Cut away from yourself

Kia ora!

My new mates

So, I took the Interislander Ferry from Wellington on the North Island to Picton on the  South Island.  It was a huge ship with 10 decks, 3 of them for vehicles including big rigs.  There is no bridge between the two islands of NZ, only 2 ferry services.  Interislander is the larger company with 3 sailings each way daily.  My sailing was at 8:25 am but passengers are supposed to check in by 7:40 am.  They check your luggage which is nice so you can enjoy the 3.5 hour cruise relatively unencumbered.

 So I had an adventure on the ferry crossing.  I went to one of the lounges; it happened to be the bar lounge.  I sat in a quiet corner studying my South Island adventure booklet.  Soon nine men came and joined me.   I struck up a conversation with the guy sitting next to me.  The guys are going hunting and fishing on Stewart Island at the very southern tip of NZ.  Turns out Mike is the only unmarried guy and the youngest in the group.  It's his first (and maybe his last-jk) on this biennial trip.

The South Island

These guys are from the greater Wellington area and this is THE trip where they leave the wife and kids and their work for 2 weeks and relax.  Well, they got off to a great start.  Remember that the ferry sails at 8:25 am.  They had the beer and mixed Jack Daniels out before the ship sailed and kept them coming.  There were 3 designated drivers driving 2 people movers and a ute.  We had a discussion about pick-up trucks (utes), trucks (utes-but not common), SUVs/people movers, semis, B-trains (double semi rig) and fuel prices (NZ$2.50/liter which works out to US$10+/gallon?!).  We talked about government sponsorsed/employer contribution social security pensions (pensions/superannuation), voluntary IRAs (Kiwi Saver), cost of living, paid vacation(holiday)/sick time - all similar except NZ gets more holiday time and less sick time but it probably works out even.  Workers are paid weekly; rent is due weekly here and also in Aussie.

Picton Harbour

We also had a long discussion about guns, gun regulations, hunting, deer eradication, environmental impact, etc.  The gist of it was (from Mike, the late 20s? guy, who had heaps of beer)  "just shoot it" and "cut away from yourself".   LOL!!  NZers must be certified on gun safety and handling before being able to register/purchase any weapon.  NZ did not have ANY native mammals; most were imported for sport in the late 1800s.  Deer and rabbits are a problem and can be hunted seasonally.  Apparently the Department of Conservancy (DoC) aerially sprays poison to kill deer which is controversial because the poison goes on the plants and water indiscriminantly.  And yes, NZers think Americans can buy guns easily and carry them almost anywhere.

Logging is big industry in the Marlborough area

Most of my convo was with 4 of the blokes with the other guys chiming in occasionally.  They wanted to know what I was doing.  Most of the guys were on at least their second partners and had children.  I thought it was interesting that the guys thought that it was right that I get along with my ex but that I should "just shoot it" or "cut away from yourself" about the other woman.  Self protection - male bonding?  One of the quieter blokes thought I was a good sport for sticking around when they all arrived.  (I also heard the word cougar at one point.  LOL!)  A few thought it would be a trip to write home about if I joined them.  It was tempting....

I suspect the DoC sprays herbicide to make logging easier

I purchased a 20 trip InterCity FlexiTrip Pass for $369, which should take care of most of my transport needs between cities.  I can also spend trips on sightseeing tours and on the Interislander Ferry, which I did.  So instead of paying $55, I spend 1 trip for the ferry.  InterCity buses are plush, high up and with huge windows.  I can schedule my trips online or on a toll free phone number and can cancel up to 2 hours before departure without penalty.  There are scheduled 30 minute meal breaks where everyone has to get off the bus and it is locked up.  (No eating or hot drinks on the bus.)  They also stop at the most scenic places for 10 - 30 minutes for photo ops.  Rest/potty breaks are in places that cater for these stops with shops and cafes.  There are also quick stops to pick up/set down (drop off) passengers and believe it or not, drop off/pick up mail for New Zealand Post.

