Bourne of Mel

I tried Vegemite this morning.  Wow, is that stuff salty!  I don't get the fascination...but you know I'll give it another try anyway!

It’s raining today in Melbourne, so I’m jumping among museums and WiFi hotspots.  Tomorrow afternoon I’ll head SE to Venus Bay, so for now, you can check out some Hawk’s-eye views of Melbourne and surrounds from the last couple of (sunny) days by going to my EveryTrail trip site!  This is the first time I've tried this out, so let me know if it doesn't work!  if you can't see the app below, go to: The Hawk in Oz @ EveryTrail.com

The Hawk in Oz

EveryTrail - Find hiking trails in California and beyond

DAY 1(ish)

The Pre-Oz Image (my last sunset in Monterey) 

Bloggy-Wog, Day 1.  Auckland, NZ.

Here I sit at the Auckland Airport.  It’s 6:30 in the a.m. on Thursday (that’s 9:30a.m. on Wednesday in CA).  The moment we were in the air out of San Francisco I changed my watch to Auckland time and haven’t looked back.  And it worked!  Whether because of the time change or the fact that I managed some little sleep on the 13 hour flight, it DEFINITELY feels like 6:30am.  When I jump over to Melbourne in a couple hours, I will gain yet another 2 hrs.  It seems that moving West is easy on the brain.  Going home may prove otherwise. ;)

The flight was excellent.  I had overestimated the number of on-flight meals (there were only 2, not 5, hehe) but Air NZ has amazing service, and tons of free movies to watch!  On the flight I had plenty of time to plan out my first moves upon touchdown in Melbourne…..and the plan is still to play it by ear for the first couple of days…I have a list great free stuff to do in the city, plus the aquarium & NH Museum!  Anything else?  Then I’ll head south to the Venus Bay Eco Retreat and thence onto Wilson’s Promontory.  Has anybody been to this most southern tip of the mainland?  The website makes it look gorgeous and accommodating.

Day 2(ish). Melbourne.

I’m here!  I’ve definitely landed in Melbourne!  And it’s stiiill Day 1 (for me)!  I went to sleep on the plane over the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday night, landed in Mel early this morning (Thursday) and spent the whole day wandering about the city, checked out the Queen Victoria Market and tried to decide which of the thousands of Japanese and Vietnamese cafés to patronize….I want them all! Melbourne sure does have a LOT of places to eat!  I finally settled on a Turkish market and had some snacks and a Bedouin coffee (un-strained espresso with cardamom mixed in), which was surprisingly delicious.  The backpackers I’m staying at is pretty swanky (for a backpackers) and the people are diverse and pleasant.  There’s an Australian Rules Football (i.e. Rugby without helmets or pads) in Melbourne tonight, so I’ll be cheering on the Melbourne…..team…at a local pub.  I suppose I should find out what they’re called in the next hour.

Today was amazing, and I know tomorrow will be even better because I will actually have gotten some sleep.  Stay tuned for tons of photos from the Melbourne Aquarium and NH Museum!

Hope all is well....and wonderful with all of you!

Seaside Gypsy Life

Although it's been about a month since I started this blog campaign, this is only my second post.  I'm sure I'll get the hang of this eventually. :)  No worries, while I'm already overseas in my mind, the physical voyage won't commence until next week, so stay tuned!

So much has happened, and much more is yet to come!  In January I made the move out of my cozy room in "The Llama House" in Prunedale to a 5x5 storage unit.  ...but they wouldn't let me sleep in the unit, ;) so I took up residence in a friend's house in Seaside, CA for most of February.  House-/cat-sitting has been a wonderful adventure in itself!  While I've been super-busy organizing every last personal possession, packing for my epic journey, and working tons of hours, I still get to come home to a comfortable home complete with lovable cats and tricked-out kitchen!

It's been crazy trying to work full-time these past weeks (to squeeze in one last big paycheck!) and I've gained a new respect for all my friends who have been doing it for years now!  I never really appreciated the phrase "working for the weekend" until now, since weekends don't really exist when one is in grad school.
THIS weekend is special, though, because it's my LAST weekend in the USA until May!!  Sunday afternoon we're hitting the beach/park in Monterey for some fun in the sun!!  If you're reading this and are in the area, be sure to come down to Del Monte Beach/Park!  I know, it's been raining aaall week, but the weather forecast PROMISES sun on Sunday!

Then back to work for one last paid day on Monday (did I mention how earnest I am about getting one more paycheck? lol), then Tuesday off I go to spend a couple magical hours in the San Francisco Airport before being whisked away to Melbourne!

This week has been particularly anxious because I was awaiting the arrival of my NEW CAMERA!!!  Which isn't necessarily a super-great thing, considering that I HAD a perfectly good camera up until a few weeks ago.  Above is one of the last photos I took with my "old" 2008 Panasonic Lumix--ancient for Panasonic standards, apparently.  Erin had finally gotten me out of the house to go tidepooling in Pacific Grove one lovely afternoon.  And NO, I did not drop it into the water.  It just decided that it would function no more.  So I had it replaced with a newer, shiny, pretty-much-the-same model!  It arrived yesterday, so today I've just been cruisin', waiting for the moment that I can tuck it safely into my pack and hit the road...er, air.