December 18, 2009

• The Few Weeks Before Home

  It has been quite a happening finale of weeks leading to my departure back home.

  Camping and Fishing at Wilson Promontory

  Almost like an annual pilgrimage, Wilson's Promontory has been on my "must visit" places ever since I decided to continue another in Australia. I first came here two years ago with Jon, last year, with a squad of 9. This time, it's just Joshua Khoo, Chien Aun and I.

  Just two days before heading to Wilson's Prom, I had an assignment which required me to assess the strategy of our of the Australian government agencies. I picked Parks Victoria and focused on Wilson's Promontory.
  It was quite a bad move, I felt that I did a bad job on the assignment. As a result, kept thinking about it since I was in Wilson's Prom as it stood as a reminder I could see and touch all around.

  

  Fortunately, the beauty of the Southern most tip of Australia (minus Tasmania) continued to blow me away despite it being my third visit. But it wasn't so much of camping this time, we were here to fish. We walked the same route to Refuge Cove, a hike which took much lesser time than we did the last time. We started walking at 10am and reached sometime after 4pm.. compared to last year when we started walking at about the same time but only reached after 6.30pm.

  I promised Joshua, who's yet to catch a fish on the Australian seashores, that it was here that he'll end his dry spell.It sure paid off. Once again, I caught something with my first throw, but unfortunately the line snapped. Throughout our time fishing, we'd fish up dozens of fish, many new ones since the last trip.. and bigger. We saw quite a few marvelous things.. such as a giant stringray.. about 2 meters in diameter. It was huge! Josh also caught two sharks.. not sure what kind though.. but they were bottom dwellers. Altogether, the fauna was amazing.. the best place for seaside fishing I've been anywhere.

  
  Left: Bigger fish caught at Refuge Cove. Right: Chien Aun lands a unique looking fish

  During this trip I also had the pleasure of meeting two Aussies - Luke and Emma. We talked quite a lot during our stay. They are regular hikers here and we got many tips for our walk back. To shorten our hike back, Luke suggested going the longer hike back as it had easier terrain which brings us past Little Waterloo Bay. In the end, it took us 10 hours to get back - so I'm not sure if the gamble paid off. But it was nice to see something new.

  
  Left: Luke and Emma, the two Aussies who befriended us during the trip. Right: Fish was a dish for every meal during this trip

  On the way back, I stumbled upon a snake crawling past the trail. It has a black back and bright yellow belly, along with a snout like feature much like a cobra. It was obviously venomous. I let out a loud "whoa!" when I saw it. It was easily 2 meters in front of me. Once it crawled away, I walked on in a hurry.. in my mind thinking that if I walked just 3-4 steps faster I would've gone right into its path. Scary stuff.

  At the end of a 3 day stay, I was quite glad to be headed back to Clayton. The next day was OCF Clayton's annual thanksgiving event.

  OCF Clayton Thanksgiving

  As it happens every year, we rent out a place and dress at our best for a night to reflect on God's goodness for the year. It was a little odd sharing the place with other patrons as it wasn't quite a rent out this year, but oh well.. good try. All cell groups were required to give a presentation. For my cell, we did a sketch meant to poke fun at people. While rehearsing for the sketch was quite a lot of fun, the actual act itself wasn't that great. I was the main actor. Right after the sketch they had a birthday video for me, where Yasmeen recorded me snoring the night before. Sneaky sneaky! I got an awesome present.. a video camera! Thanks to all who chipped in. It's by far my coolest gift (not to mention expansive).

  

  Quarter Century Birthday

  The next day after thanksgiving was my birthday! It was quite an ordinary day really, a regular Saturday at church, then I brought a selected few to Outback Steakhouse (awesome place, best steak deal I've had anywhere). It was my intention to treat everyone, but they beat me to it. Stupid cashiers fault, ended up taking Nic's card instead of mine. Oh well. Thanks for the great meal guys =)

  The next day there was surprise waiting for me at home. Before that, Yas and I went shopping at the DFO Moorabin. Little was I aware that it was a decoy. They prepared a BBQ. But there were some give aways. As I was driving on Bettina Street, we saw Kang Wei and K.C. walking towards my house. They used a cover saying that they were on their way to Jared's new place. So I gave them a lift closer to where that was. At the same time, I also noticed that Nic's car was parked outside the house, which was unusual. As I drove into the drive way. I saw Rachel's car with Ruo standing outside. Lol.