Cattle, dairy, and of course sheep are widely raised

InterCity Coach Lines is the national coach service.  The Kiwi Experience with their green buses cater to the young partying crowd.  The Naked Bus/Atomic Bus is the other large company that provides tourist transpo.  Each of these offer packages with set touring routes that you can do at your own pace (seemed expensive and can't change the itinerary) or passes where you purchase travel by the hour (roughly $8/hour).  InterCity began offering the FlexiTrips pass in January and is still modifying it.  The primary restriction on the FlexiTrips Pass is that you cannot backtrack unless the route demands it.   I wish they had something like that in the States.

I took the coach straight from Picton to Nelson and Abel Tasman National Park.  The coach drivers also provide commentary.  We passed through many vineyards.  Although NZ wines are only 1% of world production, 90% of the Marlborough's edible crops are grapes. Hillside after hillside of orderly plantings of Pinus radiata (Monterey Pine to me - they must not like to use the common name) and  Douglas fir indicate NZ's attempts to log sustainably.

Cheers!
Cyn

Wellington, New Zealand

Kia ora!

That's how they say hi or g'day in New Zealand.   I arrived in Wellington on Air New Zealand  (NZ$219/3 hour flight and add 2 hours time difference).  Americans don't have to have a visa.  They just need to have a return ticket so I'm leaving from Auckland after a 7 week stay.  I need to be in Cairns, Queensland, Australia to meet daughter Stephanie around May 25.  The cheapest fare to Cairns was from Auckland (NZ's busiest airport/most flexibility) on May 17th.  That's how I make my decisions these days.  Scary isn't it?  I flew into Wellington because flights into Christchurch (second busiest airport) are heavily discouraged. 

I stayed at Wellywood Backpackers ($24/10 bed).  They had free internet but the connection wasn't very good in the room.   Although there were no amenities like bed shelves, lamps, or lockers, the room was  very large with 3 sets of bunks and 4 single beds.  I was in the last (single) bed the first night (I checked in at 1 am) but switched the next night to a bottom bunk in the back corner.  It was more private (especially when you hang a towel from the upper bedrail) and the upper bunks were way high up so that there was heaps of headroom below.  Most nights there were only 6-8 people in the room.  Two of the guys (Spanish) had been there for a month while looking for a rental.  Everyone is pretty respectful of others' space and most seemed to try to be reasonable about noise especially when others seemed to be sleeping.   I haven't had anyone pee or puke or even be overly loud despite the horror stories I've heard.

Most of the people I've met in the hostels have been in their 20s.  Then the younger set and the lower 30s.  Only a scattering of "older" guests and even fewer "older" couples or families.  Most people exchange info such as nationality, how long they're traveling, where they've been/going to and their favorite places.  Most people are curious about my travelling alone for a year.  When I tell them that my kids are in Uni(versity) and they are taken care of (they are sorted, in most languages), usually they are admiring probably because they can't see their mums doing this. 

Wellington is very much like San Francisco.  It's on a bay/harbour, got heaps of hills, located on a fault, mild weather year-round, and tourism is a major industry.  Although SF is considered a small city, Wellington, NZ's capital, is really small.  Conveniently, many of the sites in which tourists would be interested are within 500 meters of the harbor and on the flats.  The waterfront (1.5 - 2 km or about a mile) is nicely developed with ferry, bus, and railroad terminals very close to Parliament near one end of the city center and parks, shopping precincts, galleries, and museums scattered through to the other end. 

NZ has 4.5 million people and 40 million sheep

The southern end of the CBD, anchored by Courtenay Place and Cuba Street is more backpacker oriented while the northern end around Lambton Quay has the designer and other upscale shops.  On a nice day office workers and tourists are everywhere, picnicking on benches and grassy islands on the wider footpaths (sidewalks).  BTW, even the most touristy places I've seen (Melbourne and parts of Sydney) do not come off as sleazy as SF's Fisherman's Wharf.

Wellington also has a cable car.  One cable car that just goes up and down one steep hill ($3.50 one way/$6 (round trip) return).  It goes up to the Carter and other Observatories, the Cable Car Museum, and the top end of the Wellington Royal Botanic Gardens.  There's also a Wellington City Sights tour bus that does a one-hour loop ($30/48 hours) as well as their Metlink bus system (fares based on zones or $9/day pass). 

