a story the last time I was at the GOR about this shipwreck.  Apparently there was a deckhand who survived and swam to shore.  Later in the middle of the night as he was fighting hypothermia he heard the screams and/or sobs of a woman.  He swam back out to the wreckage and found a young woman, about the same age as him. He brought her all the way back to shore in freezing cold crazy waves ocean.  They used their body heat to keep each other alive (this is a PG rated story!).  The next day they walked to find help and lived happily ever after.  But not together.  They both married other people and never had their fairy tale ending.  Isn't that a crap ending to a story?  I thought so.

  

Book jacket photo for when he becomes and author!

 

 

 

 

 

 

My fav shot!

Hannah and I had the BEST animal sighting climbing back up to the trail:

No one gets to see an Echnidna that close! Its almost cute.

Then we had a bit of a scary wildlife sighting on our way to the parking lot.  I was leading and nearly stepped on this friendly guy:

I don't know if its actually the highly poisonous Brown Snake that live in the area, but its a snake and its brown.  Enough reason for me to freak out.  Orrrr take a picture...you know.  I was walking in front with Hannah and Dave and just about stepped on him before skidding to a stop and putting my arms out like you protect your passenger in the car, lol.  Dave threw a stick at it and it slithered off.  A bit of a dangerous gamble, throwing things at it, but I was not about to try to step over it.  (Though I did consider it and thankfully Dave was there to tell me what a stupid idea that was).

Earlier in the day we also spotted our first wild koala!  Actually a mother and baby if you look closely.

We made camp that night at Johanna Beach. It was still light out and we saw this sign:

 

which meant that Hannah and Dave had to go surfing!  Crazy fools, the water is coooold to boot!

Unfortunately Macca was too preoccupied with beating me up and I was too preoccupied with taking pictures of the sunset to get many good photos.

Come to think of it, it was the next morning that my camera suddenly didn't work anymore!

Sunset at Johanna Beach

Sing with me: "Lowered Expectations"  Please someone get the reference!!  I was laughing my ass off at this picture.  Macca and Dave being Australian didn't get it, and I think Hannah was too young.