  The Flaming Lamborghini - thanks to Marc and Surend

  Quite a fun night eating, drinking (no one got drunk, but there were some burnt tongues), chatting and the last poker session of the year. Thanks to all those who came and made it a special day for me (although it was technically a day after my birthday)!

  New Zealand

  Four days later (26th Noc-2 Dec) Yas and I were headed off to New Zealand's South Island. We wanted more people to come along, but no one did. Oh well. Our first destination was Christchurch, took a morning flight from Melbourne which was scheduled to arrive in the afternoon.

  New Zealand was fantastic. From the plane, we could clearly see the Southern Alps, with its snow peak mountains. It really looked like something out of a film set.

  We stayed the first night at the YMCA. Quite cheap, only needing to pay $35 for a very decent room, but with shared toilets. Christchurch itself was pretty dead. I would say it's quite similar to Ballarat. A very quiet town, with absolutely no traffic jams, even at 5pm where most cities go chaotic. There was also a very evident and high focus on tourism. About 1/6 of the shops in the CBD are souvenir shops.. selling touristy things like t-shirts, cups, etc.

  Our first dinner in NZ was dining in Irish restaurant which name is more well known in form of its beer - Stella Artois. Awesome food. However, overall the price is about the same as Melbourne. The next day we rented a car for the whole duration of the trip which altogether cost about NZ$355, which is pretty good considering it'll cost at least $100 a day in Australia for a similar car. Note that the NZ dollar is weaker than the Aussie dollar. So, its about $270 aussie. Not bad! The car we rented was an Altis.

  We headed straight for Lake Takepo where we were meant to spend the night, crossing towns like Ashburton where we stopped to shop at the "Woolworths" which was called something else in New Zealand. As for the roads in New Zealand - I'd say they're more dangerous than Australia. For instance, in most countries dotted lines usually indicate when it's safe to overtake. In New Zealand, dotted lines are everywhere.. even when it's not safe to overtake.

  

  We reached Lake Tekapo around 3pm, plenty of daylight to roam around since it only becomes dark in New Zealand around 10pm. I heard the night sky was fantastic. It has an observatory there because of that. But the skies were quite cloudy, so we gave that a miss. We did take a stroll up to observatory on foot. The views from there were fantastic. The lake itself was something to behold, with a small church overlooking it. The water's colour was unusually green as it's melted glacier water.

   

  The next day we were headed towards Queenstown. On the way, we stopped by salmon, the highest in the world in terms of altitude. It's quite fascinating to see live salmon, with its pretty green skin and black spots. After feeding the fish, we had some for sashimi. It was quite disappointing though.. I prefer the sashimi in Sydney. There was a cat in the farm. I tried giving it a piece of sashimi, but it seem to be quite sick of fish.

   

  Onward to Queenstown, we past by a few more towns like Wanaka and Arrowtown. Queenstown was beautiful, with its snow capped mountains surrounding the area. But it wasn't just popular for its sights, it was the activities we were mind blowing. Sky diving, hang-gliding, canyoning.. it seems like the capital of extreme sports. Unfortunately, due to financial limitations we only went for paragliding and jetboating.. which were pretty fun as well.
  

  After Queenstown we headed back the same way we came, putting up another night at Lake Takepo which was again cloudy. After that, straight on to Akaroa to catch a swim with the dolphins.. the smallest in the world.

  New Zealand, in my opinion, is a far better place to apply for a PR. I might be back some day to cover North Island.

  Coming Home

  Just about 5 days after New Zealand, I found myself preparing to return home. Had a few meet up with friends I'd probably not see for a long time and spent some days just thinking about how much I will miss Australia.

  Now another chapter begins.

  
  

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