$52 bucks for Frodo ears!!

Tourists can find lots of free things to do.  The very best thing to do in Welly is the Te Papa Museum, NZ's national museum.  It is an awesome place and takes hours to go through; I divvied it up into 3 days.  I enjoyed the extensive exhibits about the Maoris, the earthquake exhibits and the Bush City exhibit.  I'm a sucker for interactive exhibits, especially ones where you can go over bridges and stepping stone paths and touch and feel stuff, etc. The City and Sea Museum also has good exhibits and is worth a visit.  If you're into collectibles or into Lord of the Rings (or King Kong, Station 9, Narnia, The Water Horse, etc), Weta Cave is a mini museum about the artists and art of costumes, make-up, props, scenery, and computer animation in movie making.  I thought it was okay and a good excuse to take a bus out of the city center; if we got an actual tour of their facilities instead of a 20 minute DVD movie, it would have been better.  But can you imagine the security since they're currently working on The Hobbit movie? 

Succulent slope at Botanical Gardens

One of the most popular tours is the Lord of the Rings Tour that takes you to sites where the movies where filmed.  Other "top attractions" I didn't go to were the Wellington Zoo and Zealandia, an animal sanctuary.  Instead I went to the Botanical Gardens and the Otari-Wilton Native Botanic Garden and Forest Reserve (both free).  The Botanical Gardens are reasonable with almost adequate signage and a nice Treehouse visitor/interpretive center.  The extensive gardens are on a very steep incline.  If I had a wheelchair, my brakes would be worn out by the time I got down to the main gardens.  But it had excellent examples of hillside planting!   I liked their Succulents and Rock Gardens and the Sculpture Walk.

A grove of small Pseudopanax ferox

Even better, however, is the Otari-Wilton Garden/Reserve.  I took a couple of hours to do the Nature and Circular Walks.  Whilst I'm familiar with a few genera of plants that are native to NZ, I enjoyed seeing many new ones (Pseudopanax, Agathis australis, Macropiper).   Although there are garden designers that stick to natives, I believe in using plants that are well-suited to the soil and microclimate as long as they are known to not readily self-sow and are non-invasive.  Many species of Phormium (NZ flax), Metrosideros (NZ Christmas tree-rata), Leptospermum (NZ tea tree-manuka), Dicksonia (NZ tree fern), Pittosporum (ake ake), Coprosma (mirror plant), Corokia, and Hebe do very well in California.

The City Sights tourbus and Metlink buses enabled me to discover areas outside the CBD.  Newtown is a neighborhood with a large CBD with a mixture of ethnic eateries and shops and at least one Asian (much larger than the one in the  CBD) and one Mediterranean supermarkets.  Although there apparently is a good sized Chinese population in New Zealand, according to museum exhibits, I have seen very few Asians besides those working in Asian businesses or tourists.

I've had some nice adventures.  I'll tell you more next time.

Cheers!

Cyn

Melbourne, Victoria

Home @ the Mansion 

G'day!

So now I'm in Melbourne staying at Home @ the Mansion hostel ($32/6 bed mixed & $42 for Friday cuz of the Grand Prix).   Unheard of nicety: a flat screen TV in each room.  The Melbourne Grand Prix is 24 -27 March and you can hear the engines from some parts of the city.  I was in St Kilda, a southwest neighborhood of Melbourne, today to see the beach and passed the racing venue.  Vroom, vroom!

St Kilda was great.  Despite the cloudy gray skies, dozens of paraboarders were out on Port Phillip Bay.  Those dudes are crazy.  They were in a harbor and they had wet suits, so they were a little protected.  The winds were really blowing so they could travel very fast if they wanted to.  Some did acrobatics like spins and flips.  One bloke went airborne for almost a minute. You could tell some of them were practicing specific moves.  They did it again and again so I could predict where to turn my camera.  The beach was empty, I had the beautiful Esplanade and boardwalk almost all to myself.  Luna Park amusement park was closed.  Heaps of people at the central business district (CBD) shopping and eating though. The St Kilda Botanical Garden is undergoing (necessary) renovations.

Historic Flinders Train Station

Melbourne is a tourists' town.  They make it easy for tourists to get to all the sites - FREE!  A City Circle tram runs every 10 minutes from 10 am - 6 pm Sunday - Wednesday and 10 am - 9 pm Thursday - Saturday.  But you can actually take any tram along the City Circle route that comes along, but you don't get the commentary and the tram may veer off in a direction you don't expect. (Obviously that happened to me, but it was good cuz it took me to Fitzroy Park where I saw the Fairy Tree and Miniature Tudor Village.)  The trams run clockwise and anti-clockwise (forgot that one in my last blog: anti- instead of counter-clockwise).

Crewing on the Yarra River in front of the MCG

A free Tourist Shuttle Bus hits all the other major tourist areas.  The 1.5 hour circuit has 13 stops and runs every 30 minutes daily 9:30 - 4:30.  That said, most of the tourist venues have admission charges.   The NGV (National Galleries of Victoria - Aussies abbreviate EVERYTHING) and art exhibits at the State Library are free.  And Melbourne has a lot of public art in the form of scultpture, monuments, fountains, gazebo/platforms.  There's also architecture to look at.  Fantastic old looking buildings (remember that everything is less than 180 years old, most much less) juxtaposed with ultra modern structures.   Even with all the free transpo, I walked miles (I walked km just doesn't sound right) every day.

See lower left side of pix for right turn sign and lane 

Speaking of trams which travel the middle of the road,  Melbourne CBD has the weirdest right turn system.  If you want to turn right, you must get into the farthest LEFT lane.  Then you wait for oncoming traffic to clear and wait for traffic next to you that are going straight through to clear, usually after the light turns yellow, THEN make your right turn across all the lanes.  Good luck.   It seems very confusing to me and it must be to drivers too; there's an awful lot of honking in the CBD.  I think maybe they should just ban the right turns like (left turns) on Market Street in San Francisco.  It probably would be quicker and less dangerous.  North - South crossings chirp continuously with green lights to help pedestrians cross. East - West ones cheep once and then click to signal that it is safe to walk.

Aussie's CBDs continue to surprise me.  They don't look like a lot if you just look down the street.  But if you walk down a street, you discover arcades which are mini-mall alleys that may be 1 - 2 stories above/under ground.    So there is a ton of shopping.  I don't know how so many shops can make it; they must depend on tourists, both international and Australian.

Chinatown is surprisingly small.  The few grocery stores were small and only a little messy.  Heaps and lots of Asian restaurants and a small Chinese museum.   At the Chinese museum, I learned that the first Chinese immigrants came from the See (4) Yup area of Canton.  I'm not sure but I think that's next to Toy San where my family is from.   The lady that spoke Cantonese  seemed to know where Toy San was and did not say they were the same place.  Although I had heard that there's a large Chinese/Asian population in Melbourne, I didn't see many Asians.  Certainly not nearly the hordes I saw in Sydney.  I spoke with a Quongjou woman on the train (we spoke Cantonese) who said that although there are many Chinese in Melbourne, they primarily work in Chinese businesses.  Very few work in government or service jobs like delivering mail, driving buses, or working in hospitals.  At the Queen Victoria Market which also has delis and a food court, many nationalities worked side by side unlike Paddy's Market in Sydney where most of the shop keepers were Asian.  There are also Greek and Italian precincts.

Fanciful topiaries at Children's Garden

Melbourne is pretty with a plethora of gardens and parks scattered throughout the city and that line the Yarra River which runs through Melbourne.  The CBD is on the north side where most business and shopping are located including the new Waterfront City and Docklands development (home of Aussie's first Costco).  On the Southbank are the convention center, entertainment venues including the Crown Complex (films) and a huge amphitheater Music Bowl, and a wide range of arts venues including centers for recitals, dance, opera, theater, contemporary art, etc.  A Broadway show district is in the CBD.

The sports venues including the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Grounds) and Rod Laver Arena where the Australian Open (Tennis) is played are just southeast of the CBD.  All very  walkable and convenient by public transpo.

Succulents on side of Guilfoyle's Volcano

The Melbourne Royal Botanical Gardens are extensive.  The best displays are the Childrens Garden and Guilfoyle's Volcano.   The Childrens Garden has kid-sized tree and flax tunnels, a bamboo forest, mazes, fountains, climbing rocks, sand pits, and nooks and crannies galore.  What a wonderful place!  Guilfoyle's Volcano is built around a reservoir that collects water for irrigation of the garden. Heavily planted floating islands help improve water quality and reduce evaporation.  The newly refurbished sides are planted with succulents. The drought tolerant garden around the Volcano features boulders, rock gardens and plantings of cacti and other succulents, grasses as well as young floss silk trees (Chorisia or Ceiba insignis) with their heavily spiked trunks.  The colorful gravel paths and boardwalk allow close inspection of this educational display.  The California Garden area was extensive too; California poppies were in bloom!

Well, I'm actually in Wellington, New Zealand now.  So I will post this now and write about Welly next time.

Cheers!
Cyn

Pix! Yea!!

Hey Guys!

I posted pix onto previous blogs - from Leftover Sydney to the last one.  Thank goodness for high speed internet in Melbourne.  Thanks to the State Library with unlimited free wifi on my own computer or 1 hour/day free internet on their many computers.  Thanks also to Melbourne City Library for my visitor pass for 1 hour free internet/day for a month!

Cheers!
Cyn

They talk funny here

G'day!

Mudroom/greenhouse wall made of bottles

Here are a few sayings that I must share.  There's a saying here, "She's lost the plot."  It means she's gone nuts.  “He’s one sheep short in the paddock”, means he’s not quite all there.   "He's arrived on the planet."  means he's finally seeing reason.  “He's crook” means he's sick.  “She's a ripper (pronounced rippah)” means she's great.  And don’t say that you’re stuffed after a meal. Aussies will think you’re up a creek.  BTW, up a creek is up a creek.  "Spit the dummy" is spitting out the pacifier.  On a larger scale, when a sportsman "chucks a wobbly", it means that he is angry, mad enough to spit his mouthguard out.  I guess it takes a little time to spit it out and meanwhile, he is striding/wobbling around.

Across the street is over the road.  Cell phones are mobiles, pronounced mo-bi-uls.  And you ring someone instead of calling or phoning them.  Flashlights are torches.  Sweaters are jumpers, unless they have buttons; then the British call them cardigans.  Sneakers are trainers.  Pants are trousers unless they are denim, then they are jeans.  We use sun cream here instead of sunscreen.  Instead of figuring things out, you sort things out. And Aussies and Brits "reckon" heaps (a lot).

The Aussie drawl (some Brits do it too) is their habit of extending their vowels almost to an extra syllable.  It is most noticeable on words like no, so, do, etc.  The ends of their sentences tend to have an upward inflection, almost a questioning tone.   I've pointed out to several Aussies that they drop their R's at the end of their words.  Each one was surprised to find that they do indeed.  But they do pronounce their T's  clearly (Peter = Payta) whilst we say them like D's (Peeder) or swallow them (mountain = moun'in).

Bell peppers are capsicum to Aussies only.  Zucchini are courgettes to British and French only.  Cilantro is coriander.  The seeds are coriander seeds.  Jam and jelly are jam.  Jello and gelatin is jelly.  Chips are crisps.  Fries are chips.  Hamburger is minced meat or minced beef.  Ketchup or catsup is tomato sauce. Tomato sauce is tomato cooking sauce.  Shrimp are prawns.  So Aussies wouldn't put another shrimp on the barbie; they'd put another prawn on the barbie.  Maybe that's because their prawns are always large.  Cookies are biscuits; biscuits are scones (pronounced scons).  Aussies and British eat everything on toast.  You name it, they put it on toast.  When we would have bread on the side, they put it under the food.

Did you know that British and Aussies pronounce tomato to-mah-to but say po-tay-to just like us?   They do the song, "You say tomato, I say tomahto.  You say potato, I say potahto.  Let's just call the whole thing off." just for fun.   Aussies, Brits, and Germans pronounce oregano as or-e-GON-o while I say o-REY-gan-o.  How do you pronounce it?  How about basil?

Mudroom wall

Aussies often buy long-life milk in heavy waxy cartons that don't have to be refrigerated.  The full cream (whole) or 2% fat milk is pasturized at ultra high temperatures (UHT) with no preservatives and has a shelf life of 9 months.  Once opened, the carton must be fridged and used within 7 days.  I've heard that it tastes the same.   In Aussie, as well as France, Sweden and Germany (according to fellow wwoofers), the UHT milk is much less expensive and usually purchased.  I know we have the product in America but since I don't drink milk, I don't know how prevalent it is and the cost comparison.

Custard in refrigerated bottles or cartons is readily available year round; for some Aussies the thick liquid custard is a staple dessert/snack.  Aussies eat heaps of ice cream, probably rivalling Americans for per capita consumption.  There's a dessert here call chocolate pudding that I've had a few times.  It's homemade and has a brownie top but under about 1/2" - 1" of chewy stuff is warm chocolatey goo.  It's yummy!

Autumn (only Americans call autumn fall) officially arrived on 1 March.  Healesville held its annual Autumnfest this past weekend combined with the Dedication of its newly installed Labyrinth.  The labyrinth is made with a dark cobblestone path and a lighter color edging.  I was surprised at how long it took to walk into the center.  If the circular labyrinth was a simple spiral it would have been a very quick walk, but since the path wound in and out and then in again, never crossing itself, it was a good length to do some thinking or meditation.

The Lodge at Moora Moora - Home sweet home

All of the thick skinned cucurbits that we call winter squashes are collectively known as pumpkins. While they grow a very wide variety of what we call pumpkins (beautiful orange, red, white, green, blue, multicolored and differently shaped pumpkins), few hard squashes such as butternut, and less commonly, acorn and spaghetti squash are widely available.   Halloween is not widely celebrated in Aussie.  I've heard stories about trick or treaters getting $$ instead of candy because the home owners forgot.  One kid collected $30!  I had to explain to some kids what "trick or treat" meant; they didn't know what the trick part meant.  And they don't carve pumpkins for Halloween.  It might be too wasteful and Aussies often cook with pumpkin.  I've made pumpkin soup and roasted pumpkin myself since it was provided by my hosts.

It was a busy Saturday in Healesville.  We also attended the Healesville Music Festival.  Heard a lot of mostly good music and enjoyed some nice weather.   On Sunday, I helped to paint The Octagon meeting building a hot ginger color. I left Moora Moora today after a month's stay.  Had a good time there meeting heaps of community members, observing how they make group decisions, participating in co-op work and social activities, and learning about how to live a greener life.  I got a lift into Lilydale and took the Metlink train into Melbourne.  More about my Melbourne adventures soon.
Cheers!
Cyn
PS:  I went through Ferntree Gully National Park a couple of weeks ago.  My kids adored the movie Fern Gully a long time ago.

Free Time!

Finished lounge wall w/glass wall & window

G'day!

I don't know what's going on with this world.  So many natural disasters so close together.  The 8.9 earthquake in Japan, tsunami and all the aftershocks are devastating.  I feel so badly for Japan and all its people.  Thanks for your concern about tsunamis in Aussie but as it turns out, the American West Coast got them instead.  It sounds like there wasn't too much damage since there was plenty of warning.  I'm going to New Zealand in a couple weeks but I will probably not go to Christchurch because of all the earthquake damage there.

Finished window - see how thick the walls are

Meanwhile, I am enjoying my free time here.  I/we got a ride into Healesville, 18 km down the mountain from Moora Moora.  Healesville was hopping (for a small town) with its weekly Sunday (flea and farmers) market.  Explored the town with lots of other tourists, possibly from the Melbourne area, for a couple of hours and then had to hitch a ride back up the mountain.  After walking about 1 thankfully flat km (.6 miles) in the hot, hot afternoon sun, Kirsten and I got picked up by a man who drove us 12 km up Don Road to Nyora Road, not where he was heading but a nice drive anyway.  We walked for a couple of minutes and were picked up by a couple who happened to know some Moora Moora residents.  They drove us all the way to the Lodge.  Whew!

Poured earth wall - 4th section

We attended a pot luck dinner and Talent Night at Jeremy and Julia's home where we heard several stories, a capella singing, ukelele playing and singing, lots of guitar playing and singing (some original songs), Indian drumming and chanting, a German song sung in a round with audience participation, original poetry, and a contortionist act.  My talent was bowling (pitching) a cricket (tennis) ball to the 8-year old son, Jinja, who showed off his talent of batting by scoring 17 runs on about 3 overs (18 balls bowled).   This was done outside and before everyone had arrived.

On Friday, Russell drove with us 3 wwoofs to Upwey, a little town an hour away to listen to his occcasional employer, Andy Cowan, perform at a cafe called Burrinja.  Andy plays keyboard and sings original and cover songs with his whiskey Ray Charles-y voice.  He was accompanied by Jimmy on saxaphone for his second set.  Burrinja has live blues and roots music monthly.  (Good looking) food is served as it comes out of the kitchen.  This is a cafe, not a restaurant so food service was pretty slow with a few dishes coming out every 10 minutes or so.  There was a party of 17 at the table in front of us.  Some of them were served more than an hour after others at the same table.  We had dinner at the Lodge but their Chocolate Mousse Cake was delicious!

Poured earth section with too much straw 

We are in the Yarra Valley, the wine growing region of Victoria, and part of the Dandenong mountain range.  The countryside is very picturesque with a patchwork of vineyards, small fruit orchards, grazing sheep, cow pastures, farmhouses and tiny towns and rolling hillsides.  The climate is varied.  At Moora Moora, on top of Mount Toole-be-wong, we can have fairly wild weather with sunshine one hour and then pouring rain the next few hours.  And the wind can blow in from various directions as indicated by the windmill (not very efficient as a power generator).  Other areas are more temperate rainforest and look primordial with lush tree ferns in varying heights among tall (Eucalypt?) trees.

Wombat burrow hole - probably not a primary one

I've seen a couple of wombat burrows and several wombats at night.  Apparently wombats dig several burrows, some just a couple meters long and some much longer and with multiple entrances.  They often visit several burrows each night, including ones they did not make.  One night, Kirsten and I were walking back to the Lodge from our hosts' after dinner when we heard a loud rustling in the bush - a wombat?  Maybe.  We were both spooked and walked a bit faster.  It was dusk, around 8:20, and while there was a little light left, it was really misty and a little eerie.  As we were walking up the track, we saw headlights coming towards us in the mist.  I shined my torch toward the car so that it wouldn't run us over like two tall wombats or wallabies.   The car slowed and passed us; we couldn't tell who they were.  We were glad when we got back to the Lodge, lights, and civilization.

Cool toilet/sink combo!

I visited a house being built by Ollie and Chelsea.  Most of the outside walls are made of strawbale (with less than 15% moisture content) rendered (coated) with a mixture of soil, sand, and lime.  The soil must be rubbed through a  sieve before use to get rid of lumps.  Long thick gloves must be worn when handling lime as it can burn skin.  Some builders use cement in place of lime.  Ollie told me that walls with cement cannot be patched/repaired whereas ones with lime can.  And  lime, when hardened, turns into limestone, as hard as cement.  Rendering is done several times depending on the consistency of the mixture and the method of application (hand or sprayed).   The walls are protected from weathering by a deep overhang which also create nice verandas.  http://www.earthgarden.com.au/strawbale/faq.html

First rendering on wall near services panel

Big House in the Outback

G'day!

I'm making kindling so I can start the boiler

I'm getting heaps of new experiences here at Moora Moora.   First, I'm going to explain the set up here.  Jolanda is the wwoof co-ordinator.  She sets our schedules and provides us with groceries for when we are not eating with hosts.  Right now, there are 3 of us wwoofs.  Kirsten, 26, (6.5 weeks) is from New Hampshire and Wenzel, 18, (7 weeks) is from Germany, and me (almost 2 weeks).  We work ten 3-hour shifts a week.  Morning shifts are from 9 am til 12 noon.  Afternoon shifts are from 1 pm til  4 pm.  We get 4 shifts (2 days) off.  Moora Moora resident members can hire 1 or more wwoofs at $4/shift.   So basically, it costs them $8/wwoof/day primarily to pay for our food.  As our host, they are supposed to provide us with lunch at 12 noon for a morning shift or dinner at an agreed upon time for an afternoon shift.  Many of our hosts give us tea/coffee or water which means a 5-15 minute break.  And occasionally, we don't work the full 3-hours.

A wheel hoe to make furrows for new seedlings

Amy and Luc run a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program whereby members pay an agreed upon fee for weekly vegies.  They use wwoofs a lot.  We generally work at least 4 shifts a week for them.  I've picked heaps of string beans, apparently one of the least favorite jobs.  I've also transplanted brassicas including kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts and watered them in with Seasol, a seaweed fertilizer.   I've also hula hoed beetroot beds and weeded empty beds in preparation for new planting.  When weeding empty beds, you still have to stay off planting areas to avoid soil compaction.  We used Korean tools called "homies" which are handy for weeding, making furrows, etc.   Luc and Amy use pre-spaced drip irrigation lines, row covers on metal hoops, organic fertilizers, and formal crop rotation.  I've decided that I don't want to be a farmer (not that I ever thought  I might want to become one).   It's a lot of hard (back-breaking for me) work and you always have to worry about something.  Rain - too much or too little and the timing of it; grasshoppers; cutworms; rats and rabbits; harvesting to meet distribution schedules, etc.  I do want to have a vegie and fruit garden though.  Small scale.

The Log Splitter - I love this machine!

One of the more exciting jobs I've done is splitting logs using a pneumatic log splitter.  It's a pretty simple machine that runs on petrol.  I've often wondered how and who on earth chopped all the firewood every where.  I could see that it was not done with a chainsaw; it looked hand split.  Now, I know.  Some is probably split by hand (very, very tiring -  I know, I've tried it)  but most of it is probably split with mechanical help.  Jon, a British bloke and I ran the log splitter together.  Actually, he did most of the hard work.  He lifted the chainsawed rounds of log onto the machine.  After making sure his hands were clear, I pushed the lever that moves the wedge forward until the log is split and then move the lever/wedge back.  We had to split each log several times to make it an appropriate size for a wood stove.  Then we had to toss the wood over an existing wood pile to make a new pile.  I used a shot put motion to toss the wood high and far enough.  I thought my arm and/or shoulder would be sore the next day but it wasn't.  Rusty, our host, Jon and I are very proud and happy about the huge pile of firewood we made.

Close up is my woodpile - I had to heave wood from far left

Sometimes we work for the co-op for the Land Management supervisor.  So far, we've pinched the heads off of ragwort and pulled ragwort seedlings out.  Ragwort, cootch grass (with long white runners) and blackberry are the most noxious weeds around here.  We've had to use pickaxes or mattocks to dig blackberry roots out for several hosts. Other jobs might include filling potholes and ??, we'll see.   When we work for the co-op, we are responsible for our own meals.  On Friday afternoons, we clean the lodge and help the Caretaker, Russell, with whatever needs doing.  Since his apartment is in the Lodge, we see him a lot.  He's a former wwoof, a very mature and responsible 25 year old Kiwi ex-Air Force officer, has a car and takes us on adventures with him whenever possible.

 One of his jobs that we share with him is lighting the boiler in the afternoon so that the lodge has hot water.  I can now get a fire going the first time 'round.  I've also learned how to make kindling.  It's much easier to use a wedge instead of an axe.  I've moved heaps of firewood closer to points of use.  Each time I deal with firewood,  I take a piece and knock it on several pieces at various places in the pile to warn snakes to go away (hopefully not in my direction).  Supposedly snakes like to hang out in wood piles.  The spiders (except the huge larger than 2" diameter ones) don't bother me any more.  When you have venomous snakes to worry about, spiders that merely make you sick aren't quite as frightful.

Sometimes I feel like I'm Laura Ingalls Wilder living in the Big House in the Outback.  I can't believe that I had to make a fire in the boiler and then wait half an hour in order to take a hot shower today.

Cheers!
Cyn